High Speed Photography

Here's a link to some neat high speed photographs. These pictures were taken by Andrew Davidhazy. They are an assortment of things, but mostly stuff being shot or blown up. What guy won't like these? Here's just a sample:


This is a series of images of the contents of a shotgun shell exiting the barrel. Way cool!

Tiger Woods Awesome Masters Chip

Here is a link to the clip of the fantastic chip Tiger Woods made at the Masters.

Awesome Tiger Woods Nike Golfball Shot

Here's a link to the awesome Tiger Woods shot at the Masters. This is the slow roller that all the fuss has been over.

Rainclouds; March 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

Reeds; April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

Amen Corner, Augusta National; april 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

Magnolia Way at Augusta National; April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

Another sandtrap shot. The ball is visable on the left side of the frame;April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

Nicklaus entering the clubhouse at Augusta National; April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

Tiger Woods approaching the 13th green on Wednesday; April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

More Golf Pictures from the Masters

Here they are...Enjoy!

Cheshire Cat Moon; April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

A Cheshire Cat Moon

Sunday I looked into the night sky and marveled at the moon I saw. It was a crescent moon, but not an ordinary one. This one looked like the shape of a smile. The horns of the crescent pointed upward into the sky. I did some poking around and this is what I found:

The Crescent Moon grins, with its horns pointing straight up, only once every 7 to 14 months at our mid latitudes. The Moon smiles because it snuggles up to the Sun when crescent.

The Sun always shines on the half of the Moon facing the Sun. When we see a New Moon, the Moon is between Earth and the Sun. Therefore, the Sun shines on the half facing away from us, leaving our Earth view of the Moon in deep shadow. Then, we can’t see the Moon.

Crescent Moons occur within two to four days of a New Moon and, thus, rise and set within a few hours of sunrise or sunset.

The outer curve of the white Crescent Moon always "points" to the Sun since that’s where the light originates. See figure.

So, when a Crescent Moon is about to set and the Sun has already set, the Moon points down to the departed Sun: West. The horns poke up and that setting Crescent Moon "grins." If the Moon sets before the Sun, the nearby Sun creates such a glare that we can’t see the setting crescent. Then it "frowns, " unseen.

Take a look at the previous blog post and you will see a picture I took of the "Cheshire Cat Moon".

Future Soccer Star Scoring a Goal; April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

2005 Masters; Charles Howell? blasting out of a trap. Look closely and you'll see the ball in flight
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

My Wife Always Said I Was a Mutant...

And now here's proof:

If the early bird gets the worm, Susan Middlebrook should be well fed. Whether she wants to or not, she's ready to start each day between 1:30 and 3:00 a.m.

"I'm wide awake and ready to paint the house," the 49-year-old Colchester, Vermont, resident said. "I don't need a cup of coffee to get going, not at all. But between 4:00 and 5:00 [p.m.] you might have to nudge me with an elbow."

Middlebrook suffers from what is known as familial advanced sleep phase syndrome, or FASPS. Her body's clock is out of sync with the sleep-wake rhythm most of the world lives by. She goes to bed each night between 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. and wakes in the wee hours of the morning.

"The net result is you can feel very isolated," Middlebrook said. "Who wants to party at three in the morning? Nobody I know, and I'm not headed to the local bar to see who's still there." Instead, she quietly cleans the house, makes breakfast, or cuddles up with a book.

About three-tenths of a percent of the world's population lives like this, including two of Middlebrook's sisters, her daughter, and her mother. "Their whole clock is shifted," said Ying-Hui Fu, a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco

Fu and colleagues report in tomorrow's issue of the science journal Nature on a newly discovered mutation to a single gene that they say causes FASPS.

The researchers are not yet certain how the gene mutation works to shift people's sleep time. But laboratory experiments suggest mutation slows the activity of a protein called casein kinase I delta (CKIdelta). "The next step is to figure out why," Fu said.

I'm usually awake by 5:30 and out of bed around 6:00 am. I don't know why. I've tried to sleep late, honest. I just can't do it. I guess this explains it...I'm a mutant. I should have known.

The 2005 Masters

The posts were pretty thin this week because I was out of town. I was fortunate to attend the Wednesday practice round and par 3 competition at this years Masters. The weather was great and of course there was beautiful scenery. I was close enough to reach out and touch many of the celebrity golfers who were there. Page down for a couple of pictures and I'll be posting some more in the coming days.

Augusta National; April 2005
copyright 2005 S. Hunter

Tiger Woods at the 2005 Masters; Augusta National
copyright 2005 S. Hunter