I love software that arises from the desire to interact with the phenomena we encounter in nature. HaloSim allows you to playfully encounter halos, or light that is refracted through ice crystals in the atmosphere. And in the rare case that earthenly halos aren’t enough for you, you can create “octahedral ammonia crystals as might exist in the cold high level clouds of Jupiter and Saturn. The 42° circular halo has four associated sundogs.” Got that? Halos and sundogs. What are you waiting for!?
(image from here)

For those of you familiar with earlier bouts of unpleasantness between Greg Paul and the paleoartist communities, you may be surprised to find me writing positively about Greg Paul. I hope you’ll agree with me to the degree that I do by the end of this train-of-thought post.

I don’t have the intellect to warrant a sandwalk, but I do have the belly to deserve a jogging track. Its down the street, where I jog around the park through some woods, up and down in various stages of physical distress. But the effect is very much my own little sandwalk as all sorts of thoughts drift through my head. (If you’d like to try this out I recommend leaving your earphones at home. Running to music puts me, at least, in a pleasant but thoughtless zone.)

So today, recent internet discussions about the morality of atheism decided to accompany me on my trot. You know, those discussions about how atheists should more assertively respond to the religious claims to morality. Just – the arguments always seemed so tit-for-tat:
- studies showing how altruism exists in the animal kingdom,
- historical explanations of how religions’ own morals evolved from previously existing cultural expectations, etc.

Those are potent arguments, yet they seem a bit fad in that they seem to be arguing for a piece of the pie, which is currently sitting on religion’s table. The church has no universal claim to morality and so it seems there should be an argument that inherently confronts them with this fact. Then I turned the corner after wheezing up a hill and ran into Greg Paul. Well, not him, but the power of his statistical research such as Religiosity Tied to Socioeconomic Status. They argue scientific morality with a wonderful ex post facto punch to the ribs. Religious morality exposed as idle talk. By the time I caught my breath again I felt deep admiration for Greg Paul once again, and that feels good.

http://www.gspaulscienceofreligion.com/
http://www.gspaulscienceofreligion.com/gsptecharticles.html

Paul Debevec is perhaps the most influential of the pioneers of photogrammetry techniques (and holograms… and hdrs / exrs… and… ) and I can’t imagine anyone who has a greater understanding of the information contained in light and how to access it. Now you can learn from the master. fxphd is offering access to its courses – including interviews with Paul Debevec – for only $199. Worth. It.

Read more about it here, and soak up Mike Seymour’s video interview with Paul discussing the infamous light stage.

Great soundbytes by Niel DeGrasse… about being usurped by the atheism movement and the oddness of atheism as a term, and cites how odd it would be for non-golfers to organize and talking about how they don’t play golf. I had to laugh at that because – yeah, non-photorealism.

For the record, I find that to be an unfair representation of the atheist agenda. I perceive of the large majority of atheist lobbying as a reaction to wanton influence on the political system by religious parties, such as exemption from taxation or safety checks, not to mention their attempts to force IntelligentDesign on public education.

The SeaMonster has posted a fascinating look at a science/press frenzy that developed around the jellyfish-world-dominance meme. Valuable insight, and inciteful values. Fear sells, it seems and sometimes, it seems, scientists are people too.

Gizmag reports on robotics research inspired by the way lizards use their tails to position their bodies during leaps. Very cool video!

Pictures do say more than a 1000 words. (But those need to be said anyway.)
Also, an interactive comparison of districts within the USofA.

Back and busy, more soon.

Allow me to get positive! After praising David Krentz and Angie Rodriguez for their dinosaur work on Dinosaur Revolution, allow me to move on to something far more exoskeletal: echinoderms.

Christopher Mah is doing some great stuff over at his Echinoblog and deserves a healthy dose of praise. I’m a regular there and once you read his stuff, you will be too. Very refreshing to see passionate, well-articulated reports about these animals that I otherwise (except for the occasional crinoid) wouldn’t think all too much about. He manages to place them within an exciting context of ecosystems, evolution and freakiness – in a word, cool.

Various things draining my energies right now. This excursion to the bone cellar with Heinrich was a welcome tanking of coolness.

Bookmark Vi Hart’s blog! Via Ken Perlin who worked out one potential mobius font.

Instead of writing yet another review of a book that’s been out for ages, I’d like to try highlighting one bit from a book that I particularly enjoy, or that seems representative for the book as a whole – here from Carl Zimmer‘s highly recommendable Microcosm.

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