This particular image is kindof hard to make out in the black and white which it was modified into to make it look old. The original is a little easier to see the actual lava which is flowing from an eruption happening in the center to another pool of lava rock.

There are four different types of lava, which are based on the chemical composition of the lava itself, but that correlates with the temperature. It is of course, extremely hot, with the coolest form of lava being at least 1000 degrees Fahrenheit. A lot of the lava which is in the US is in Hawaii – it would be nifty to see some of it, but hopefully not the quick flowing kind. We’re heading there on our honeymoon later this year, so it’s a possibility. One of the things that has always fascinated me is Pillow lava, which is when lava is extruded under water and instantly cools and solidifies partially. It also looks really cool. I found out that it is also used as a way-up criterion because of the way it is formed with the ridges normally on the top.

This is a microscopic picture of Radiolaria. Again the image comes from Jupiter Images. They represent a species which has been around for a very long time, since the Cambrian period, so basically 500 MILLION years ago. Because they have been around for so long, but not forever, finding fossils of the Radiolaria are important for dating things.

Radiolaria were popular with amateur scientists in the victorian era thanks to some elaborate drawings that are now part of wikimedia commons. Some of these cellular organisms can become very complex and beautiful. They are still inspiring artists today, as seen on the art page at Radiolaria.org.

Wonderful.

The image in question comes from Jupiter Images stock photography, and is labelled as “Ascaris bivalent mitosis magnified 200x”. Ascaris is a roundworm, which can infect pigs or humans. It lives in the small intestines and produces lots of eggs. This reminds me of an episode of the Soup where they had some stupid reality show doctor clip about getting tapeworms because of bad sanitation, which is where you would get these. Ascaris lumbricoides is the most common worm infection, affecting more than a billion people.

Just one more reason for me to wash my hands.

This is the first in a (hopefully) long series of posts in which I am attempting to identify all of the pictures in the opening credits of The Big Bang Theory. I’ve done some minor searching on the web for something of this nature but haven’t found anything, and I’m always wondering what the heck all of those pictures flying by in the second half of the intro are actually. I’ve decided to start at the beginning, mostly because the pictures will be easier to identify.

• Chuck – it’s on on Monday nights right before Heroes, which makes it get good ratings no matter what. It also helps that the protagonist is a geek and has been thrown into a situation that he’s unfamiliar with. This creates a kind of coming-of-age story in which he slowly learns about his newfound powers and abilities. I’m a sucker for coming-of-age stories, so it was a hit for me to begin with. “Greatness thrust upon them”, I say, is more interesting. It also has an excellent soundtrack and wonderful opening sequence which is just a joy to watch. If you haven’t seen this show yet, I highly recommend. Added bonus, it has Adam Baldwin in it.
• Heroes – wow, big surprise. This show continues to impress, creating a very good story continuing through this season. I like how the seasons themselves stand pretty much alone, with some references to old seasons. I also quite enjoy the comic book like writing of the show, as it fits with the supernatural nature of the characters. Still a top contender.
• Pushing Daisies – this is Diana’s favorite show of this season. This most recent show by Brian Fuller doesn’t fail to impress – if you’re not familiar with Wonderfalls or Dead Like Me, they come highly suggested just as this does. The wonderful stylings which are reminiscent of any Tim Burton filmwork is enough to keep me glued to the screen even without the wonderful premise. The protagonist is someone who has a strange power, which lets him bring people and things back from the dead. Unfortunately, there are a few rules on the power he has – the first is that if he touches the reanimated ever again, he/she/it dies again, and the second is if he doesn’t kill he/she/it again within a minute, something of similar “worth” dies nearby. We don’t know quite all the rules on the powers yet, but it makes for very interesting storytelling, especially with lovely thematic kitch thrown in. This show is really a triumph of the artform if you ask me, and everyone should be watching it.
• The Soup – it’s on cable, and it’s brain candy. Joel McHale takes everything that I wouldn’t watch on TV because it’s completely horrible and depraved, and mocks it lovilingly in The Soup. The humor is not to be understated, and the subjects deserve the humor tossed at them to boot. Definitely a half hour that is worth the TiVo.
• How I Met Your Mother – I started watching the show because it had a hook – Neil Patrick Harris. Honestly, NPH was enough to be the hook not only for one cheezy funny movie, but a SEQUEL TO THAT CHEEZY MOVIE. The show is set as one gigantic flashback, with the main character telling his kids how he met their mother. We haven’t met fabled mother yet (and the kids in the future are getting pretty bored after a season and a half), but the premise actually kindof works as a gimmick. That said, the characters are actually good, and the actors are nothing to shake a stick at either. I still think that Allison Hannigan has great comedic timing. I can only hope that this show doesn’t go down the crap with the writers strike.

There are a bunch of other shows that I catch when I have the time or am bored. Diana is really the media junkie in the household, and uses the TiVo much more than I do. I have been trying to cut back on TV so as to make more time for other things such as editing my thesis proposal. However, it is important to lay back and enjoy some quality tele every once in a while.

Honeywell seems 1.5 times as long this week, mostly because I’m making up for a day which I missed a couple weeks ago. Things have settled down there in terms of software failure, so I’m back at the normal coding which I am doing. The code uses Ogre, which is a handy 3d engine, making it much easier than learning something like OpenGL, and as a bonus adding portability. I am considering building some play applicaitons with the toolkit at home just because it would be fun.

Tonight I need to build a couple presentations covering some papers which were in CVPR this year to present at a reading group at Honeywell. It would be fine except that I am completely unaware of any of the recent history of vision research, so it makes it much harder to build the presentations. I hope I can finish them in a reasonable amount of time so I can watch Eureka tonight.

The TiVo Diet is still working out as expected. I discovered that I don’t really have anything to watch on Sunday or Monday of the week. I’m getting much more productive work done than I used to. One downside of the diet is that I tend to not want to just sit and veg at the end of the work day – I think it frustrates [lj user="ceilingsarecool"] a bit because I’m always going off to the office to do something on the computer.

I recieved and watched the Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip yesterday. Being an Aaron Sorkin fan, I am excited for another of his shows to broadcast. Judging by the pilot, it should be a decent show.

Sidenote: Planet Debian seems to like one of my weekend weeviews a little too much, and is regrabbing it for the front page every so often. I can’t figure out why this is happening, so any help would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, in a couple more posts it should be off the RSS feed.