Previous Updates

Playing for Change
War, No More Trouble

Posted May 23, 2009

Playing for Change
Song Around the World - "Stand By Me"

Posted April 9, 2009

What a Wonderful World

Posted March 28, 2009

Digital Photography in the RAW

I have been experimenting with the RAW format from my camera. Here's the one of my recent butterfly pictures, taken in the Nikon NEF file format:

There were a lot of butterflies out on a recent afternoon and the sunlight was so nice I decided to experiment with a few things. I used my new prime lens, a Nikkor 50mm/F1.8, and shot in RAW mode for the first time. I use ThumbsPlus as an organizer on my desktop and I remembered that it supports several RAW formats now.

I have also started using GIMP 2.4.6 recently and discovered a great, open-source plug-in for processing RAW images. It is called Unidentified Flying Raw (UFRaw) and it can also be used stand-alone. The RAW files (.NEF in the Nikon world) were really sharp and interesting to work with, either directly in UFRaw or once I got them into GIMP.

I have a basic understanding of the RAW format, but this article from The Luminous Landscape explained it very well, I thought. My camera records a JPEG along with the RAW file, which is a very convenient feature. Since the RAW file records all the camera settings (WB, saturation, sharpness, tonal curves, etc.) that were set when you shot the picture but does not apply them to the image, you have complete control over all of that in the RAW postprocessing software. I'm just starting to learn about RAW file manipulation, and the UFRaw plug-in for GIMP seems to do a pretty good job, particularly for the price! Now, I have also just discovered that I need to learn to read histograms, too! So little to learn and so much time!

Check out more photography sites and resources from Marietta Wood Works Photography Links.

Posted October 24, 2008

Brighton, Michigan Pilot on Cloud Nine After Reunion

Taylorcraft BC-12D, tail number N43683, has a special place in Bill McConnell's life. On July 17, 1947, at the age of seventeen, McConnell received his private pilot's license in that plane and took off on a lifelong flying career. At eighteen, he became a paratrooper and later a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. After achieving his commercial, instrument and ATP tickets, McConnell became a commercial airline pilot for American Airlines.

On July 17, 2008, McConnell commemorated the sixty-first anniversary of receiving his private pilot's license with a ten minute flight from Brighton Field in Taylorcraft N43863 with Dave Hubbard, the plane's current owner. An avid General Aviation pilot in his spare time, McConnell always has a plane or four in the hanger and continues aloft today.

Click here to read the entire article, reprinted courtesy of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, and see more pictures of Bill and the airplane in which he started his long and distinguished flying career.

Posted September 7, 2008

Solution to Fossil Fuel Depletion Problem

I don't know why no one has thought of this simple, five step solution to the looming fossil fuel depletion problem facing the world . It's simple, sustainable and I'm going to share it with the entire world right here, right now ... for free.

1. Gather up all plant and animal matter currently living on the earth and in the oceans.
2. Bury it all between 7,500 and 15,000 feet underground, preferably beneath an ocean.
3. Wait 300 to 400 million years.
4. Drill down to it and pump it all back out of the ground.
5. Repeat.

Follow these five simple steps and we will have a never-ending series of 150 year supplies of cheap, abundant fossil fuel.

Copyright © 2007 Jason Skinner

Posted June 5, 2008

Ad Astra Special Report - Space-Based Solar Power

Ad Astra ("to the stars"), the award winning magazine of the National Space Society (NSS), has recently published a special report covering space-based solar power (SBSP). This richly illustrated special report explains the technologies behind SBSP in an easy to understand way. Included is a fascinating conversation with Dr. Pete Glaser, now 84 and considered the father of the space-based solar power concept.

A large portion of the special report details the efforts of the Space-Based Solar Power Study Group who, in conjunction with the National Space Security Office (NSSO), published Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security - Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study in October of 2007.

This special report includes the following five articles which discuss the potential for space-based solar power, with looks at its history, its current strategic importance and ways forward to make it a reality.

• ENERGY FROM ORBIT - John C. Mankins
• AN ENERGY PIONEER LOOKS BACK - William Ledbetter
• STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE - Space-Based Solar Power Study Group
• A NEW COALITION - Arthur Smith
• ON THE MOON - Al Globus

Related Links

• National Space Society (NSS)
• adAstra - the magazine of the NSS
• Additional information on Space-Based Solar Power from the NSS
• National Space Security Office (NSSO)
• Space-Based Solar Power Study Group
• Space-Based Solar Power As an Opportunity for Strategic Security
  Phase 0 Architecture Feasibility Study
• Citizens for Space Based Solar Power

Posted April 27, 2008

Dr. Randy Pausch - Husband, Father, Professor ... and One Brave Guy

Dr. Randy Pausch, 47, is a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In September 2006, he was diagnosed with metastatic pancreatic cancer. He has pursued very aggressive treatment but in August of 2007 he was told that the cancer had metastasized to his liver and spleen. The doctors gave him three to six months to live.

