chaoticutopia

On June 9, 2006, a large group of us joined ScienceBlogs at once, along with a facelift for the site at large. So, in celebration of our one year anniversary, I decided to pour through the archives of the last year, looking for common threads and patterns. Perhaps not so coincidentally, my first…

It seems that cephalopods, from giant squids and octopi to camouflaging cuttlefish, are all the rage these days. As I've shown before, cephalopods can be quite fractalish (or fractals tend to be tentaclish, take your pick.) I'm not exactly sure why these creatures are so loved these days, but who…

Strong winds rustle the grass along the dam at Calkins Lake in Colorado. Don't see the lake in this 360 degree panorama? Well, that's because it isn't here anymore. In this small patch of open space, the prairie is being reclaimed. This land was once plowed by a farmer named Henry Calkins. In…

Now who was supposed to keep this park clean? While gathering in a Denver park, picnickers pause to pose for Charles S. Lillybridge. Photographer Charles S. Lillybridge lived along the Platte River near the Archer Canal, by the Alameda Avenue bridge, in Denver, Colorado. In the early 20th century…

Better Homes and Gardens recently listed 10 Easy Ways to Go Green in a slideshow on their website. While the ideas are accompanied by classy pictures, none of them are especially novel or revolutionary. However, they are excellent ideas, and most of them can save money around the house. (BHG…

Raindrops fall into the Farmer's Highline Canal in Westminster, Colorado. Here, cottonwood trees, coyote willows, and town homes sprout along a canal, once primarily used for agricultural purposes, now supporting these suburban communities. Not too long ago, this was a dry ridge, and the only…

Today, you can create your own fractal. (Don't worry, I'll still include one of my artistic fractals at the end of this post.) You don't need to download any programs, or learn any new techniques. In fact, the only thing that you need is probably already sitting on your desk: a single piece of…

Poling along the South Platte River in a Flood This photo was taken in the early 1900's by Charles Lillybridge, during a flood that very likely threatened his own studio. I haven't been able to pinpoint the year of this particular flood. Once upon a time, the river, meandering naturally through…

I've been reading For Better or For Worse since I was a little kid. Still, I can't recall the last time I sympathized with Lynn Johnston so much: Also, Rob Balder of Partially Clips got to me again this week, with another philosophical comic:

It's been far too nice of a Memorial Day to come inside and blog. I can share this photo, at least. I took it while on a bike ride along Standley Lake, pausing to see the changes at my bioblitz site there. The area where I caught a poacher stealing goose eggs was rather overgrown, so I couldn't…

I've been running late again this week, but at least this time, I had a decent excuse. While most of my free time lately has been spent cleaning out closets and other fun springtime tasks, last night, I had a wicked time. That is, I had a chance to see the musical, Wicked, at the Temple-Buell…

Contrail descending from a cumulonimbus cloud. I suppose the most obvious signs of life in this picture are human in origin. With the storm rolling in, most animals had already sought shelter. Not us... we keep flying over the country, or running outside to take pictures. We operate under the…

If you're poking around, looking for some relaxing diversion before you have to go back to work tomorrow, you've come to the right place. Lately, I've been writing a few casual game reviews for Casual Gameplay, better known as JayIsGames.com. Jay has offered reviews of the best in online casual…

I think I'm going to take this Nova Julia set home, color it with fBm noise, and call it "Find Nemo": Didn't find him? Try here: A Percula Clownfish (Amphiprion percula) swimming around in an aquarium Ok, so, this one is for the kids. (And the grownups, who, like me, couldn't resist watching…

Life is cyclical, perhaps necessarily. Just ask a biochemist about metabolic pathways, or an astronomer about the motion of the planets. I keep running into cycles as I try understand the ecological history of the Denver metropolitan area. From the never-ending passage of precious water to the…

I suspect PZ knew this already: Click to see the (larger) original. See, even web comic strip artists can get into octopus sex trivia. Er, come to think of it, it seems like most of them do... Comic by Robert Balder of Partially Clips and Erfworld.

Lady beetle eggs (Coccinellidae, unknown genus/species) on a cedar fence. (Two animal species in one shot: There was a squirrel lurking in the trees behind, if you can make out the fuzzy gray shape in the background of the full-sized image.) CHAOS: Complex Habitats Around Our Suburbs isn't just a…

Mother's Day is drawing to a close. I've spent a better part of the day, appropriately, mothering. While being showered with cards and kisses from my six-year-old son, I've had a chance to reflect a bit on the subject of motherhood. (Being a mom is a busy job--I'm just now getting a chance to…

Cricket: chirp. chirp. Oh... wait... you're still here? I'm sorry... I forgot to mention that I was taking a short vacation from writing. Well, I didn't mention it, because I didn't really plan for it. In that case, I would have scheduled something ahead of time. Instead, I finished my finals,…

Words cannot quite describe this fractal piece, which is abstract, yet seemingly (and sensually) familiar. As any of my regular readers will know, it isn't too hard for me to find fractals which subtly imitate natural forms. Still, it was quite a surprise to find these anthropomorphic forms…

As my week of bioblitzing was wrapping up, so were my classes. Add to that an eager 6-year-old, who wanted to help with spring preparations by cleaning the pond-with windex-and you can see, I've been busy. I never did get around to counting the flora in my two bioblitz locations, but I have no…

Geese at Standley Lake (soft pastel and charchol on canvas) by Karmen Lee Franklin, 2007 It seems that in life, nothing ever turns out as expected. Over the past week, which was, of course, National Wildlife Week, I participated in the Blogger Bioblitz. The experience was loads of fun, quite…

Tracking wildlife in my neighborhood wetlands this week made me reflect on the complex network of organisms in a habitat. Everything in an ecosystem is so intimately tied together, that a single species can have drastic effects on the entire habitat. The ecosystem, like all systems containing that…

The rain finally stopped this afternoon, so I decided to head over to Site A for a 15 minute bioblitz. The lake seemed deserted when I arrived. No other people were interested in climbing around in the mud, and all of the fauna was hiding. Far away, I heard a meadowlark and what sounded like a…

In theory, conducting a bioblitz was going to be a simple enterprise. I would go to one of my chosen spots, count the organisms as I went along, noting them in my book and, if possible take a photograph. I figured the two places I'd chosen would be relatively barren. In the tall grass prairie (…

Today is Earth Day, the perfect holiday to kick off a little Blogger Bioblitzing for National Wildlife Week. All around our bumpy sphere, people are going out and getting intimate with nature. Like many other bloggers, I've been scouting out the perfect places to bioblitz. In Colorado (as…

The Perfection of Wisdom: A Fractal: A layered fractal, incorporating a Lissajous curve (For Melinda) The Perfection of Wisdom: An 11th Century Illuminated Manuscript: A page from the illuminated manuscript, Astasähasrikä Prajñäpäramitä (The Perfection of Wisdom)Created on pattra pages in a…

"Hate something. Change something. Make something better." When Garrison Keillor sings it, you can't help but smile. I played this adorable little game, called Grr several years ago when it was featured on Jay Is Games, and instantly fell in love. The game floated up from my memories this week, as…

I'd like to offer my sympathies to the students at Virginia Tech, and the friends and family of the victims of yesterday's horrible tragedy. I usually write long blog posts, or at least include interesting images in my posts, but today, neither words nor images really seem adequate or appropriate.…

What happens when you cross two immensely complex patterns, and then picture them at the perfect unique angle? Consider first, the merging of a skewed Mandelbrot set with a cloud-like plasma fractal. Zoom in on one, out on the other, and blend: Now compare this with a photograph of a distant…