Milky Way

NASA's astropix of the day

I have not seen the milky way in too long.

"Sometimes, after your eyes adapt to the dark, a spectacular sky appears. Such was the case earlier this month over Ontario, Canada, when part of a spectacular sky also became visible in a reflection off a lake.

To start, the brightest objects visible are bright stars and the planet Jupiter, seen as the brightest spot on the upper left. A distant town appears as a diffuse glow over the horizon. More faint still, the disk of the Milky Way Galaxy becomes apparent as a dramatic diffuse band across the sky that seems to crash into the horizon far in the distance. In the foreground, a picturesque landscape includes trees, a lake, and a stone wall. Finally, on this serene night in July when the lake water was unusually calm, reflections appear. Visible in the lake are not only reflections of several bright stars, but part of the Milky Way band itself.

Careful inspection of the image will reveal, however, that bright stars leave small trails in the lake reflections that do not appear in the sky above. The reason for this is because the above image is actually a digital composite of time-consecutive exposures from the same camera. In the first set of exposures, sky images were co-added with slight rotations to keep the stars in one place."

Volcanic Lightning

Thanks to my bud Ed for letting me steal this amazing picture from his desktop. This is the eruption of Chaiten Volcano in Southern Chile in early May.


"Lightning can happen as a result of a volcanic eruption. As the hot ash rises through the cooler atmosphere, transfer of charge occurs. This excess of electrons within the cloud makes it act like a capacitor, and should the conditions be correct, huge electrical discharges may be observed as bolts of lightning during volcanic eruptions."


More pix and long article here.

Thorn in The Moon

Our lead singer Nita contributed vocals
and piano to a track by Matt Vucic.

simply gorgeous.

A Nation of Whiners in Mental Recession

Egg on Your Face

My cell phone has been pretty unreliable for the last few weeks. Since i'm still holding out for a possible new fancy gizmo, I just bought a used phone for $20 on craigslist to tie me over a few more weeks. Here's a random picture that was still on it:

Bethesda Trolley Bike Trail

Yesterday we stumbled upon a brand new-to-us bike trail going from the White Flint Metro area to the very heart of old downtown Bethesda.

Some section are on roads through residential neighborhoods and the worst part was on the sidewalk along Old Georgetown past the NIH. But the rest was pristine trail pavement going through leafy areas. There are also 2 nice overpasses over I-270 and I-495. I gleefully waved to the stop and go traffic below as we zoomed past, all downhill.

There are still more development planned on this pretty new trail: additional trail markers, map kiosks, wayside reststops, etc. yet it's already a very convenient trail and for the time being, one of DC's best kept secrets.


Here are the original pdfs with
the full map and interesting historical info.

Metro Spirit Iritis Write-Up

We're written up in the Augusta Metro Spirit ahead of our show at the Red Lion pub this saturday.

"A giant eye stares out at the audience, with squiggly serpent-like shapes fleeing its center. The tapestry hanging on the stage behind the band forces the audience to pay attention, making people feel less like they are sitting in a bar and more like they are chilling in a basement listening to a groovy record. Once the psychedelic rock band Iritis starts playing, the eye draws you in even more, making everything flow seamlessly together in a magical harmony."

full article here.

Minor correction: our album is not completed yet. We have not even really started it. Look for it later this year.

Bamberg Bike Trip Route

In the planning stages of a little summer trip... The region around Bamberg in Germany is reputed to possibly be the very best bike and beer tasting area in the world.

Now Dance!

This is one of the quintessential classic french fables. It just came up in conversation with a friend and i found this excellent English translation.

Here it is, followed by the french original:

The Cricket and the Ant
by Jean de La Fontaine
translation by Don Webb

The cricket had sung her song
all summer long
but found her victuals too few
when the north wind blew.
Nowhere could she espy
a single morsel of worm or fly.

Her neighbor, the ant, might,
she thought, help her in her plight,
and she begged her for a little grain
till summer would come back again.

“By next August I’ll repay both
Interest and principal; animal’s oath.”

Now, the ant may have a fault or two
But lending is not something she will do.
She asked what the cricket did in summer.

“By night and day, to any comer
I sang whenever I had the chance.”

“You sang, did you? That’s nice. Now dance.”


La Cigale et la Fourmi
by Jean de La Fontaine
Fables, livre I (1668)

La cigale ayant chanté
Tout l'été,
Se trouva fort dépourvue
Quand la bise fut venue :
Pas un seul petit morceau
De mouche ou de vermisseau.
Elle alla crier famine
Chez la fourmi sa voisine,
La priant de lui prêter
Quelque grain pour subsister
Jusqu’à la saison nouvelle.
« Je vous paierai, lui dit-elle,
Avant l’août, foi d’animal,
Intérêt et principal. »
La fourmi n’est pas prêteuse :
C’est là son moindre défaut.
« Que faisiez-vous au temps chaud ?
Dit-elle à cette emprunteuse.
— Nuit et jour à tout venant
Je chantais, ne vous déplaise.
— Vous chantiez ? J’en suis fort aise :
Eh bien ! Dansez maintenant. »

Rock Star Get-Up

Our show at the Grog went very well.
Thanks to all our fans who came out to support us and a big thanks to D from the band Bliss who lent us his sweet Marshall amp stack when one of our amps was misbehaving.

