WA Hot Rod and Street Machine Spectacular 2010
Posted on August 28, 2010 - Filed Under Inspirational, News, Technology
g’day boz
Yesterday I went along to see the WA Hot Rod and Street Machine Spectacular 2010. I like to look at it as a photo opportunity, all those colours, shapes and textures. The cars are really well presented and range from classic hot rods and old street machines to futuristic looking ones (and motor bikes too) plus some that I would call “daily drivers”.
Of course I am always on the look out for something inspirational for the EH (but not to over the top like the stretch limo one), just some thing neat and classy looking (cheap would help too lol). I will admit this year I seemed to struggle with the photos, there is always the tough lighting giving unwanted highlights, reflections particularly of the dome roof, the crowd (the fish eye really lets you get close so that no one can walk in front of you and adds an artistic lean too 
). Plus one of lenses started acting odd grrrr (maybe I need to upgrade and get the Pentax 18-55 weather resistant lens or the 16-50 DA* f2.8 weather resistant lens ). It is always nice to wander around the car park afterwards too as there are a number of custom cars or original looking old cars that are worth a photograph or two.
WA hot rod and street machine spectacular 2010
I am working on the images and will add them to my gallery as I go
At the moment previous years years photos are there
plus there is always Big Al’s Poker Run and the Classic car show or even Maurice Brockwell Memorial Run
My top 100 Beatles songs?
Posted on August 27, 2010 - Filed Under General, Humor, News, Personal
g’day Boz, you may have heard that Rolling Stone magazine has just released their list of the top 100 Beatles songs. Now i do like the Beatles, I have all the Albums, and listen to them on many an occasion but I dont feel I am obsessive, although I do know some stuff about them and their songs.
Anyway, I have been trying to work out how on earth anyone manages to put the Beatles songs in any kind of order. OK things like the most number ones, or best selling would be easy, but when non tangible things enter into the equation, like preferences, feelings, even culture or upbringing, things that influence our lives and the way we think, how can you make a list. I find I have a lot of favourites and for different reasons. Some are fast, like Helter Skelter or the early stuff that is great to dance to or sing a along with, there is the soft stuff, like Julia or Long Long Long, Yesterday, Here comes the Sun. Some are different (for want of a better description lol), the beat in All you need is love changing from 3/4 to 4/4 throughout the song, the joining together of two songs and making it one in A day in the life, Strawberry fields with its sped up first bit but normal speed second bit, stuff played in reverse. I can relate to Act Naturally except They are not putting me in the movies I guess. Some of the words make you think and wonder, Words are flow out like endless rain into a paper cup, or i am the egg man, I am the walrus, Some are just fun, Yellow submarine, Octopuses garden, when I am sixty four. I cant even say the Beatles had a style, they may have started out as a teen rock and roll group, but they diversived incredibly (i wanted to say heaps, but that would be bad English i guess ). With 4 guys writing and 4 guys singing, I guess it helps.
um I get the feeling i could keep this blog going for ages and eventually end up listing all the Beatles songs hehehe, there are so many to mention, Rocky raccoon, Revolution, Here comes the sun king, Things we said today, Its only love, Get back and the list goes on.
This may explain why in 2004 Rolling Stone had Hey Jude (8th) as the only Beatles song in the top 10 of the 500 greatest songs of all time, the list was updates in 2010 but the top 10 didnt changed, so how come it isnt number 1 on the Beatles list or why wasnt A day in the Life in that list?, maybe I am not the only one who finds it difficult to put the songs in order
so which is my favourite Beatles song? I guess the next one i am going to listen too
oh this is their top ten by the way
1. “A Day in the Life”
2. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
3. “Strawberry Fields Forever”
4. “Yesterday”
5. “In My Life”
6. “Something”
7. “Hey Jude”
8. “Let It Be”
9. “Come Together”
10. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
The Australian Elections Taiwanese Style
Posted on August 23, 2010 - Filed Under Humor, News, politics
Oz
I thought you might enjoy this.
