PLEASE NOTE: This post is not yet proofread or fully edited for text contents as of 8-27-2007 403-- I rushed it off to show family and friends and explain a few things while they are here. Please excuse errors and other stuff i want to clean up as well as I will get to this.
I thought I crop one of my high-res pictures of a toad. They are very common all over Asia. I was sad to recently find out that the Golden toad (I think it lived somewhere in South America--I'm not sure) -has gone extinct in the past ten years. They were unable to breed them to recovery. That species was incredible. I've never seen anything like it. A key point that we need to understand. We caused it's extinction. But these toads may have had a hand in it. They have infested everywhere we go. Traveling kind of like rats--they ended up on all the islands and countries from Hawaii to Australia. They do eat allot of bugs, but in some places they have decimated beneficial species and caused lots of problems. I never harm them but they are causeing serious trobble in Australia and other places.
A NOTE HERE: This post is IN PROGRESS and I have yet to proof read it but want to get it out ASAP to show some family and friends now. Any such mystakes will be changed when I get the next chance and I'm feeling well.I think this is a real temple. As I explained in my first Bali shots, I was leaving during one of there biggest Hindu holidays. Those grotescss looking statues are supposed to scare off the evil spirits as they pass over the island. In Bali this is called "Niepe". The rules are so strict that you cannot leave your house and tourists must remain at there hotels for this one day of darkness. All power is shut down nearly everywhere and loud noise and parties are held to deal with the spirits of the dead (I think) that pass over the island every year at this time. This is a G-rated website, I hope that this image is not too bad. As you can see, children take part in this and enjoy building these things.
When I first went to Bali in 1992, everybody--I mean everybody smoked. There are no age limits enforced on smoking or drinking that I was ever aware of. But finally the Indonesian government put warning labels on cigarette packs. Being an ex-smoker myself I was glad to see that smoking had gone down seriously fast. Kids used to be seen smoking, but now only a few do I see. I think it was more easy for a society like this to quit. There belief's and there hard work requires a kind of discipline now rarely seen in the USA. My tour guide took me to this restaurant for some "bok'so" --chicken and noodles with a few other things. It is dangerous to eat the stuff all those street vender's sell, you need an iron gut. My guide took me here because he said it was a really clean place. He was right, by the standards. Checkout the bathroom.
The dirtiest bathroom in the world?I was not sure if I should put this up on a G-rated website. It's just a bathroom. This is real-life, if you were here at the restraint my tour guide went to, this is where you must re leave yourself. And I asked for a safe and clean place for this lunch. Makes me terrified to wonder what the disgusting places are! I have seen them, and bathrooms even worse then this. What I wanted to show is the real conditions in this developing country. And you thought US public restrooms were disgusting! What really scares me, is that in nearly all of these bathrooms, there's never any toylet paper. I think I rather not know why.
I've shown you allot of beautiful things about Bali. Be sure to explore my site on July 2007 in the date -archives at the top of this page to see them. There is of course, a dark side of poverty that is sometimes hidden and sometimes very visible. I only ran into horrible poverty a few times-this picture is one of those times. This person may be washing Landry or scavenging something from this sewage. Throughout history one of the oldest jobs has been scavenging dumps, shore-lines and even sewage to find anything that can be used or sold. Bali does better then most of Indonesia due to tourism. This watter is an open sewage system. It's nearly the worst of the worst. So dangerous that reports say people just falling in by accident die from infections without a cut on them from extreme septic shock. 
