Uploads from jurvetson, tagged spselection

To boldly go

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 21:45:06 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

recently conserved coastside lands... survived 30 years of attempted development

Space Shuttle Endeavour on Pad39A

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 07:33:22 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

At Kennedy Space Center, 1am. Getting ready for Launch.... The astronauts had just bid farewell to their families.

(best viewed large)

Go Canada

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:19:15 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

A perfect launch of my Telstar Logistics / LOC Precision V2.0 with the biggest motor possible, an L730 imported from Cesaroni, a Canadian aerospace & defense company. Their unique thermoplastic propellant burns cleanly, showing multiple shock diamonds.

In the foreground is a videocam on tripod for scale. Black Rock is in the distance. Best viewed large.

But this beautiful flight proved to be a swan song….

Last Thoughts

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 10:06:18 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

the verge of consumption... nestled in the seaside bluffs of Half Moon Bay, CA.

I almost fell off my chair when I saw the simultaneous expression of predator and prey....
(best viewed large)

The FlickrBlog wrote, with a bit of alarmism:
“Flickr user jurvetson has captured an amazing fraction of a second in the interaction between prey and bird of prey. Warning: this photo is NOT for viewers who would be disturbed by images of small cute things meeting their end - it is really quite gruesome. If that sounds like you, don't click."

(repost after accidental deletion... 148 wonderful comments and 308 faves are lost... sorry)

Icarus

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:30:46 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

This flight went wildly unstable… just as I predicted on GeekDad…. but I had to give it a try. =)

“Flower Power” (R.I.P.) was a mélange of three rocket kits, with altimeter nosecone, and festooned with flower stickers. This flight added a D12-0 with booster fins, taped to a D12-0, taped to a E9-8.... Each motor ignites the next at burnout.

Soon after liftoff, it went into an upward spiral, but when the booster fins on the first stage fell away with a burst of blue smoke, it started to wildly flip about overhead (cue Devo: Whip it Good… Jerkin' Back 'n' Forth).

When the weight of the second booster stage fell away, the E9-rocket combo finally stabilized, but the random walk left it pointing down... So it hit maximum acceleration in a straight zoom back at us.

It landed about 15 ft. from the pad, a lawn dart under thrust.

Biofuels

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:29:12 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

La Jolla is biotech mecca...

The 92121 zip code, just North of San Diego, has the most biotech companies, 2.8x that of second place (South San Francisco).

Warm Fuzzies

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 21:07:19 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

Rõõmsaid Jõulu Pühi ja head Uut Aastat!

iPod Racing

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 16:02:00 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

Listing to Coldplay while shooting up the valley to the Wall of Tears in the distance under the clouds

Wireless Video Rocket

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:16:28 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

5,4,3,2,1… blastoff. Here you can clearly see the benefit of the blast shield plate (protecting the launch electronics below).

My friend Erik modified a LOC Precision NORAD rocket to take a video camera and transmitter in the upper body tube. I am stationed at the base station with a medium-gain directional antenna and video recorder. I posted a clip of the video feed, where you can see me and the red blanket after takeoff.

My favorite part is the roar of the motor and the speed of ascent. The motor is a hand-assembled Aerotech G64.

The altitude is limited by an early ejection charge. This causes some crazy tumult in the video. The chute pops while the rocket is still climbing fast, and it keeps climbing, with the air drag of the open body tube. It's still climbing when the chute catches air and unfurls, and that finally arrests the climb (the heavier bottom tube shoots up fast the nose cone at this point; so the two rocket halves are still climbing with the chute below holding them back).

fondling flickrspace

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 11:23:25 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

Adieu.... I will be on the road for a few days... Will bring cameras...

flickr aura?

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 22 May 2006 09:58:15 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

A fun night at the Exploratorium

She slimed me

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:33:13 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

I found this unknown goop in some Easter eggs. It’s just as cold, but less runny, than the green Slime I remember from childhood.

I discovered that this stuff dissolves Silly Putty. When I mix them, the Silly Putty becomes soft, and then stringy, and now smelly and very sticky. It adheres to paper and skin… The blob on my desk is starting to worry me a bit.

Widening Perception

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 18:38:16 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

academics, archways
angles and exposure range

Swarm Intelligence

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 23:00:23 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

The TED party at the Monterey Bay Aquarium is my favorite because they scatter mattresses around in front of the major exhibits. It’s much easier to observe the creatures for a long time when you don’t have to stand, and thereby notice the patterns that repeat over longer time scales. One of my favorites is the slow dance cycle of the sea turtle across large distances in the shark tank.

Laying on the mattress, the anchovies overhead shimmered through resplendent patterns of emergent forms, with each fish lacking a global perspective, and following simple rules (e.g., , follow the fish nearby while using pressure signals to avoid neighbor collisions; roll back to the center if you find yourself on the dangerous periphery, faster if you see something dangerous ahead, like the shimmering blob of another school of anchovies that had split off and gone around the ring in the other direction…).

For some time, I have been wondering how the fish experience this…

Inner Love

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 09:37:39 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Cupid is having a ball in the flickr zeitgeist…

passage

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 21:54:53 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

to a strange land

(I’m off to the IBF Nanotech Forum in Palm Springs.)

Happy New Year!

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 18:25:09 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

I lift a glass to you and wish you all the best for the new year.

Less than an hour to go for some flickr friends….

morning after

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 11:31:45 -0800

jurvetson posted a photo:

Daybreak after the storm

What's That? (1a)

nobody@flickr.com (jurvetson) — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 20:37:05 -0700

jurvetson posted a photo:

This is an earlier photo of (1)... partway through the 3 minutes in the microwave oven....

(The orientation is correct. Up is up.)