Photos of Interest

That is Microsoft in her hideout.
Here are a couple more vacation photos... Notice that the bottom photo may seem to have been taken from a greater altitude, although that is not the case.  The top one is not really a vacation photo; it's from the href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060724.html">Astronomy Picture of the Day site.  (Credit: href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts121/121_crew.html">STS-121 Crew, href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition13/index.html">Expedition 13 Crew, NASA) The top one was taken from a Space Shuttle; the bottom one…
So, I lied, just one more...
OK, we're home, and I will stop cluttering up SB bandwidth with travel photos soon.  But just one more... That's it for now.
Hint: It is literally a hands-on exhibit in a Farm and Ranch museum. The device pictured above is a milking machine.  The idea is, supposedly, for the visitor to learn what the machine feels like to the cow.   Somehow, I doubt the experience is very similar.
This is a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnemidophorus_neomexicanus">New Mexico Whiptail (Cnemidophorus neomexicanus).   It was found near the roadrunner: The roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) normally would eat the lizard.   href="http://www.legendsofamerica.com/NM-Quirky.html">This specimen, however, is composed entirely of found objects.  That is, it is made of trash collected from the city dump, by artist Olin S. Calk.  It is located at exit 135 off I-10.  Its beak does not open, so it does not eat lizards.
From the href="http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/emnrd/parks/cityrocks.htm">City of Rocks.
At La Cueva.  I'd appreciate it if someone could identify this lizard. It is about 5 inches (12cm) long. UPDATE: thanks to a tip from Kevin, I think I have ID'ed the little guy... It appears to be a greater earless lizard: Cophosaurus texanus.
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/62864816@N00/199733007/" title="Photo Sharing"> src="http://static.flickr.com/64/199733007_049cdd3911.jpg" alt="IMG_1332" height="375" width="500"> This is the approach to Aguirre Springs, on the east slope of the Organ mountains.
href="http://www.twinkies.com/recipe_view.asp?recipetype=Twinkies&rID=86"> Hostess Twinkies Sushi Japanese animation, Hello Kitty, samurais, ninjas, and Sushi are really popular right now! Here"s a wild recipe that"s super easy to make and super fun to eat as a light and fruity snack! href="http://www.twinkies.com/recipe_view.asp?recipetype=Twinkies&rID=86">This recipe transforms the much loved Twinkie into a hip and tropical flavored treat. HT: Catty Girls Discuss blog
Some unexpected demands have impeded my progress on the "transgenic drug" series.  I've written part of what I planned to post today.  But I want to work on it some more.   In the meantime, here is a picture of noctilucent clouds, from href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060718.html">NASA's APOD site.  We are all relieved that the space shuttle Discovery has landed safely.  It turns out that the space shuttle may be one reason that these unusual cloud formations occur. As explained by NASA: Noctilucent Clouds Over Sweden Credit: href="mailto:%20clearskies%20at%20bostream%…
The UM Center for Organogenesis will have a booth at the href="http://www.arborweb.com/annual_events_index.html">Art Fairs in Ann Arbor, featuring their Bio-Artography. They'll be at booth 155, on East University St. href="http://bioartography.com/index2.html"> src="http://bioartography.com/thumbnails/033motoring5x7.jpg" border="0" height="120" width="94"> href="http://bioartography.com/index2.html"> src="http://bioartography.com/thumbnails/021networking5x7.jpg" border="0" height="120" width="101"> alt="" src="http://bioartography.com/thumbnails/004rosebud_kidney.…
The Wellcome Trust Biomedical Image Awards for 2006 have been announced.  The winners can be seen href="http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/bia/gallery.html">here. This photograph shows nerve cells growing along synthetic silk fibers.  The tiny blue dots are href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwann_cell">Schwann cells.  Schwann cells are a type of glial cell that form myelin sheaths. The hope is that these fibers might enable us to guide the growth of nerve cells, in order to repair damage.  The technology is described in href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5172422.stm">…
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Toda_Hut.JPG"> The href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toda_people" title="Toda people">Toda people are a small pastoral tribe of less than 1,000 people who reside in the href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nilgiris" title="The Nilgiris">Nilgiri hills of Southern href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" title="India">India. Shown here is a typical Toda hut, about 3 m (10 ft.) high, 5.5 m (18 ft.) long and 2.7 m (9 ft.) wide. They are built of bamboo fastened with rattan and thatched. The hut has only a tiny (about 0.9 x 0.9 m…
One of our cats is called Microsoft; another is called Patches.  I chuckle about that, sometimes.   Above is a picture of Patches, transformed by a java applet that can be found here.  It appears that the original intent of the program was to transform human faces to resemble those found among persons of different ethnicities.  However, they added some artistic transformations as well.  One option is to view a face as is might have been portrayed by href="http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/modigliani/">Modigliani.   HT: href="http://climactericclambake.blogspot.com/2006/07/i-am-…
This is the Spiral Galaxy NGC 2403 from Subaru, as noted on NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.
What part of the 50 US States is in the Eastern Hemisphere? Hint: it was taken over by the Japanese in World War II.  Answer below the fold... Answer: href="http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3">Attu Island, Alaska.