LSU Natural Science Museum

 


A little known jewel at Foster Hall ... LSU Campus.

Image Credit: MTS (Native Digital - Leica 8.2 Summarit 35)

Walk with awareness....

Walk with awareness. You never know when the doors may open for you.

Image Credit: MTS; Doors of the Rice Theater, Crowley, LA 2010

Canon A-1; 50mmF1.2 Ilford 50 B/W scanned negative

Ford Dealerships

More and more of Americana, the America we grew up with, is slipping away. Here are two small town south Louisiana buildings, both of which were Ford dealerships of the day, now used for other purposes. Click the images for detail.

Image Credits: MTS Top: Scanned negative B/W; Bottom native jpeg.

The Fun Shop

The Fun Shop, here in Lafayette for years, has finally closed. I hurried over and shot a few pictures of the details of the facade, before a developer could remove it...Click on the images for detail...

Image Credit: MTS (Leica M8.2/Summarit 35mm)

Who Dat Super Bowl Winna?

This afternoon will be the Super Bowl parade in New Orleans to host the Saints in honor of their win on Sunday.

Image: The Times-Picayune

Factor 001

The Factor 001 is one expensive bike, weighing in at 7.4Kg and 21,000 English Pounds or about $36,000US from your personal shopper at Harrods in London. It is built by hand to your specification and is equipped with the Shimano Electric Di2 shift system.

Check it out at www.factor001.com

Image Credit: BornRich.org

Plaquemine Lock

My daughter and I recently visited the Plaquemine Lock Site in Plaquemine, LA. We happened to see a solo fisherman trying for a bite. You may click on the image for more detail. Here is Wikipedia's article on the Lock...

Plaquemine Lock State Historic Site, located in Plaquemine, Louisiana, commemorates an early example of hydraulic engineering design and the historic significance of Bayou Plaquemine, an important navigable waterway that was once a tributary of the Mississippi River. Bayou Plaquemine promoted settlement beginning in the 1700s and helped the area economically by providing an access route between Southwest Louisiana (and thus Texas) and the Mississippi via the Atchafalaya Basin. The Lock itself was designed by Colonel George Washington Goethals of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, who later served as chief engineer of the construction of the Panama Canal Lock, and went on to be the Canal Zone's first governor. Upon completion of construction, Plaquemine Lock was the highest fresh-water lift of any lock in the world. The lock initially utilized a gravity-flow principle until pumps were installed years later.

The Plaquemine Lock structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Today, the Gary James Hebert Memorial Lockhouse serves as an on-site museum and visitors center. Hebert led the way to help preserve the Lock site, which today covers 14 acres.

Plaquemine Lock was opened on April 9, 1909 after 14 years of construction and was closed after 52 years of service in 1961 due to increased river traffic and the demand for a larger lock, which opened thereafter in Port Allen.

Photo Credit: MTS (Leica MP / Summarit-M 35mm Kodak C-41 scanned negative)

Next stop, Miami!

Saints over the Vikings, 31 - 28 in overtime. On to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. Go Saints!

Photo Credit: Patrick Dennis, The Advocate

Is it Spring yet?

Took the Moots (built up last year for me by Mark Miller) out for a spin today, what with Mother Nature teasing us with beautiful weather. It peaked at 77 degress in my part of the city, here in Southern Louisiana. Hope the weather is treating you well, wherever you are.

Photo Credit: MTS

Colnago Equipment 2010

My good friend Ruud was good enough to have Ernesto Colnago autograph for me a catalog at the Interbike show in Vegas last year. It recently came home from the framer. Thanks, Ruud.

Image: MTS
Archival Framing: Concepts Gallery, LFT

Scott Brown Wins...

In a groundswell of shifting public opinion, in the bluest of blue states, Scott Brown roared to a decisive victory over his Democratic opponent Martha Coakley by a 5 point margin, as of this writing, with 99% of precincts reporting across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Photo Credit: The Associated Press

Rapha Yonretto

Yonretto Trailer from RAPHA on Vimeo.

