Autumnal Equinox 2016
It's Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, Spring down south. Rendered in Catfood Earth (Windows, Android).
(Previously, Previously, Previously)
Butterfly at California Academy of Sciences
Photo of a butterfly in the rainforest exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences.
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Save Mount Davidson
Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017
I just learned that San Francisco's Recreation and Parks department plans to cut down thousands of healthy trees because they are non-native. I really don't understand this nativist movement. At one point San Francisco was part of Gondwanaland. A while before that it was a sea of super-heated plasma. We need more trees even if they were originally Australian. It's a city of transplants anyway.
San Francisco Forrest Alliance seems to be the main hub to try and shut this down. If you live here and like trees please do something.
Here's a letter I just sent to my Supervisor:
Dear Supervisor Yee,
I am writing to voice my opposition to the plan by the Recreation and Parks Department’s Natural Areas Program to cut down 1,600 trees on Mount Davidson. I have lived in San Francisco for over sixteen years and in your district for a little over two. I regularly walk my dog and take my children to Mount Davidson. We greatly value this park for its views and forest.
Beyond Mount Davidson specifically I am horrified by the thought of felling thousands of healthy trees because they are considered to be non-native. The mission of Recreation and Parks should not be to return San Francisco to its original state. As a taxpayer and homeowner I expect to see a focus on the needs of residents and a management plan that preserves our forested areas rather than denuding them.
Maybe some of the NAP budget could be diverted to fixing up the dilapidated West Portal playground or to pay for maintenance of neighborhood trees rather than their current plan?
Yours faithfully,
Robert Ellison
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Book reviews for August 2016
Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017
Company Town by Madeline Ashby
4/5
I've been occasionally checking in for the third part of Ashby's Machine Dynasty series and discovered that instead of finishing that off she wrote Company Town instead. Which is a good thing. This is fast paced and feels effortless. It's the story of a future town bought by a family dynasty and the bodyguard to the heir apparent. Hard to say too much more but I loved it.
Patriot (Alexander Hawke, #9) by Ted Bell
2/5
Warriors (Alexander Hawke, #8) by Ted Bell
1/5
Bell has a remarkable ability to fatally self-contradict himself in the space of a single sentence.
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Slow Camera for Android
Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017
I do a fair amount of time-lapse photography as a hobby and one format I really love is the single frame time-lapse. This is where hundreds (or thousands) of images are stitched together into a single picture instead of a video. There are several examples on this blog including trippy clouds, cranes, a living room and a video which is a time-lapse of single frame time-lapses (made from 1,581,120 photos!)
Until recently I shot the frames like I would a regular time-lapse and then combined them into a single photo using some custom software. This is fairly tedious and so I've packaged up the entire process into an Android app. It can shoot from a minute to 24 hours using the front or rear camera and then saves the finished photo.
Download Slow Camera from Google Play
I have 20 free license codes for ITHCWY readers. If you'd like one just send me an email.
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Bay Bridge Timelapse
Updated on Saturday, February 19, 2022
4K time lapse of the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge. Shot on a gloomy Friday morning with an Alpine Radian and Sony RX100 IV. Processed with Adobe Lightroom and LR Timelapse.
(It's the first project I've completed after upgrading my upgrade-proof laptop with a 1TB SDD, some cat fur and about a half pint of blood. I'm amazed it even boots. There is a tenth circle of hell for laptop designers who decide to hide the hard drive module under two tiny ribbon cables secured with ribbon cable eating tape. And thanks for the fake screws.)
Music from Jukedeck.
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Golden Gate Bridge from Marshall's Beach
Updated on Wednesday, May 12, 2021
The Golden Gate Bridge peeps out from between some rocks at Marshall's Beach in San Francisco. (previously)
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Book reviews for July 2016
Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017
The Nightmare Stacks (Laundry Files, #7) by Charles Stross
4/5
The Girls by Emma Cline
3/5
OK, but lots of foreshadowing, not much shadow.
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Methyl L-α-aspartyl-L-fucking-phenylalaninate
Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Every time I go back to the UK now I experience some sort of culture shock. A couple of years ago it was the matryoshka of Marks & Spencers. This trip, post-Brexit, I was expecting a J.G. Ballard style post-apocalyptic wasteland. But it was even worse - it's nearly impossible to buy tonic water without sweetener.
I'm unlucky (or maybe lucky) enough to be sensitive to aspartame and anything made with the stuff tastes foul to me. I can no longer have a gin and tonic in a pub because the full-fat tonic is as tainted as the diet stuff. It's not just tonic water, many other drinks are laced with the stuff. And kids in the UK now live on Fruit Shoots which are short on fruit and long on chemical warfare.
Is this some sneaky anti-obesity move I haven't read about? More likely the vile artificial stuff is just cheaper than actual sugar and it's a cost saving measure.
Oh, and I saw a crew of motorway workers washing traffic cones. In the rain.
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Book reviews for June 2016
Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017
The Night Stalker (DCI Erika Foster, #2) by Robert Bryndza
4/5
Decent police thriller, a notch up from the first in the series I thought. I'll buy the next one.
Professor Stewart's Incredible Numbers by Ian Stewart
4/5
A tour of mathematics through the device of looking at what's interesting about different numbers. Brought back all sorts of things I learned in school and university that are now slowly fading again.
The Girl In The Ice (DCI Erika Foster, #1) by Robert Bryndza
3/5
Bit linear but fun.