Caffeine: the most potent artificial intelligence drink!

Caffeine: the most potent artificial intelligence drink!
Deep in the Lair of the Perpetually Curious Fox

Sunday 10 November 2013

Northern Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)

Went out looking for Ptarmigans today, but found a northern porcupine crossing the road in front of us. They don't run particularly fast (actually, they don't run at all. They sort of amble sedately from point A to point B).

Contrary to belief, they do not actually shoot quills. They do however, wave their tail around when cornered. If you're foolish enough to get close to them, then you get a face full of quills, as many dogs can testify.








Wednesday 6 November 2013

Aurora borealis: Part 2 - Lake Providence, with some friends.


Some more photos of Aurora borealis taken on the 31st August 2013. We decided to drive out of town to have a better view. This time I was wearing a gigantic parka, I looked like Kenny from Southpark!






I like the way the trees are silhouetted against the aurorae.


The two friends we were with that night. They really, really loved this photo. It was me thinking to myself at the moment "hmmm.... I like the trees silhouette, how about silhouettes of people I like?"

I think, therefore I do.


The aurorae that night were particularly bright. The long exposure has one problem - the dancing curtain effect gets smeared out. The human eye is particularly good at seeing the minute details once it is night adjusted.

This is my favourite photo of the lot. The image above was taken with 15 seconds exposure. The camera's CCD and lens has filtered out a lot of the purple and magenta that was trailing under the green curtains.

The night sky around the aurora was a bit bluer than the camera is representing. Tweaking the colour saturation a bit.... Still missing the magentra trails underneath the green.


This was an accidental shot of a care going past just as the camera is finishing the 15 sec exposure. Actually it looked quite nice. Brings it closer to home, instead of just abstractly pointing to the horizon. Yes it was that gigantic. It was all over the sky, I just pointed and captured a piece of the whole show. Whirly whirly ectoplasm!



The Non-whirly areas are more ghostly green smears lighting the sky. Mind you, all those time the green were dancing all over the sky.











This is the aurora whirly dancing above the Lake.



And it changes colour, periodically.