Good luck Australia, counting your votes!
at last a tripod
Posted on August 9, 2010 - Filed Under News, Personal, Technology
G’day Boz
as you know I have recently been encouraged to replace my old and broken Slick tripod (and I only had it for 30 year and you think it would take a bit of bouncing around in the back of a 4WD ute going down rough tracks) so after a few weeks of research and looking around shops, I bought one, oddly enough from the shop I went into in the first place (sigh I could of saved myself a few weeks research and driving around)
I ended up with a Manfrotto 055XPROB, aluminium tripod with a horizontal centre column, which is a bit tricky, but looks useful, especially when getting right down to the ground. It will also extend to taller than me, which is very handy. But most important I tried it with my heavy lens and camera in the shop and it was very stable. I went for a pan and tilt head, an 804RC2 Basic Pan Tilt Head with Quick Lock, probably a bit smaller than I need for the heavy lens, but will be fine for all my other lenses. And, after spending all that (it was a bit expensive i thought) I forked out a bit more for a cable release, of course these days they are electronic. I thought I would get a Pentax one, but as too often happens, the shop didnt have one, however one salesman who was a fellow Pentaxian suggested I could buy the same as he uses, believe it or not a Canon Remote Switch RS60 E3, but hey it works and thats what matters .
So after I get home and have a bit of a play, fiddling with this and that, and waiting till it got dark. It was time to take it out into the backyard with the pentax 10-17 fisheye on it and try a shot or two. The first one was way to short an exposure and came out black, but the second showed a bit of promise.
fisheye night sky
the tree was lit by my kitchen window
471 seconds at f8 ISO100
bigger image at Gumnuts world
A House Made Completely of Legos!
Posted on July 23, 2010 - Filed Under General, Humor, Technology
Oz,
A house of legos!
Geomorphology of Uluṟu
Posted on June 9, 2010 - Filed Under General
Oz!
I came across an article discussing how Uluru (Maybe we can see that another visit?) came into form.
He hypothesizes that the relief of the ancestral Uluṟu was brought into existence by an initial cataclysmic depositional marine transgression and a subsequent erosional regression. Following this event, perhaps only tens of years, or maybe hundreds of years later, huge amounts of precipitation began to weather the newly formed and fresh relief, leaving a record of vast holes, ribs, and numerous other features found all over Uluṟu’s surface. As the precipitation continued, a huge inland lake formed and filled the area to a depth of tens of meters. Water sapping eventually caused the arkose to weather at and around a linear horizon 35 m above ground level, producing huge open-mouthed caves. As the process of equilibrium began to set in, a more permanent lake depth of around 3–6 m was established. Since the area all around Uluṟu is quite flat, potential energy in the form of large waves easily etch out the flared, concave-out slopes in the same manner as the flared slopes found at Fort Rock (Oregon). Wave attack is also responsible for the undermining of rock at Uluṟu’s base and may have been a catalyst for the wave-like features themselves. At a later stage still, the climate changed so dramatically, that the once humid, tropical climate of central Australia became a dry arid desert with limited rainfall. As a result, the lake eventually dried up, but not without leaving its permanent reminder both on the face of Uluṟu, and under the ground in terms of huge clay deposits.
Read more how he came to this conclusion, HERE
Australia Bound
Posted on June 9, 2010 - Filed Under General, Personal
Look out Oz!
My daughter and I bought our tickets to come to Australia!
See you LIVE and in person, in September!
~Boz
Roadside America
Posted on June 7, 2010 - Filed Under Personal
In memory of our trip to Roadside America in Pennsylvania, I thought to share this video on our blog!
Pacific Islands Islands Defy Sea-Level Rise
Posted on June 3, 2010 - Filed Under Environmentalism, News
Well what do you know. AGAINST all the odds, a number of shape-shifting islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean are standing up to the effects of “climate change.”
For years, people have warned that the smallest nations on the planet – island states that barely rise out of the ocean – face being wiped off the map by rising sea levels. Now the first analysis of the data broadly suggests the opposite: most have remained stable over the last 60 years, while some have even grown.
Paul Kench at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Arthur Webb at the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Fiji used historical aerial photos and high-resolution satellite images to study changes in the land surface of 27 Pacific islands over the last 60 years. During that time, local sea levels have risen by 120 millimetres, or 2 millimetres per year on average.
Doesn’t Al Gore Know that Divorce is Bad for the Planet?
Posted on June 1, 2010 - Filed Under News
After 40 years, Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, plan to separate.
This is preposterous! Doesn’t Al know that divorce leads to more consumption on the planet?
