Category Archives: Beauty

Baby Robin Update: Days 11 & 12

Amazingly, the baby robins still make no noise in the nest. I am assuming this is so that they do not draw attention to their location. They are really filling up the nest now (and spilling over the edges!).

Day 11: daily morning check of the nest. All four are still there!

Baby Robins Day 11: feathers

Day 11: As the feathers continue to emerge, the down looks more and more out of place!

Baby Robins Day 12: morning nest check. They are sleepyheads!

Baby Robin Day 12: Remember when that eye was just a tiny slit? Only a week ago!

Baby Robin Day 12: head feathers are coming in replacing downy "mohawk"

Baby Robin Day 12: feathers are looking more and more like they will be ready for flight soon.

Baby Robin Update: Days 9 & 10

The highlight of the first weekend in May was Day 9 & 10 of Baby Robin development. The feathers are just amazing as they emerge.

The nest is getting crowded!

Check out that cute head and the feathers starting to emerge. The feathers on the wing look like a ruff around its little neck.

Day 9: It's all about the feathers.

Feathers emerging.

Wing feathers

These look like paintbrushes to me. Day 9 feathers.

Closeup of the Day 9 feather unveiling.

Day 10: all snuggled in, with feathers fluffed out

Day 10: Baby Robin sporting the mohawk look as down is replaced by feathers.

Day 10: closeup of feathers and down.

Another Balancing Act

I went away this past weekend for a private retreat after ScienceOnline2012. During some of the time I worked on balancing some rocks. These rocks are smooth, round, river rocks and are much more difficult to balance than the rocks I usually try to balance. I love the focus that it takes. I close my eyes and “feel” the weight of the rocks, move them until they “sink” into balance with gravity. Simple pleasures. Fleeting works of art (the wind or other vibrations will knock them over soon enough).

Looks simple... but there is only a small area of contact.

Here's the point of contact. Kind of like balancing two balls.

Tattoo Process

Curious about the process of getting a tattoo? Click on the collage below to go to my Picasa photo album (including video) that documents the process as I got my three snow crystal tattoos this week. Dogstar Tattoo is an amazing studio. Kathryn, the owner, is a graduate of the Carnegie Mellon School of Art. I’m so glad she decided to move her canvas to skin. This is the studio that the ScienceOnline2012 folks will visit later this week as they tour the amazing space, listen to Carl Zimmer talk about the Science Of Ink (and his book Science Ink: The Tattoos of the Science Obsessed), and enjoy some surprises. Several conference attendees will be getting tattoos during the tour (as the others watch!). My tattoo was done early because it took so long and because I will be very busy during the conference (I’m one of the organizers). But, it still counts as one of the #scio12 #SciInk tats and I can’t wait for those who get inked at ScienceOnline to take a group photo!

Earth: A Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over (from ISS)

This must-see video never fails to amaze and delight me. I am sure that most people have seen it floating around the web, but I post it here for my own re-viewing pleasure. I hope you won’t mind my self-indulgence. Space, it’s one place I wish I could be. With views like this, how do astronauts ever get any work done??

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Be sure to view this in HD and expand it to full-view. It’s definitely worth blocking out whatever else is on your computer display at the moment.