A clip from the upcoming Rapha Yonretto Cycling program, showcasing Japanese riding. My friend Wielrennerke has introduced me to Rapha and rekindled my interest in cycling. Thanks, Ruud.

Gahan Wilson Computer

While preparing a lecture recently, I happened upon the legendary Gahan Wilson Horror Movie Computer, published in National Lampoon in 1971. It was a flowchart for determining the outcome of virtually any Horror Movie. Now, if only someone will make an app for the iPhone.....Click on the image for detail.

Source: Gahan Wilson, National Lampoon, November 1971, Vol. 1, No. 20

Doomsday Clock moves...

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 by scientists working on the Manhattan Project, has been adjusted today, by it's Board.

The clock is now set at 6 minutes to midnite. It has been adjusted 18 times previously, most recently 2 years ago. Moving away from midnite by one minute, the Board felt that the risk of nuclear proliferation has decreased.

The press release can be found here.

EFilm for iPhone

Coming to a server near you....Nice little app on the Video. Hope it lives up to it's advertising.

Scott Brown

Dalai's PACS Blog: Two For Us

Dalai's PACS Blog: Two For Us

The Evangeline

Images: MTS (Kodak C-41 B/W)

American Thinker: Obama's Second Major Terror Failure in Two Months

American Thinker: Obama's Second Major Terror Failure in Two Months

Click the link above to read the article.

Image Credit: visualparadox.com

A bridge too far - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

A bridge too far - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

"Modern standards for decent and sensible behavior by politicians are pathetically low. The same actions that would get any executive in the private sector fired (and perhaps sued) are routinely overlooked, even excused, when committed by politicians."

Please click the link above for the rest of this excellent essay!

Merry Christmas to all of my Blog readers from angiographer.com and Yutaka

A fine keyboardist who also plays koto, Yutaka Yokokura has often mixed in his Japanese heritage with his love for Brazilian music. He took classical piano lessons from the age of four, listened to pop music of the era, and at the age of 15 in the mid-'60s, he became attracted to Brazilian music. Soon Yokohura was leading his own group, mostly playing Brazilian material that was influenced by Sergio Mendes. In 1972 Yokohura moved to the U.S. to attend Cal State Long Beach. He performed with Hiroshima during 1975-78, which served ironically as an opportunity for the keyboardist to be introduced to his own Japanese culture. In 1978 he recorded his debut album (Lovelight) for a Japanese label; his producers were Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen. After years of studio work, he recorded Yutaka for GRP in 1988 and by then he was doubling on koto. That project was followed up by Brazasia, a CD that in its title definitively sums up Yutaka Yokohura's music. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide

Sound health care plan....

Exercise while you can. It beats the alternative.

Image Credit: MTS

Still hunting season in Kisatchie...

Took a short trip today to Grant Parish, one of the slower paced Louisiana Parishes. The entire parish is 645 square miles, but home to only 18,000 souls. There are no traffic signals in Grant Parish, other than a flashing yellow light in Pollock, LA.

I went today to hike on the Glenn Emery Trail, one of my central Louisiana favorites. It's a well maintained trail, 2 miles in and 2 miles out. The payoff at the end of the first 2 miles is Stuart Lake, a small but beautiful man made lake, administered by the US Forest Service.

Unfortunately, I forgot about deer season, and thus did not bring orange with me. My hike was abbreviated, not wanting to be confused with a Buck...

Image Credit: MTS; Along the Glenn Emery Trail near Pollock, LA (Panasonic Lumix Digital)

ObamaCare takes its toll.

In the likely event that ObamaCare passes, expect to lower your expectations for your health care. Like the stock market, your health care is essentially a zero-sum game, unless you are willing and able to throw your own money at your health problems. Prepare to say goodbye to medicine as you have known it in the USA. Many physicians are changing their practice structure as we speak, or are selling their practices in anticipation of the future.

Image Credit: MTS (Ilford 50 B/W, negative digitized) Port Hudson National Cemetary near St. Francisville, LA, 2009

Local humor for the Blog....