According to Green Tech:
As if the burden of divorce weren’t bad enough, people with failed marriages can be blamed for global warming, according to a study by Michigan State University.
Divorced couples use up more space in their respective homes, which amounts to to 38 million more rooms worldwide to light, heat and cool, noted the report.
And people who divorced used 73 billion kilowatt-hours more of electricity and 627 billion gallons of water than they would otherwise in 2005.
Dissolving a marriage also means doubling possessions, from the lowly can opener to the SUV. The report, however, did not estimate how many more natural resources the children of shared-custody parents consume by getting birthday and holiday gifts twice.
Nor did it count the greenhouse gases spent to shuttle kids between their pair of energy-hogging households.
Just another example of Al Gore telling us all how to live and not able to do what’s best for the planet himself.
Peel Zoo
Posted on May 30, 2010 - Filed Under Personal
Hi Boz
(this is 2 in a row lol)
Just thought i would share some photos with you . I went to Peel zoo on Saturday, its just over 100ks and took almost an hour and a half, but an easy drive down the Mitchell freeway, Kwinana freeway and the new Forrest Highway.
The zoo is a small zoo of mainly birds, but there are a lot of different types, from fancy pigeons to exotic parrots and lots of Australian birds too plus kangaroos and some farm animals, ducks, chickens etc. There is a large walk through aviary with heaps of birds and no wire in the way, great for photos
here are a few
Major Mitchell cockatoo
Major Mitchell cockatoo, an Aussie parrot
ostrich
African ostrich
Sun conure
Sun conure, from the north end of South America
If you want to see more, I have uploaded them to my photo site, in the Peel Zoo gallery
CombineZP
Posted on May 24, 2010 - Filed Under News
Hi Boz
thought I would tell you about a program I came across
it stacks photos with shallow depths of fields (like macro photos) and produces a photo that has a great depth of field
so I gave it a whirl and found out it worked great
dead beetle
The program is CombineZP and was pretty easy yo use on this photo
I really need to explore it some more, there are a lot of options which I have no idea what they do
I just thought you might be interested
Global Cooling
Posted on May 19, 2010 - Filed Under Environmentalism, News
Hi Oz!
It’s hard to keep up with climate change scientists! This article from Fox News says that Global Cooling is on the way!
Contrary to the commonly held scientific conclusion that the Earth is getting warmer, a scientist who has written more than 150 peer-reviewed papers has unveiled evidence for his prediction that global cooling is coming soon.
Contrary to the commonly held scientific conclusion that the Earth is getting warmer, Dr. Don Easterbrook, emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University and author of more than 150 peer-reviewed papers, has unveiled evidence for his prediction that global cooling is coming soon.
“Rather than global warming at a rate of 1 F per decade, records of past natural cycles indicate there may be global cooling for the first few decades of the 21st century to about 2030,” said Easterbrook, speaking on a scientific panel discussion with other climatologists. This, he says, will likely be followed by “global warming from about 2030 to 2060,” which will then be followed by another cooling spell from 2060 to 2090.
Easterbrook spoke before a group of about 700 scientists and government officials at the fourth International Conference on Climate Change. The conference is presented annually in Chicago by the Heartland Institute, a conservative nonprofit think tank that actively questions the theory of man’s role in global warming. Last year the Institute published Climate Change Reconsidered, a comprehensive reply to the United Nations’ latest report on climate change.
“Global warming is over — at least for a few decades,” Easterbrook told conference attendees. “However, the bad news is that global cooling is even more harmful to humans than global warming, and a cause for even greater concern.”
Easterbrook made several stunning claims about the effects of the coming cold. There will be twice as many people killed by extreme cold than by extreme heat, he predicted, and global food production will suffer because of the shorter, cooler growing seasons and bad weather during harvest seasons.
But not everyone is breaking out the overcoat and mittens.
“It’s absurd to talk of global cooling when global heating is with us now and accelerating,” said Dan Miller, managing director of the Roda Group, and an expert on climate change. “According to NASA, this past April was the hottest since temperature measurements began. And 2010 is on track to be the hottest year since temperature records began.
“North America was relatively cool last year, but the Earth as a whole was much warmer than average,” he said.
I can sure testify to that last paragraph. We had a lot of snow in Maryland this year!
Gore buys $8.8 Million dollar Ocean View Villa.
