Digi-scoping: Glimpse of a Peregrine Falcon

Monday I took this shot of a female peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) on Long Island.  This was my first attempt at the technique called digi-scoping.  "Digi-scoping" generally refers to using a digital camera to take photos through the eyepiece of a telescope.  I used my inexpensive Sony Cyber-shot 7.2 mega pixels through the eyepiece of a Kowa scope.  My camera was set to auto adjustment which sometimes causes a delay in the shot.  As you can see it is a bit out of focus.  Next time I will try to adjust the settings to get a clearer shot.

Her feathers are ruffled from the wind and she is perched on her left foot.

Stay tuned for more digi-scoping photos and news on peregrine falcons.

Deodorant Guns

China is planning to install 100 deodorant guns. 

I found this interesting and disgusting info reading METRO this morning. They are going to shoot fresh air over dump sites. Machines will spray chemical fragrance and industrial fans will spread it up to 160 feet.

The amount of trash that Beijing produces is bigger than they can handle. Instead perfuming it, maybe they should clean it. Other cities have had this problem at some point too, but they did their homework and figured out how to motivate people to make less garbage. What if our government organized a little operation: "STINKY GONE." Can you imagine how awful and confusing that would be for our sense of smell?? Rotten food mixed with “clean linen” deodorant. It's similar to when you are too lazy to clean your house so you just spray some Febreze.

New York is not the cleanest city in the world, but it is trying hard to maximize recycling and minimize garbage production. Like every other city in the world, it is very important for citizens to be on the same page as the city government. Cities should develop marketing strategies to inform citizens of the importance of waste reduction and recycling on individual and community levels. This would allow city officials to create a good cleaning plan. So Beijing -- it is cleaning time!

Find out more here.

Dam!

For those of you web jockeys that don't know, I have recently become an avid fly fisher. The sport brings together a number of my favorite things into an exciting and elitist format that I can really dig my teeth into. I get to be outside, which is always a good thing. I get to make intricate little flies which brings me back to my modelling days of old. It also lets me "hunt" with an option of not actually killing the animal. So as my new obsession began to take hold, I decided to do something very unlike me. I subscribed to a local chapter of a activist organization, Trout Unlimited.

Trout Unlimited (TU) is a national organization with more than 150,000 volunteers spread across approximately 400 chapters. Many of the members are dedicated conservation professionals including experts, scientist, and even lawyers. They are constantly working towards fishery restoration and widely known for their influences on policy around prominent fisheries across the country. It seems a little conceded though, saying you are saving the country's waterways when really you just want a nice place to fish. But that works for me, and more importantly they get the job done, in a big big way.

How big? Try the largest dam removal project currently being undertaken in the world at a cost of $450 million. Not bad for a grassroots fishing group.

Everything Has an Impact

There's never an easy solution.

Could Wind Turbines Actually Warm the Globe? - GOOD Blog - GOOD

(image source: GOOD)

Beekeeping in New York City

Keeping bees in New York City is illegal due to concerns about public safety -- unfounded concerns, according to the many people who keep hives anyway. According to the New York Times, the city may amend the health code this week to permit beekeeping of Apis mellifera:

Bees in the City? New York May Make Hives Legal - NYTimes.com

The New York City Beekeepers Association, brazen lawbreakers that they are, offer 12-hour beginner classes for $100 on their website, as well as a bunch of community information (and puns related to beekeeping).

http://www.nyc-bees.org/index.html

(Image credit Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times)

Blood-red Waterfall of Primordial Ooze

In Antarctica, there is a blood-red waterfall pouring down five stories from the Taylor Glacier.  The water comes from a lake in which an ecosystem of microbes was trapped by the glacier about 2 million years ago.  Since then, the organisms have evolved while sealed off from air, light, and most heat.  "Primordial ooze" as Atlas Obscura says.

Earthquake Shifts Earth's Axis, Speeds Up Rotation

According to NASA scientists, the Earth's axis likely moved by about 3 inches following the major earthquake in Chile on February 27th. Earthquakes can shift the distribution of mass on the planet, changing the way it rotates.

The change is very small -- the length of a day shortened by just a millionth of a second. The quake may have caused some more obvious changes, too, perhaps shifting islands and raising Santa Maria Island (off the coast of Chile) by approximately 6 feet, according to a researcher at Liverpool University.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-01/chilean-quake-likely-shifted-earth-s-axis-nasa-scientist-says.html