this one have these small differences that make them of another "race". The classic one is coloration on this species legs. In Guam, they are all the same. In Hawaii, there must be a dozen or so method was very much This is the Pacific Argiope or, yellow back spider. There bite is less then one quarter a bee-sting in pain despite there large size. Sometimes they are called "Zigzag spiders" because of the X they sometimes build. They sometimes only make one line, and seem to put up a big X when successful and healthy. When you approach these spiders they move back--some people say it looks like they are smiling. Harmless to people and even pets, they do this out of fear when approached as a way of I guess making them selves ready to handle a large intruder. They are very acrobatic, and can shift from one side of there web to the other nearly instantly through a small hole. I've gotten good enough with them that I can usually put them anywhere I want on the web by touching the web or the spider in the right place or time. Interestingly, they have different reactions to dangers. Usually all the ones in one area will react the same way or close. This is due to natural selection as the right escape technique is the easy one. They really don't have many predators in Guam so there can be dozens and dozens of them in the same place. Males live with females sharing the web during mating seasons. They can lay several egg sacks and I believe they live at the most two years. Most spiders like this only live one. I'm not certain. This species is one of my favorite because they are easy to work with and have many mysteries. This is true, for some reason--the big Island of Hawaii has the most diverse collection of spider races I have ever seen. Interbreeding it is a bit like human races in that when they interbreed the result is a combination of traits from both and a new spider that looks different. I have not seen this on Guam, and do not know why several species including variations from almost all black and red legs to bright yellow spotted legs. And for some reason, other species have followed suit. Even the yellow back began to change. In some places it was closer to white and had lost much of it's yellow look.
HOT MOMA! I observed this behavior only when they got scared--but then I noticed a difference. When the very hot and bright sun is shining on her--this species always does this. Arching back like that. I'm not sure exactly how that works. If it just gets too hot--she will eat most of her web and leave. Some people don't know this, many spiders re-cycle there webs by eating them before they move on or re-build. Some re-build nearly every night eating the web to re-use the raw materials. Other spider facts: There are about 38,000 species of known spiders. Out of that ONLY ABOUT 35 or so are considered dangerous to humans WORLD WIDE. 35, out of 38,000. I have been bitten by a large number of spiders and famlies of spiders. Nearly every one of them was not even half as bad as a bee sting. I've been bit sevearl times since I was a little kid by the Argiope above.
This is right off the camera. IT was this cool. I am always amazed by this trip and the extra-ordinary sunsets we have come to call the "pacific lights" as the sun goes down and lights up high clouds.
DUCK AND COVER!
The "Vacume Bomb" in sept. of 2007 Russia revealed the most powerful non-nuclear bomb in the world. The USA has "MOAB". A huge bomb. But this Russion bomb is even bigger and said to be the size and power of a small nuclear weppon. Yet another bomb that could be used to kill people. Who sits arround thinking all this crap up. Why don't they spend more money on better things. It's rediculus to reserch and build and then explode massive bombs when there is absolutely no need for such a thing.
I tried for a simulated Nuke blast here. I used the spotlight lighting tool to direct the lighting up and over the watter as if the bomb just went off from a long distance. Lets hope we never see this for real. The colors produced by these sunsets make it possible to do all kinds of weird stuff with the clouds and other factors. The fact that the cold-war did not end in full global nuclear war-- makes me have faith in God protecting somewhat our future a bit stronger. The war is over but the bomb remains and we can't put it back. There are close calls that are just becoming declassified. Such as 1979, the year I was born- when an inexperienced technician put a full-scale simulation training tape into a NORAD mainframe. (we are talking pre-DOS and real to real tapes here) It showed that there was inbound missiles in the air for a full attack from the USSR. President Carter was rushed to air-force one and ready to retaliate and thankfully hesitated because it looked so wrong. The guy that put the wrong tape in almost ended the world! These close calls are countless. We may never hear how many times the Russians came close to an accidental launch or attack.
Another scene from after the sun goes down but still hits the clouds, another person is taking a picture at the same time on the right.
Paradise on a rainy day. I like the big clouds and perfect thunder heads that occasionally pass through. It can turn from rain to sun in Guam. Here on this beach in WWII a very serious battle took place about 60 years ago. You would never guess it now until you get to the caves on the other side of this beach. These waters are always very warm and sometimes huge majestic manta rays (harmless no sting) come here to swim. I had the rare opportunity to swim with them here in this beach.