In September, Pausch said goodbye to his students and the Pittsburgh college with one last lecture called "How to Live Your Childhood Dreams," on his life's journey and the lessons he's learned along the way. Now referred to as his "Last Lecture", Pausch has attracted the attention of the world with his amazingly positive outlook in the face of a nearly certain death sentence. The only part of his ordeal that he will characterize as "unfair" is that his wife and three young children will have to go on without him.

Listen to Dr. Randy Pausch in the video below (and watch him do some one-handed pushups). Learn more about this courageous and inspirational man at the links below the video.

The "Last Lecture", given at Carnegie Mellon University (76 minutes)

Randy Pausch's Web Site at Carnegie Mellon University

Randy Pausch's Update page

Randy Pausch - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This phenomenal lecture has now been expanded and published in book form.

The Last Lecture website

Randy Pausch is a Professor of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, and Design at Carnegie Mellon, where he was the co-founder of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center (ETC). He was a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and a Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellow. He has done Sabbaticals at Walt Disney Imagineering and Electronic Arts (EA), and consulted with Google on user interface design. Dr. Pausch received his bachelors in Computer Science from Brown University and his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. He is the author or co-author of five books and over 70 articles, is the director of the Alice (www.alice.org) software project, and has been in zero-gravity.

Posted April 11, 2008

Sir Arthur C. Clarke : 90 Orbits Around the Sun

I shed a tear as I read the obituary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke yesterday. He regaled us with science fiction stories based on fantastic ideas of our future, both on and off the planet. He provided scientific commentary to us during the exciting days of Apollo moon missions, alongside Walter Cronkite. And he has given us many scientific ideas which have become realities like communication satellites, geosynchronous orbits and the space station. Sir Arthur also recently lent his support to the Google Lunar X-Prize competition.

When personal computers would barely fit in your living room let alone on your desk and the Internet was known only to a handful of DARPA researchers as ARPANET, I read a passage in 2001:A Space Odyssey that has stuck with me for over 30 years. It wasn't even part of the story. It was a short note at the end of the book that said "The entire manuscript for this book was sent from Sri Lanka to my publisher in New York City on a single 5-1/4 inch floppy disk." At that moment, I realized that if I one day become a writer, I could live and work from anywhere in the world. Little did I know what was to come ... but I'll bet Sir Arthur did.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke left us with three wishes:

"I would like to see some evidence of extra-terrestrial life."

"I would like to see us kick our addiction to oil and adopt clean energy sources."

"I dearly wish to see lasting peace established in Sri Lanka."

He ends his 90th Birthday Reflections video with this quote from Rudyard Kipling:

Schmap City Maps Widget

Check out this cool widget from Schmap!! online travel guides. You can switch to many different destinations and from the map view to the photo view. They licenses photos from Flickr members and Marietta Wood Works may have a photo included in the next release of their San Francisco guide!

Support Our Men and Women in Uniform

Let's Say Thanks by Xerox - send a thank you card

Give2theTroops - donate or send much needed items to the troops

Soldier's Angels - may no soldier go unloved

United Service Organizations (USO) - support for the troops

To Our Soldiers - post a message to our soldiers

The Gratitude Campaign - Learn American Sign Language for "Thank You"

The Moon 2.0: Join the Revolution with the Google Lunar X-Prize.

Arthur C. Clark's Words of Support

Citizens for Space Based Solar Power (c-sbsp.org) is up and running. Please visit this site to learn more about Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) and to get involved and help get the word out. SBSP has the potential to be an unlimited source of clean, affordable and environmentally friendly energy. Your help is needed to convince leaders in government, the private sector and the media to get the effort organized and seriously under way.

America, Why I Love Her
by John Wayne

After September 11, the John Wayne Estate reissued this spoken-word recording on CD. You can hear samples from all of the tracks in this great, patriotic collection on Amazon.com.

The Medical Science Liaison: An A to Z Guide
Erin Albert with Cathleen Sass

Long time friend and associate, Cathleen Sass, has co-authored a book based upon her experiences in healthcare and as a Medical Science Liaison (MSL). The MSL role was recently reported as one of the best jobs over six figures for healthcare professionals, yet is relatively unknown, even to the medical community.

Cathleen Sass, ASRT, MBA, PharmD has over 30 years experience in healthcare including more than 10 years as a MSL. She has worked for several pharmaceutical companies, both large and small, in numerous therapeutic areas.

Click here for more details on this must-have guide to the MSL role and the opportunity to purchase copies from AuthorHouse™.

Space-Based Solar Power

The idea of space-based solar power (SBSP), the generation of unlimited electricity from solar power with orbiting collectors and beaming the energy back to earth for distribution and use, has been around since 1968. Due to low fossil fuel costs and high per-payload-pound launch costs at the time, the idea was not financially feasible. The world has changed significantly since then. more...

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