Space Oddity cover by Chris Hadfield filmed aboard the ISS

Manta Rays at Socorro Island

video by Mike Murphy

La Paz, Baja California Sur

Sea Lions and Whale Sharks Oh My!

The Los Islotes sea lion colony, near La Paz, Baja California. Photos by Julian Bages.

I didn't even know he was there!

The sea lions were naturally curious about the whale shark, but the whale didn't appear interested in the sea lions or the divers.
However it did seem fascinated by the boats: it swam up to my boat and bit the propeller!

I'm on the left, blowing lots of bubbles haha.

For some reason I want to believe that I once saw a hexagonal whale shark spot pattern, but this one is a checkerboard pattern, as are all the other photos I can find.

A whale shark right on the La Paz Malecon! (my photo)

Sexy Graffiti near MIT

I heard that it's been there several years.

How do porcupines make love?

This riddle appears in the 1987 film Black Widow starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell.
The two main characters are: women; formidable adversaries; and they are stronger and more clever then the men in the story. They use men to further their goals - kindly in one instance, cruelly in another - but they control their own destinies.
Any other good examples of stories - filmed or written - along those lines?




The article How do porcupines make love? from Annals of Improbable Research, reveals the punch line to the joke and then goes on to detail the actual mating behavior of these mammals - your previous ignorance of you may come to cherish.




When I was a little kid, nine or so, I had heard the f-word, realized of course, it was probably something naughty, but didn't yet know the actual definition. I finally asked another kid, who disdainfully outlined the concept. "Oh," I responded, "you mean copulation?"

Video of Mantis Shrimp doing Somersaults!

From the underwater filming experts Scubazoo.
See also Mantis Shrimps are Really, Really Cute and New Form of Vision Discovered for more about mantis shrimps.

Sipidan

I've been scuba diving at Sipidan in Malaysia for five weeks now. Some of the highlights have included: swimming in the middle of school of 80 bumphead parrotfish, helping my dive guide Niger rescue a sea turtle which had a rope tied to its arms (today), watching two tiny (3 cm) cuttlefish apparently gobbling up even tinier shrimp by shooting out a long thin retractable tentacle out from the midst of their other tentacles (yesterday).
Allister Lee's blog Aquatastic has lots of nice pictures of Sipidan.

Spidan Diving

I've been diving in Sipidan and Mabul in Malaysia for the past couple of days.  Two of the highlights were a purple hairy squat lobster (not a lobster but a tiny crab that lives on sponges and looks pretty much how it sounds) and a pair of sea moths or dragonfish, which at first glance look like a 3 cm long bit of scum sitting on the sand but are actually intricate little creatures under a cheap magnifying glass.

Orangutans

I just spent a week at an Orangutan sanctuary in Malaysia. Unsurprisingly, they have a great sense of balance - Harry was standing on my arms waving his hands in the air with the greatest of ease, somewhere in between these frames alas.

Dunster House at Sunset

Sunrise Mystic River Bridge

Moonrise Over East Cambridge

UFO Over Harvard

UFO Over Harvard, October 11, 2010, 6:52pm

Taken from my place looking west.  I might have been shooting through a closed window, not sure.  I didn't notice the "UFO" at the time and it didn't appear in the previous or the next frames, taken at the same place and direction with minutes.  The crescent moon was also near the horizon just outside the frame to the left.  What was it?

Quadrocopter Flys Through Hoop

The Mafia Game

The mafia game (or werewolf or assassin game) is a party game in which the organiser divides the players into two groups: the citizens and the mafia. The mafia are told who the other mafia are, but the citizens don't know. The game alternates between the "day" when all the players decide who to "lynch" and the "night" when just the mafia decide who to eliminate. The game ends when either all the citizens or all the mafia are eliminated.
The preprint A mathematical model of the Mafia game provides an analysis of strategy.

Probability Puzzles

There's an intersting discussion of some confusing Probability Puzzles on John Baez's new blog.

“I have two children. One is a boy born on a Tuesday. What is the probability I have two boys?”

The "born on a Tuesday" information can't possibly make a difference, can it? So the answer should be same same as:

“I have two children. One is a boy. What is the probability I have two boys?”

Shoudn't it?

There's a thorough analysis at Some Thoughts on Tuesday's Child by Greg Egan.

FREE FALL: World champion freediver Guillaume Nery special dive at Dean's Blue Hole, the deepest blue hole in the world filmed entirely on breath hold by the french champion Julie Gautier. This video is a FICTION and an ARTISTIC PROJECT. Edited by BLUENERY (c).

Calculating the Day of the Week

A Method for Accelerating Conway's Doomsday Algorithm preprint.
A simplified version of Conway's Doomsday Algorithm for calculating the day of the week of any calendar date.

Humpback Twister

A twisting water formation is sometimes formed by the tip of a humpback whale's pectorial fin and then spins off. Frequently seen, but not so often photographed this clearly - taken by Mike Murphy last week on the Silver Bank.


photo by Tom Conlin

Video of the photographer by Tom Conlin - the still above was taken from the video.