Posted on May 4, 2010 - Filed Under Environmentalism, News
According to The L.A. Times:
Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper, have added a Montecito-area property to their real estate holdings, reports the Montecito Journal.
The couple spent $8,875,000 on an ocean-view villa on 1.5 acres with a swimming pool, spa and fountains, a real estate source familiar with the deal confirms. The Italian-style house has six fireplaces, five bedrooms and nine bathrooms.
Nine bathrooms and six fireplaces? Won’t this hurt his carbon footprint a bit?
But here is the other thing. Remember Mr Gore mentioned something in his movie about a 20 foot rise in the sea water level? Now I know he never mentioned a time frame in the movie, but, wouldn’t it be scary to buy a house by the ocean if it was going to be under water soon?
AL GORE SAID: If [the West Antarctic ice shelf] were to go, sea level worldwide would go up 20 feet. They’ve measured disturbing changes on the underside of the ice sheet. It’s considered relatively more stable, however, than another big body of ice that’s roughly the same size — Greenland would also raise sea level almost 20 feet if it went.
He also noted in a sobering new paper published Jan. 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which indicated that even if we managed to stabilize carbon concentration levels in the atmosphere between 450 and 600 parts per million, up from 385 p.p.m. today — a target that would be politically challenging — we would still suffer rising sea levels, worsened droughts and more, for centuries to come. “The scientists are practically screaming from the rooftops,” ~ AL GORE (Before the US Senate in 2009)
8 Million dollars on an ocean front house doesn’t seem too worried on the sea level to me.
Environmentalists Condemn Al Gore
Posted on April 19, 2010 - Filed Under Environmentalism
Oz…I don’t understand how environmental groups have allowed “Do as I say not as I do” Al Gore to act as their spokesperson for so long? Perhaps now the they are waking up.
From the Independent:
Al Gore’s environmental organization has taken money to raise awareness about the need for clean water from a controversial chemicals company involved in the aftermath of one of the world’s worst pollution disasters.
Dow Chemical, the US firm which now owns the leaking pesticides factory responsible for thousands of deaths in Bhopal, India, is sponsoring Life Earth events in 150 cities today. The event aims to raise money for clean water programs. Research by environmental organizations has found dangerous levels of highly toxic chemicals in rivers, lakes and other water supplies close to several other factories owned by Dow and its subsidiaries in countries including the United States, Brazil and South Africa.
Dow’s factories at its global headquarters in Midland, Michigan, have been accused of contaminating the region, including the Tittabawassee River floodplains, with high levels of dioxin – one of the “dirty dozen” most dangerous chemicals. In 2007, the highest level of dioxin contamination ever measured by the US Environmental Protection Agency was found in the Michigan Saginaw River. Residents are advised to avoid contact with river sediments and not to eat locally caught fish.
Campaigners are outraged by what they call Dow’s “blatant attempt” to paint itself as a green company and divert attention from the Bhopal scandal, where 25 years after the 1984 disaster at the plant (then owned by Union Carbide) thousands of villagers are still forced to use contaminated water which causes birth defects, cancer and skin disorders.
The chemical leak from the Union Carbide factory in 1984 killed around 25,000 people and left 120,000 with long-term medical conditions, according to Amnesty International. Since the factory closed, more than 30,000 people have been exposed to water containing mercury and lead, pesticides such as Lindane and carcinogens like carbon tetrachloride.
EH Holden T-shirts for sale
Posted on April 16, 2010 - Filed Under General, Humor, News, Personal, Technology
Hi Boz
I have always wanted a tee shirt with an EH on it. OK first maybe I better tell you what an EH is. The EH is a 1964 Holden car, a classic of Australian motoring history and I just happen to own one , hence the need for a Tee shirt. After looking in markets, T shirt shops, suppliers at car events and online and not being able to find anything that wowed me, I decided to have a bash at designing my own. So after several weeks of taking pictures of my car (and realising it isn’t easy to get a great photo with no odd reflections or rotten shadows) and playing on the net, I came up with a design, went to an online Tee shirt shop (2 in fact) and put my design on a plain white T. ordered one from each, and had them posted out. So now I have 2 EH T shirts, want to buy one? I wonder if any other EH owners would like one?? It could be possible to change the car colour too, what do you think? This is sort of what it looks like, and it feels really nice to wear and no itchy tag at the back, what a bonus .