This was our second gig with our new singer Nita and we're all getting a better hang of this whole performing thing.

We need some improvement in terms of our stage presence and showmanship. Some of us may suffer from a rock style dysfunction. So here's an idea for a new stage get-up for our lead guitarist:

Cell Phone Recycling

I'm wrapping up a cell phone recycling initiative at work.
It was a great success, we were able to collect 42 phones!
That's the magic number.

After some research, I opted to go through the non-profit Eco-cell which partners with the National Zoo for three great reasons:
- For each phone they'll contribute up to $15 to the Friends of the National Zoo which provides support to wildlife conservation programs at the Zoo and around the world.
- All phones, batteries and accessories are refurbished if possible, otherwise they are recycled under strict EPA guidelines. This complete No Landfill approach prevents the leaching of toxic chemicals and heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium and lead into the environment.
- Cellphone recycling also helps protect the lowland gorillas of Congo who are threatened by the mining of columnite-tantalite (coltan) used in cell phones.

This last point is how I actually got started on all this.
A friend's father asked me for help with mapping some areas of Congo as he was looking to acquire mining rights for coltan. Unfortunately when i researched it a bit, i found out how in Congo it is mined in the middle of endangered gorilla and elephant habitat. These animals are often killed by rebel bands of natives mining this ore. The UN reported that for the past five years, the eastern lowland gorilla population in Congo has declined by 90%.



After we met for this mapping and GIS work, I'm not sure how far he pursued his efforts but at least i have him to thank for indirectly bringing to my attention the adverse consequences of cell phones.

And why stop now, next up I'm kicking off a battery recycling initiative at work too.

Tinned Gold

The last time i came back from Morocco in 2003,
i painstakingly lugged home a whole case of sardines,
a most precious loot to be carefully aged and rationned,
my sunny childhood memories deliciously evoked one can at a time.

To my great delight, more and more great sardine brands
have been showing up at my local grocery stores.
I might soon even venture beyond my Moroccan bias
and try some of the European, Asian and American offerings.

An added bonus is that sardines are packed with B12, vitamin D,
omega-3 fatty acids and calcium. They are also low on the food chain
and fast-growing, which makes them among the safest fish from overfishing.

Iritis at the Grog and Tankard

So Decadent

At a beer tasting held in a church complex,
the ladies looove Ska Brewing's Decadent Imperial IPA,
hand carried from Durango, Colorado just for this tasting.

It's a hard job to taste all these but someone has to do it.

Having a lively discussion about the merits of triple decoction, flux capacitor yields and stuff.

If it don't fit....

In the continuing saga of my recent car issues...
I have learned a few important lessons this weekend:

- when you start hearing a flapping sound on the highway, it's a good idea to slow down presto to check it out.
- a spare tire and wheel that actually fit the car would be preferable.
- on an interstate you get a good feel for a 107 heat index, despite the nice breeze from Mack trucks zooming by a few feet from your person.
- and finally, unproperly maintained old cars mean lotsa problems such
as a thrawted trip to hike in the mountains.

Red Lion Pub Flyer

greetings y'all

my apologies for being out of touch for so long.
I was waiting to get some nice videos to post
but it's taking much longer than anticipated.

In the meantime below is a new poster i just
made for our next upcoming big show.
cheers

Crazy Clouds

As we emerged from the basement after a great Iritis band practice session, the sky above us was otherwordly.

Pizza Pizza!

The 32-inch pizza slices from Pizza Mart are not only a true DC institution, they taste like heaven at 2 in the morning.... or after a 4-1 rout by our DC Capitals over the Carolina Hurricanes to grab the first spot in the division. OV! MVP!!!

Long gone are the raucous evenings when the monster slice would only set you back $2.25. These days there are food riots in Egypt and Haiti. The cost of flour and rice has sometimes tripled from China to Mozambique. So $4.50 is not bad at all for a slice that's almost a foot and half long and weighs in close to 1 pound. It also packs 1,117 calories.

mmm..... there's only one Pizza Mart.

Black and Tan Craze

The marketing wizzes at Anheuser-Busch are giving away a free beer toy!!
I'm a sucker so i signed up of course.
It must be part of their aggressive push in the market since
they took over distribution rights for the European InBev brands (Bass, Stella Artois, Beck’s and Hoegaarden)


Local beer writer Greg Kitsock wrote in his recent discussion
of Black and Tans in the Post:
"It works, but you must pour slowly, because the creamy
stout foam tends to gum up the holes."

So my ol' trusty versatile Guinness spoon might have an edge here.
Plus the MBAs at A-B probably figured it was a great way to gather
information on beer drinkers and force them to buy glassware that will actually fit the brolly. 'sure looks like it is sized only for the new sexy Bass glasses. ....of course i want a couple of those too.


Now I'll just need to get my hands on one of these Brütül LagerHead Turtles to conduct a full comparison test...

Cheers!

A St Patty's Breakfast

Say!
I like Green Eggs and Spam!
I do! I like them, how lucky-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat surely
And I would eat them with a goat curry.