The pictures I like the best are the ones I forgot I took. Shooting with several good cameras 100s of thousands of pictures got me to forget a great deal. The following pictures are once again just some I pulled off my last memory card when I got back from my grandma's garden. As you can see, she has an incredible green thumb. I'm still working with the D40 to get plants and flowers right. Some people like harsh colors, some people do not. I like these kinds of shots.
These kinds of shots were not taken in the dark as it looks like. Nor was there any use of Photoshop trickery here. This is just a high F-stop and a carefully adjusted flash. I often take pictures in full sunlight but at F22+ you see nothing until you use a good flash. The flash is many times brighter then the sun for a small moment. I suggest to everybody, get a good flash. About $200 will buy you a TTL for Canon or Nikon. My Sunpack has served me well. If your low budget, don't worry about getting a Sunpack flash without an LCD readout. Those readouts just tell you stuff you already know anyway (more or less). The light and can be moved up and down as you will want to aim and use natural or purposeful reflectors.
Maple seeds, waiting. This picture again was taken in full daylight. I came up with this technique by accident. Of course I'm sure most photographers of any serious interest have come up with this idea, but I was really glad to have it and have actually found it myself quickly.
That thing on the left is a weather meter. I gave it to my grandpa now over 15 years ago. I have many memories of this place when I was a kid. Grandma is still growing all these amazing plants and flowers.
Grandma never ceases to amaze me with her flowers. My massive photo-database is being compiled into sanity by taking one hard drive at a time full of pictures and organizing them into the same template of of folders. Until they come up with 1TB DVDs or cheap flash memory this is the best I can do to undo the damage done by not taking care of my files! A few posts back I explained what I would do if I was getting started to avoid the mess of literally going through 100s of thousands of uncharted pictures!
Amtrak train from Seattle I think. I had come back from California. A diesel electric locomotive. The train has a diesel engine that runs constantly as a generator. According to the panels, approximately 400Volts is applied to huge electric motors that actually drive the train more efficiently then a clutch-gear system or a transmission ever could. Either one of those devices would require far more maintenance. I'm no train expert, but I've heard enough to say I think I know what I am talking about.
The Portland Amtrak Train station. I got really mad when a local TV News crew made this beautiful station with it's "Go by Train" sign look like the port for transients and drug adicts.That is not correct. Not even close. The Greyhound station nearby is the dirty mess of drugs and street people. I don't recommend going over there at night.
Look at this place, do you see any messed up street punks or bums here?
A snapshot view of Portland. Train trips are allot of fun for me. Yes, there are delays, but if you like an adventure and not in an hurry-- try it. The photographic opportunities are endlessand it's an interesting environment where people can chat and meet each other in a way that is not seen anywhere else I can think of. People sometimes complain about being late sometimes, but generally it's a good way to find out how not to be in such a damn hurry.
I happened to catch this view from the train as well. The bullet resistant glass does have scratches in it's lamination but my UV filter and the focal lengths here make for better pictures then you might ever think. You can "focus through" allot of junk effectively making that junk a very slight haze spread out over the entire frame because the camera is focused very far out even if that's only 10ft. This means that a scratch on the window will blur into the image so much that it probably won't be noticed when you print the image. A haze is all that you would see, over the entire image composed of the damage done by dirt, stains or scratches in the glass. Eventually the picture would get really bad but you'd need to use sand paper or mud to get it that bad. There are so many windows that unlike an airplane, it is very easy to find a place to get a good shot.
Now this here' it is just plain progress people. Beautiful. Keep buildin' *&%$ like this and will have the next 200years worth of gas. An eternity. Amazing. "Ah, hey dad--what about when I get to be a great great grandpa? " Well son, don't worry--200 years is forever. Now finish that cigarette and lets get back to work!
Ok, I don't have any idea what this is. Not a clue. Really.
This building is in old-town Portland and it's gotta be one of the oldest buildings in Portland. There are some awesome ones. I find almost anything that stays around for that long interesting and comforting in a way.