EH T-shirt
I have idea for a different design, more of a graphic, but I am finding that one harder to figure out.
P.S. any EH owners that want one let me know .- me_gumnut@hotmail.com
Fremantle Arts Festival
Posted on April 5, 2010 - Filed Under Humor, News, Personal
remember me ???
I thought I would share an event that I had never been to before, and wasnt sure of its photographic potential. The Fremantle street arts festival happens over the Easter long weekend each year (apparently) and has street performers or buskers from all over the world, so I thought I would take a look. So I packed up my camera bag (about 10 kilos I reckon) and headed for Freo. Figuring it would be busy I parked a few kilometres from the city and walked in, carrying my camera gear. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised at the opportunities for photos and would go again I think. There were all kinds of performers to shoot, living statues, mime, acrobats, trapeze artists a guy in a weird red costume. There were a few hiccups, getting stuck in a crowd with the fish eye on and not being able to swap it for a closer lens, being too short (sigh) and my battery running out not long after I got there, and then finding I left my spare at home. So then came the long walk back, carrying my gear.
heres a couple of photos
street performer
this one is with the fish eye, and cropped a lot
street performer - fisheye
there are more on my site in the Fremantle arts folder
Raining Fish?
Posted on February 28, 2010 - Filed Under News
Hey Oz!
I know it’s summer and hot over there, but how do you expoain raining fish?
From News.Com.Au
WHILE the Top End and Central Australia have been battered by torrential rains, a Territory town has reportedly had fish falling from the sky.
The freak phenomena happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon about 6pm at Lajamanu, about 550km southwest of Katherine, The Northern Territory News reports.
Christine Balmer, who took the photos of the fish on the ground and in a bucket, said she had to pinch herself when she was told “hundreds and hundreds” of small white fish had fallen from the sky.
“It rained fish in Lajamanu on Thursday and Friday night,” she said,
“They fell from the sky everywhere.
“Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere.
Wow, and you pick on me for OUR weather?
Student Collecting Pictures of Snow in All 50 States
Posted on February 12, 2010 - Filed Under Environmentalism, News
Hi Oz
You’ve heard of our record-breaking snow of course. What you might not know is how widespread the snow is!
A University of Oklahoma student is taking an extra interest in this week’s snow storms in the south and northeast and is working to document the events in a very unique way.Patrick Marsh said it’s likely by the end of the week snow will be on the ground in all 50 states.
From Ardmore all the way to Dallas and even in Louisiana, the south is snowed in. For many, it’s a winter wonderland in places that rarely see such weather. But none of it comes close to the mess up north where two blizzards have blown through in a week.
Weather like this is why Marsh is studying to be a meteorologist. Even as the snow fell outside the National Weather Center in Norman, inside Marsh was tracking what could be a rare winter weather phenomenon.
Marsh said Florida is the only state without snow on the ground at this point, but he said two to four inches of snow is forecasted on Friday in some parts of the state. There is currently even snow on some of the mountain tops in Hawaii.
You Can
Posted on February 11, 2010 - Filed Under Inspirational
Hi Oz
How often do we hear music that inspires or motivates? A song of faith?
It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
I thought to share such a song with you:
What Faith Can Do by Kutless
Everybody falls sometimes
Gotta find the strength to rise
From the ashes and make a new beginning
Anyone can feel the ache
You think it’s more than you can take
But you are stronger, stronger than you know
Don’t you give up now
The sun will soon be shining
You gotta face the clouds
To find the silver lining
I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard
Impossible is not a word
It’s just a reason for someone not to try
Everybody’s scared to death
When they decide to take that step
Out on the water
It’ll be alright
Life is so much more
Than what your eyes are seeing
You will find your way
If you keep believing
I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
Overcome the odds
You don’t have a chance
(That’s what faith can do)
When the world says you can’t
It’ll tell you that you can!
I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains
Hope that doesn’t ever end
Even when the sky is falling
And I’ve seen miracles just happen
Silent prayers get answered
Broken hearts become brand new
That’s what faith can do
That’s what faith can do!
Even if you fall sometimes
You will have the strength to rise
John and Barb have been having cultural exchanges over tea for over 10 years. Now they're going public. :)
