Diary of a Mad Natural Historian

Firefox 3. It’s out, I’ve downloaded and installed it and so far I’m liking it a lot. Biggest single thumbs-up? It does seem to be significantly faster - huge win. If you’re extra cautious, you may want to give it another few days before taking the plunge, but I haven’t had any trouble yet. Extensions I’m running: Better Gmail, Delicious Bookmarks, Quickdrag and Tab Mix Plus.

Fabjects/3D printing. I’ve posted about fabbing at home; here’s an interesting perspective on the topic:

I do believe that home manufacturing will develop in the future and feel more strongly about it now than ever. People that manufacture at home, however, will serve as “providers” that sell to others, primarily on the web. Individuals will see it as a low-risk, low-overhead business opportunity to manufacture from their basement, spare room, garage, or dorm room. They will discover a niche market and serve this market from their home. A few are already doing it.

Case in point: Fabjectory is a one-person company that has been producing models from Second Life, Google SketchUp, and Nintendo Mii for some time. The price for a color model from Fabjectory is typically $50–200. The home-based operation has been written up in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, Wired, and other major publications. I am also aware of others here in the U.S. and abroad that are offering part-making services from the comfort of their homes.

via Bruce Sterling.

Some random links…

• COOP’s posted another bit of musical goodness - check his mix page for the whole list. At the moment, I’m very partial to Ghetto Organ and Bloodclot. Bloodclot has one of my desert island tunes on it - Ark of the Covenant - love it!

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• View the early chemical-powered projectile weapons over at BibliOdyssey. I’m semi-successfully resisting the temptation to make a petard joke.

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• Wicked pissa montruos diabolicos trading cards. (via BB)

• And an odd submersible, seen by the side of the road yesterday:

Ah, the rhythm of the seasons… Just as October brings foliage to New Hampshire, so June brings us Bike Week. Bike Week has gotten a lot bigger and a lot less 1% since I’ve been in NH - the local tourism officials have figured out there’s serious coin available for extraction.

A Certain Design Student has been keeping his eyes open for a motorcycle. A single, a parallel twin or a parallel trip, displacement in the 500cc - 650cc range - something with some character or something that could be modified. His nosing around led him to a get-together - the Greasebag Jamboree - not the bog-standard full dress HD stuff; instead, Triumphs, bobbers, Beezers. Today was the day - off we went!

It was a blast! Fantastic bikes, nice weather, and L won a motorcycle part in the raffle. The only drawback was that there weren’t any bikes for sale that were anywhere close to our range - the 2 I saw with for sale signs were definitely in the “If you have to ask…” category.

Fave #1

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Fave #2:

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And a slide show:

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Celebrate by viewing Mr.YipYop’s lovely pigeon portraits.

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h/t on the special day to Reid and h/t for the portraits to @strangehours via tweet.

Bookride: Rare Book Guide, Every One a Winner. J.G. Ballard! Aurel Stein! Dr. Seuss! And enjoyable snark. Added to the Booklist section.

h/t Dinos und Robots.

I’m starting to get ready for a weekend trip the Designer and I are taking to the North American Amphibian Conference. As if to spur me on, peakay posted plates from the ‘Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium’.

Here’s a detail (the canonical birdeater) from a handcolored plate in an edition he links to - click to see the whole thing.

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I’m going to try a little moblogging from the road, but having fun at the conference is the first priority, so it may be Sunday or Monday before things start to appear here or on my Flickrsteam.

(OK, properly speaking, these are homophones - but way back when, my teachers confused me and homonym is the word that pops up first.)

Au fait and ofay

I heard a reporter on the radio just now describe some Mexican kids as au fait (the story was on the anti-emokid violence in Mexico). For a confusing instant, I heard ofay and the sentence made no sense to me. Then my head reoriented - a grin ensued.

A giant is gone.

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Another great picture of Phoenix descending courtesy of MRO. Heimdall crater is in the background - apparently Ikea beat NASA to Mars.

Via APotD.

More - A picture of the lander (top), Heat shield impact area (middle right) and parachute (bottom) on the surface.

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One of my epiphytic utrics is blooming:

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Just opening in the morning light.

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The reason for the species name (nelumbifolia).

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Utrics (bladderworts) are fascinating plants - adaptable (alpine to tropical, aquatic, terrestrial, epiphytes, lithophytes), active carnivores with beautiful flowers. I have two epiphytes - nelumbifolia and humboldtii. The humboldtii is growing like mad; I’m hoping I can get a large division to trade for another epiphyte I covet - U. jamesoniana (picture of flower here). Here’s the U. humboldtii:

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Keep your fingers crossed for me - maybe I can even get a flower out of it…