Low light photo contest winners
For our latest competition, we asked you to turn down the lights and show us your best low light photos. Here are the winners of Macworld’s second photography contest.
Monthly Archives: December 2010
It's Not Who You Know
In 1861, astronomer Simon Newcomb got a U.S. Naval Observatory job because many Confederate sympathizers left their jobs.
Snow Under Microscope, Claims Innocence
Welcome to winter in the northern hemisphere.
Available For a Limited Time Only
North America gets the best show.
Top Science of 2010
Science: The Breakthroughs of 2010 and Insights of the Decade
Until this year, all human-made objects have moved according to the laws of classical mechanics. Back in March, however, a group of researchers designed a gadget that moves in ways that can only be described by quantum mechanics—the set of rules that governs the behavior of tiny things like molecules, atoms, and subatomic particles. In recognition of the conceptual ground this experiment breaks, the ingenuity behind it, and its many potential applications, Science has called this discovery the most significant scientific advance of 2010.
Found in the Lab of the Day
Found a bottle in the back corner of the fire locker recently. This dates back to the early days of the lab, when the shop shared some storage space with us.
This was really good acetone for cleaning vacuum parts, and we didn’t want anyone to mistake it for the cheaper acetone one might use to degrease parts. It’s just a matter of putting it in terms a wider audience might understand.
Rectangular Like Me
It’s a World of Black Rectangles
“How is it that so many different things made in so many different ways end being black rectangles?” Mr. Grcic asked. “They can be extremely elegant and sophisticated, or very basic, but they are such strong and powerful parts of our lives that it is impossible to imagine a world without them.
Speaking of black rectangles,
“They remind me of the black monolith that the ape-men discover outside their cave in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.”’ It stands for knowledge and faith that they don’t understand, but recognize and respect.”
Oh, you mean this one?
Where have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio Bob Feller?
Feller Proud to Serve in ‘Time of Need’
I grew up in the generation after Bob Feller; I knew about his exploits because the strikeout king of the 70’s (and beyond), Nolan Ryan, was often compared to him. So I didn’t full appreciate his impact in baseball and beyond. But there’s this:
A lot of folks say that had I not missed those almost four seasons to World War II — during what was probably my physical prime — I might have had 370 or even 400 wins. But I have no regrets. None at all. I did what any American could and should do: serve his country in its time of need. The world’s time of need.
A lot of professional baseball players served in WWII, making the same kind of personal sacrifice Feller mentions here (including Joe D, to whom I mean no disrespect by lining out his name), but his passing and the circumstances of his enlistment (exempt from service via the draft) is in stark relief to what I’m seeing around me lately. Personal sacrifice to serve your country in a time of need? I don’t think holding the political process hostage in order to extend tax cuts to the richest 2% of the population qualifies.
My attitude isn’t helped by the fact that the “we all must tighten our belts” rhetoric has already hit me; there will be no cost-of-living adjustment for federal employees. I’ll manage, though, and the sentiment is right — everyone needs to do their part. But that actually means everyone. What bothered me was the process, and the president giving this concession before any negotiations had taken place. And then we see the right’s blustering about cutting the deficit being tossed aside faster than a dress on prom night. As Al Franken noted, it feels like the president punted on first down.
Carly Simon Physics II
A different kind of cloud chamber than I had linked to in the original. Both use alcohol, but the mechanism for condensation is a little different.
The Year in Pixels
The Big Picture: The Year in Pictures . Part 1, part 2, part 3.
There are a few “what happens next is obvious” pictures in there, such as the (imminent) plane crash and bike crash (16 and 21, respectively, in part 2), or “just the right moment” pictures, which might be a little easier to capture in the digital age, because “film” is almost unlimited and free. You are able to take many pictures in rapid succession, and are more limited by battery capacity than how much film/storage you can carry, so grabbing just the right moment is a little easier. That doesn’t diminish the awesome nature of each shot, though. It just allows us to see more of them.