This probably had something to do with early-rail roads here. I can only guess. It's not a Church. They used to have to fill not only coal into the engines, but not so long ago watter as well. Every set amount of miles--there had to be a watter station for the trains to get the watter for the steam engines. It was not that long ago this system was still in place. By the 1950s most steam locomotives were totally out of business very quick.
Another relic from the past. This radio uses vacuum tubes. Electrical engineers sometimes say that one tube can do the job of a dozen modern transistors. Vacuum tubes have a unique system that is far less complex then today's technology. Far less efficient in power requirements, but often far more sensitive. Fender and a few other companies still use vacuum tubes for amplifiers for guitars and other equipment. The sound quality is said to not be possible in semi-conductors like transistors. The triode was invented in 1906 by a guy named Lee DeForest if I recall correctly. It was the very first system in which a complex signal such as a speech or music could be amplified massively electronically. This very quickly led to much more powerful and sensitive radios and the first AM radio stations.
I was not the first one to pickup this old girl. Note the numbers, this radio was broken before and someone used a pencil to mark stations. The radio is actually a very old clock-radio. The clock motor no longer runs and I removed most of it's junk. I used to order vacuum tubes from Radio Shack as recently as 7 years ago. Last I checked, they are no longer available. The stockpile is out there, but keeping that in business probably just became too expensive.
WARNING!! HIGH VOLTAGE--DO NOT ATTEMPT TO REMOVE THE CASE OR TAKE APART ANY OLD RADIO. EVEN IF IT IS UNPLUGGED, AN OLD RADIO OR TV CAN STORE A HIGH VOLTAGE CHARGE FOR SOME TIME. THIS KIND OF STUFF IS VERY DANGEROUS IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING.The wiring style is simple, and reparable. Although it uses allot more power, you can't beat a tube radio. I can pickup more stations on some of these with just five tubes then my 100s of dollar digital shortwave AM radios could ever do with thousands of solid state parts. They don't make em like they used to.
More high voltage. These are industrial transformers for substations. Judging from the insulators they are built to handle upwards of 50,000VAC to 119,000volts? (119k? I'm a little rusty on this) AC or so. I forget the main exact voltages for transmission lines but I know the general approximate levels. The biggest hydro-lines in the US run at nearly a million volts. Most of them are around half that or smaller. Stepped down to 17,000 or 20,000 for your home's transformer through substations. The largest hydro-lines carry upwards of half a million volts. Birds never land on them because of induction of an electrical field that buzzes in the air.
This is a modified TV I built and set to produce approximately 30,000 volts. CLICK ON THIS PICTURE to see the full thing. DO NOT ever attempt to do this. Plasma burns are very painful and dangerous. An old-school light-bulb fixture is mounted on top and plasma is being directed through the argon gas that is put into light-bulbs to destribute heat better. They are not vacumes as most people think. So the ark is a higher-power version of what you get on those plasma orbs that they sell at Radio Shack and stuff. An ordenary clearn lightbulb is all it takes. I actually invented this on my own by accident before the market had plasma for-fun displays. But I was only 9 years old and even though I was told I was a total gienous--myself and my parents and I never attempted to apply for a patent. I was useing an old Ford coil and trying to get it's 3000 volts or so to step down and light a lightbulb through a small transformer. It lit up allright--it a totally awesome and unexpected way that shocked everyone. This is culriean photography in real time. When you touch the ionized bulb you are touching the plasma and if you look through the glass you get the same kind of image recorded in curliean photography. It is simple induction. Sceince and fact--the only thing that might change the image to be more dramatic is sweat, gaining a few pounds, and what you were near or touching to get a sronger transfurence of electrons through your body to your hand. The power is comming from the high voltage--NOT the person. The light then exposes a photographic plate or peace of film.
I figured as I recall that the idea was too dangerous. If the bulb is broken then a plasma line is opened up which burns flesh very fast more then being shocked. It's very hot. So hot that even this light bulb gets too hot to handle after a while. And as you can see--here is a normal florescent light fixture. A famous trick by one of my favorite scientists--Nikola Tesla. Who performed this trick by lighting up electric lights with his own body and not getting shocked. When my hand is on the light bulb--and my arm outstretched while holding onto a florecent bulb when someone touches the other end it lights up from a small glow on my end to a full-light. A cool trick to do since you feel basically nothing. But the bulb gets hot fast. I need a larger one.
