Slowly learning Japanese

 Subaru bouenkyou no Bācharu Dan, desu. ^-^

Celebrities

In the course of my wanderings, I occasionally run into people who are kind of famous, and take pictures of them.  (I rarely think to take pictures with them, though!)  So, here are a few pictures of famous people I've photographed.

William "Will.i.am" Adams, rapper.

Elle Macpherson, supermodel.

Allan "Apl.de.ap" Pineda Lindo Jr., rapper.

Angelique Kidjo, Grammy-winning singer.

Today's pondering

I got rid of dial tone on my phone line, and just have DSL.  The phone company knows I don't have a phone... so why do they still give me phone books?

Koi-Nobori in Paris

In Japan, windsocks shaped like Koi (carp) fish are flown in the springtime, around the time of Children's Day in early May.  This year, I was sad because I had to travel to Europe during the season of the Koi, but it turned out all the flags that fly around the perimeter of UNESCO's headquarters in Paris were replaced with Koi-Nobori!  If you look carefully, you might spot the top of the Eiffel Tower amidst the Koi.

Paris with Viv

Viv and I met up in Paris for the weekend.  This time of the year, temperatures were maybe 6-8C during the day, 0-2C at night.  Not too bad for me, but for Viv's first trip north of the Mediterranean...

Best science article I've seen on a mainstream newspaper's web site in ages.

Martin Robbins totally nails it in The Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist/2010/sep/24/1

Snow in All 50

Late in the week of February 6-13, 2010, the Florida Panhandle got some snow. This led to a lot of articles in the media along the lines of "OMG there's snow on the ground in all 50 states at once!" and a similar amount along the lines of "OMG there's snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 states, with Hawaii being the only exception." Hawaii does get snow, of course - on Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and rarely even Haleakala - but there hadn't been any snowfall of consequence since December.

Having worked atop Mauna Kea for years, I know that the terrain can be conducive to snow sticking around, especially on the north slopes of cinder cones where it gets less sun. And I knew that earlier in the week, I had seen a few patches of snow remaining in a basin on the north side of the Subaru Telescope, where I work, and the adjacent W.M. Keck Observatory. On the afternoon of Saturday, February 13, between 15:21 and 15:28 local time, I was able to take a series of photos including this one, using an iPhone 3G.