The same bird I saw a few days ago was back in my garden again. With my new lens I was able to get a much better picture at 200mm focal length.
Photos
Picture of the day
I happened to see this bird sitting on a chair in my garden. He stayed long enough for me to get my camera and take this picture. When I tried to get closer since I’m using my 50mm prime lens, he finally flew away.
Daily Pics
Here are two great pictures I took today that I’d like to share.
My neighbor’s gardenia is blooming and it happened to have one perfect flower.
This 6-toed cat has been hanging around my house. I managed to get a good closeup of his paw.
Cats prevent heart attacks
Kevin Drum writes: A recent study shows that cats help protect us from heart attacks & strokes. Dogs don’t have the same effect.
The study, by researchers at the University of Minnesota, found that feline-less people were 30 to 40 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular disease than those with cats.
Yet dog owners had the same rate as non-owners. “No protective effect of dogs as domestic pets was observed,” said the study, presented Thursday at the International Stroke Conference in New Orleans.
Dr. Adnan Qureshi, a stroke expert at the university, said he decided to raise the question because other studies have suggested pets can help reduce stress. He and his team analyzed a group of 4,435 people who had answered questionnaires about pet ownership and other risk factors.
But the cat-dog differential came as a surprise. “We don’t understand this,” he said, but “it’s probably not a coincidence.”
Here are my two protectors:
Mini Photo Walk
Inspired by a flowering bush and a traveler’s tree, I decided to walk around the condo and take a few pictures. By the time I was finished, I ended up taking 85 shots. I uploaded 33 of them to Flickr.
Outside my door
When I came home tonight I found this large green lizard climbing on my building.
Coolpix L5
I bought a Nikon Coolpix L5 yesterday at Circuit City when I saw that it was cheaper there than anyplace online. It’s much smaller & lighter than the Canon A75 and the picture quality is excellent.
Macworld Expo: Lines and Crowds
The floor is very crowded and the lines were long. Yesterday I got here at 8:45 AM for a 9:00 session, Macworld Live with David Pogue. The line already stretched from the entrance to room 134 to the other end of the underground hallway between the north & south halls. Fortunately everyone was able to get in. Later in the day I wasn’t able to get into the Windows on a Mac session, although I was able to get into the Best of Show session. Today I got here around the same time for MacBrainiac Challenge and there was no line. There was also no line for the Mac in your Living Room session.
The food is outrageously expensive – over $10 for a box lunch, $7 for a mini pizza, $3 for a soda, $4 for a latte. There are very few places to plug in my MacBook Pro to charge and wireless networking is only available in a few places.
I’ve posted some pictures of the show floor at Flickr.