The very high voltage is used because it carries current far more efficiently. It's a complex math thing, but basically the higher the voltage the more energy you can use on AC lines as they at 60hz they nearly become a radio frequency field rather then a singal polarity. Volts are also traded for amps so that wires do not have to be large. If the volts were dropped--the wires would have to be so large that you could only put them underground. It would be impractical and extremely costly. So very high voltage is used. I think that there are million or around 800,000 volt lines if I recall. A few in the USA. These are so dangerous--that they cannot be done with helicopters. Humans cannot work on those lines. You just get too electrified. I'm not sure how they do it and it's likely they have to shut those lines down to fix them by diverting power somewhere else or something to that effect.
I DO NOT TEACH PEOPLE HOW TO MODIFY TVs TO DO THIS. You must have advanced knowledge before I'd even tell my best friend he'd need to take a course or something. It is just too dangerous if you don't know what your doing. SO please, never attempt to use a TV for anything like this. It is extremely dangerous for someone who may know a few things but not enough. I cannot stress how important this is.
The solid state radio. This one is very old. It operates on 6volts and it too amazes me. They don't make them like they used to! Even the old transistor radios are more sensitive then most new radio gear with several times as many transistors in the pile. Sometimes I think we are moving way too fast with technology and then realize that it may be the only way for us as a species to survive in the future. The faster we implement ideas. This is a wide-angle picture making the radio look a bit distorted.
The guts. Barowing from tube schematics, the transistors did better then they do today with custom chips or cheapest parts and transistors often, requiring more to get to the same level.Technology changes when it races into the new factories. Sometimes things actually get worse because of this. The common transistor radio is a example of this. This radio only applies only 7 well placed transistors to pickup stations far further away then most newer radios. I can literally pickup nearly 100 stations on it at the right time. And that is on the standard broadcast AM band (530-1700kc (1.7Mhz) Things got cheap, and shortly after or abouts these radios were build they started bragging about how many transistors it had. When all along, all they needed was a few. In the end I think this overcomplicated things seriously. But manufacturing these kinds of components is nearly impossible today. Technology builds on technology. It would cost many thousands of dollars to build this radio from scratch without using stocked annexed parts left over from when the machenes that built these parts were still around. You see, the factories don't exist anymore. So the parts for this radio would have to be custom made. To do that, you have to build a new factory of working rebuild machines to build to make these kind of parts again. The transistor as we know it was invented by Bell labs in 1947. This radio is probably from the early to mid 1960s.
A large number of stockpilled vaccme tubes exist out there. If you see a peace of junk like this, remember it might be worth something. If nothing else, it probubly picks up more stations then your car stario no matter how much you payed for it.
Visible electron flow. You charge certain tubes with 2-10x it's ratings and it will glow blue inside. So might the phosphorus in your watch. Glow in the dark Halloween stuff works to. And you better turn it off if this happens because you are being hit with not only of X-rays, but also bata radiation that is not very good for you. Seriously. Even solid state X-Ray machines still use a electron tubes tube to produce X-rays. The solid state end is a digital camera built to pickup X-rays. Instead of the film. The same is true in a CAT or CT scan. In that case, the X-ray tube spins around inside---ok, I'm tired it's way too late for me to be working on my website and I might get the physics wrong.I was am a trained electronics technician and successfully completed a collage course on the subject. Do not, under any circumstances, take apart an old radio and attempt to experiment on it or open up it's case. The voltages needed for electron vacuum tubes is one of the reasons why the technology was difficult and more expensive. Most tubes had to be charged with at least 100VDC to operate at all and the ones in most radios operate above 160 volts. The same goes for TVs. (4083.jpg--ant shot note to self for Doug and mom.)