I am told by an attorney friend of mine that the actor in this video is a real-life pharmacist and that the video was made for presentation at a local wedding reception. It was made around the time that Winn-Dixie Stores filed for bankruptcy and subsequently closed or sold 326 stores.

Fireworks...for my Birthday.... courtesy of Boeing, Northrop/Grumman and the 341st Missile Wing, Malmstrom AFB, Montana

The Minuteman III is a fearsome weapon, currently deployed as our land-based ICBM until at least 2020. True to it's name, the system can be warmed up and launched within a minute. Here is an animation video (with live footage of a Vandenberg AFB launch and unarmed RV splashdown in the Marshall Islands) that appears to be aligned with SALT II treaty obligations (1 warhead, < 1 orbit). The video fails to show deployment of decoys and chaff with the RV and according to the SORT accord, reconfiguration with MIRVs is allowed. Currently, the W78s on many MM3's are being replaced with modified W87s, removed from deactivated MX missiles.

Bernie Madoff

Time flies.

As I was pounding away on the Stairmaster this morning, HLN reported that it has been a year since Bernie Madoff's arrest and a small fraction of the 21+ billion he absconded with has been recovered, according to the trustee assigned to the case. Sadly, his fellow inmates in North Carolina have elevated him to pop icon status, one of them quoted as saying, "To a con artist, Madoff is the Godfather."

Increasingly, to this writer anyway, it seems that the real financial winners on Wall Street are not those who have custody of the money, but those who invest the money for us. Transaction fees and huge bonuses are the order of the day. It's truly a racket. And, in Madoff's case, the SEC violated the public trust by not apprehending him earlier.

"Toon Face"

This, I believe, is Brad Jensen's "Toon Face," on an abandoned building in Baton Rouge. I recently saw this image in a show at the LSU Art Gallery, up the street.

Image Credit: MTS (Leica MP, 35mm Summicron, Kodak C-41 B/W)

The Tomb of the Pipefitter

 

Tomb of the Pipefitter, Plaquemines, LA, 2009
Image Credit: MTS (Kodak BW400CN, scanned negative)

HiFi

I have been remiss in not writing about one of my lifelong passions, a hobby that is for all intents and purposes, largely a thing of the past.  It is the realm of high fidelity 2 channel audio, or hifi.

I first got into the audio hobby as a teenager and have really never left it.  Good audio equipment has always caught both my ear and my eye.  I have listened to nearly every brand of high end gear out there.  For the purposes of this post, one of the more unusual speaker designs will be considered.  It is the Plasmatronics speaker.

 

Images of production Plasmatronics Speakers

Image Source:  Engadget.com

Designed by Dr. Alan Hill, a New Mexico weapons designer, the Plasmatronics cabinets were huge pieces of furniture, each containing an amplifier, a set of loudspeakers and a large helium tank.  Helium was utilized to form a gaseous plasma that served as an essentially mass less tweeter to handle the frequencies of the audible spectrum above 700 Hz.  Since helium is a noble gas and non toxic when ionized, there is no danger, but when one walked into a room with these speakers powered up, there was a distinct odor of ozone present.

Plasmatronics Tweeter in use (close up view)

Image Source: Unknown

Unbelievably, there was a high end audio shop here in South Louisiana, that carried the Plasmatronics speakers and as a first year medical student, I was able to demo a pair of these speakers.  I never owned a pair of these technological marvels, but every blue moon, a pair will surface on audiogon.com for sale.  The Hill Type I listed for US$5995 in 1978 and by the time they were discontinued several years later, list price was US$10,000 per pair, exclusive of the A13 helium bottle from your local welding supply.  Reportedly, only 60 pairs were ever sold.

With the growth of home theatre, the Internet and the increasing pace of life, critical listening of music in your home, even for devotees such as myself, is increasingly difficult.  But, even so, life without music would be a shame.

Here is a short video of a home brew plasma speaker from youtube: