You may not have been holding your breath, but I’ve been patiently waiting for Steven Goodheart to put up his third blog, Goodheart’s Extreme Science. I can barely keep one journal going. I can’t help wondering if he has a time machine stashed away someplace. I can’t imaging how one could find time for three journals. Anyway, pop over there to wish him luck. Give him a bookmark. People like us need all the breaks we can get. If there are any therapists out there, you might want to have a little chat with him. I think he needs help.

My pathetic little contribution to science (and art, I dare say) comes in the form of these two images that I captured yesterday morning. I’m trying to take the perfect picture of this spider. It’s been featured here before here, here and here:

I think that I’m getting close. I can’t wait to get my hands on my new Canon G11 when Rich Jones brings it back from Canada for me.

Taking a break from science for a moment, a loving grandad has to show off this image of my granddaughters. I just received it this morning:

In this shot of a red-eyed fly I managed to get also another fly and an ant. I hadn’t even noticed the ant:

The play of light in this shot is very nice. I love shooting in the early morning when the sun is low and the colour of Chardonnay. It gives a warm glow to my images and casts interesting shadows.

To finish off here, I’m filching something directly from Steven Goodheart’s Metta Refuge blog. I found it amusing:

HOW ENLIGHTENED ARE YOU?

IF….

If you can live without caffeine,

If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,

If you can resist complaining,

If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time,

If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,

If you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him or her,

If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,

If you can face the world without lies and deceit,

If you can conquer tension without medical help,

If you can relax without liquor,

If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,

If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion, gender preference, or politics,

–Then you have almost reached the same level of spiritual development as your dog!

I’m feeding you seafood tomorrow. Don’t forget the tartar sauce.

Our regular correspondent Steven Goodheart of MettaRefuge has begun work on another blog with which he will dazzle us with his knowledge of nature and science (no kidding).

Hop over to Berkeley, Naturally! to see how he’s coming along. Bookmark it. You won’t regret it. Interesting photographs – excellent writing – no horse puckey. What more could you want? Oh, I forgot to mention; Steven has a sense of humour that sneaks up on you from behind. Check out this Now and Zen  feature, Tanzan and the Girl on the Road.

I can’t wait to see what he’ll do with his next blog about Weird Science!

Text will be terse today, as I am swamped by work in the computer room. Everybody needs everything right now.  It’s not something that system administrators are not used to. It does get a little irritating when you’re also trying to roll out an entire new network at the same time.

Enough complaining. Let’s have some fish.

This cute little critter with the improbable beard is, of course, a Goatfish – what else would you call it? Specifically, it’s a Manybarred Goatfish (Parupeneus multifasciatus):

The whiskery things are used to find food. It digs around in the sand for a meal. As you watch, you can see the whiskers flying around like mad. It’s speculated that they are extremely sensitive to the electrical fields around living things. Spooky, eh? I wonder if weapons researchers are checking into this.

This little one has the delightful name of the Pink Anemonefish . How harmless does that sound? If you’re on more formal terms it’s (Amphiprion akallopisos):

Everybody knows that this is a Moray Eel (Gymnothorax javanicus).  What you may not  know is the it is the wrong colour.  This is another reason that I’m always whining about the use of flash for underwater photography. The eel looks nothing like this with the naked eye in natural light: Compare it with these images taken with available light here, here, here and here. This shot was too deep for available light. I had no choice but to use flash.

Steven Goodheart sent several very nice nature shots, but I could not get any but this one to load properly. It’s worth a solo appearance. It is, as Californians will recognise, a Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis):

This is a particularly nice shot for identification and I like it because the composition is also very clean.

And now, because I never tire of seeing myself on the silver screen, I’ll show you this shot of me at Blueblood with our missing friend Heidi Majano:

As is usual with most keen photographers, we hardly ever get an image of ourselves that we really like. This one tickles me. Put “heidi” in the search box in the sidebar to see some of her great images.

I have an image of my own today, but I’d first like to show you some images of friends who have responded to my pleas for treasure.

The first two come from Facebook friend and regular correspondent on Madang – Ples Bilong Mi,  Steven Goodheart of Berkeley, California. Steven is a science writer. Since he was formerly an editor for a large textbook publisher, he has a vast storehouse of information concerning where to find what, something that has already helped me to provide more interesting and accurate information.

The first shot really grabs me. I’d call the composition excellent. It makes good use of the Rule of Thirds. The smaller, gnarly tree and its shadow pierce the space and take it over like Atilla the Hun:

That one is a calendar shot if I ever saw one. Some images remind me of others. This one recalls an image that I showed you from Central Park in New York City.

Stepping from grandeur to minutia, here is a huge mob of my favourite insect, the Lady Bug:

I have no idea why Lady Bugs do this. Steven said it was immediately following a heavy rain. Thanks, Steven, for these shots. Keep them coming. I’ve shown you some Lady Bugs here and here.

My friend and dive buddy, Dr. Pascal Michon (our naughty resident Frenchman) sent me an image of this very nice little project he did for his nephew who was inquiring of his uncle about Hermit Crabs. It was clever of Pascal to use the images from my journal:

I can’t read much of it, but it tickles me, nonetheless. People often ask me about using my images. If you look at the bottom of the journal you will see that everything is covered by a Creative Commons copyright. The terms of the copyright allow free use of any text or images as long as you state clearly that it came from me. I prefer my attribution to be my email address, but my name will suffice. The only restriction is that, if you want to use it in any way that could be considered commercial, you have to ask my permission. I usually don’t ask for payment, but I always ask for the end product, for instance, a book, t-shirt, URL of a website and so forth.

I was disappointed by this image when I first saw it on the screen. It wasn’t what I’d hoped it would be. So, I spent a half hour or so ‘artifying’ it:

I’m calling it Steamy Jungle and Ship.