Marc's Public Blog - Public

2012/05/31 Yard Updates

π 2012-05-31 00:00 in Public

I took Jennifer to a nursery and we brought back from Herbs, Strawberries, bird feeder, and more.

Our regular yard has otherwise been doing ok, especially our bird of paradise that has narrowly escaped death and gave us a nice flower ago:

we're happy to have our bird of paradise to have recovered so nicely :)

Our strawberries look good for the season :)

Our orange tree isn't doing as well

but the 4 apple tree is doing good

so is the pear tree

blueberries look like they're going to be good this year :)

blackberries, so so, we'll see how the new irrigation helps

raspberries look promissing

And newcomers:

we'll have tomatoes one day

this was a small squash I got at Earth day at work, it's doing great

and our herbs are doing nicely too

I think we'll have some decent harvests this year :)

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2012/05/30 Fun with Bird Feeder

π 2012-05-30 00:00 in Public

As an impulse buy, kinda, I got a bird feeder for us and installed it by our glass door we can see from our couch. While we're probably responsible for making a few birds a bit well fed, they still seem to be able to fly and it's fun entertainment :)

These guys have been the most common visitors:

The black heads that used to tap our windows to wake us up seem to shy to get seeds from the feeder, but are happy to take them from the ground. Hopefully they don't become cat food as a result (we saw that a dove that was apparently planning on feasting on our strawberries got nailed by a neighbouring cat).

Speaking of cats, the passing birds sure keep our cat entertained :) Somehow they know that they are safe on the other side of the glass window. Good for them :)

The seeds that fall on the ground also don't go to waste with our squirrels. This young small one is kind of cute :)

So there you go, it's been nice :)

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2012/05/19 2012 Silicon Valley Maker Faire

π 2012-05-19 00:00 in Public

After last year where while being super efficient, it was just impossible to see it all in one day, I took a 2 day pass this year, and spent 10 hours on saturday and most of sunday. This allowed me to attend/enjoy a fair amount of talks while seeing all the exhibits and even chat with some long lost friends :)

There were all kinds of makers, from costumes, burning man machines, talks from famous people (from mythbusters' Adam Savage, to Arduino Creators from Italy, and the creator of the longest flying paper airplane).

A really cool construction where bikes that you could use to play tron:

a former coworker showing off his burning man snake

Mythbusters' Adam Savage, gave us a good speech again. Well worth attending.

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2012/05/12 Earth and Space Shows

π 2012-05-12 00:00 in Public

I've been a fan for TV shows on the universe, the creation of our solar system, and our earth. Below are a few that I recommend.

Did you know that we've found convincing fossil evidence that the earth day used to be 18 hours and the earth year was 420 days? (apparently the earth day used to be as short as 6 hours in very early earth).

Did you know that a convincing theory explains how the earth and moons were created by the impact of a protoplanet (Theia) and then earth? (which is why the moon has very similar composition compared to the earth): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_impact_hypothesis

Did you also know that the moon used to be a *lot* closer to the earth, causing giant tides, which were partially responsible for slowing down the earth rotation, and the the moon is slowly spinning away from us (at about 2cm per year, which we do measure with a laser we can bounce off a mirror on the moon).

The moon gravity effects on us and resulting tides have been slowing down the earth have been lengthening the earth day due to friction. This is why we have leap seconds to account for the fact that our days are getting just a tiny bit longer every year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second

Some of it is recent science, but I wish I had learned about it in school instead of the centuries of long dead french kings and their families :)

Here are the documentaries I recommend:

How the earth was made: http://www.history.com/shows/how-the-earth-was-made

It has some episodes that are better than others, but the first 2 episodes on the continents have useful information.

Catastrophe from BBC: http://www.streaming-madness.net/watch-online/documentary/catastrophe-2008/

It's the most informative series I found on the creation of earth, explaining how the earth and the moon were created by impacts of proto planets, and how the earth day used to be a long shorter (earth spinning faster) and the moon a lot closer to us.

Wonder of the Solar System: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonders_of_the_Solar_System and http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qyxfb

It's a really good BBC documentary. It doesn't deal with the early creation of the earth as much, but it's well worth watching.

Nova, Finding Life Beyond Earth: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/finding-life-beyond-earth.html

Very good 2H Nova episode on how life exists on earth in the most unlikely places, and how it could be found on Mars, Titan, Europa, and other possible places (primitive bacterial life of course, not martians :)

2012/05/06 Supermoon from handheld Point and Shoot Panasonic DMC TZ30

π 2012-05-06 00:00 in Public

Ok, I know it's insulting to people with real cameras, but I was almost impressed with the handheld shot (1/1000s) I took with my new Panasonic DMC TZ-30 and 50x zoom (combination of 20x optimal, resolution zoom, and pixel interpolation that isn't quite digital zoom).

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