2011 National Geographic Photo Contest

Some amazing photos in this selection from this year's installment of the National Geographic photo competition. The contest is from reader's submissions in the categories of People, Places, and Nature. This  selection was curated by the amazing photography blog In Focus.

Below are a few of my favorites. Click here for more

Depp and Neeson on Life's Too Short

Ricky Gervais' new show on BBC looks amazing.

Here are two clips with Liam Neeson and Johnny Depp:

Crocodile Eyes at Night

Wildlife Photographer Captures Beautiful Display of Crocodile Eyes:

Photographer Daniel Fox captured this beautiful (and spooky) photograph of dozens of pairs of caiman eyes staring back at him in the darkness.

Depending on the angle between the reptile and the camera flash, a different colour is produced. Caiman eyes have a layer called tapetum behind their retina, containing crystals that reflect light and make night vision possible. [#]

The photograph was made at a Yacare Pora farm in Ituzaingo, Argentina.

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Image credit: Photograph by Daniel Fox and used with permission

Star Trails being made

A cool quick time lapse video of Star Trails being made. I've always loved this effect in photography.
Star Trails in the making from Olivier Martel on Vimeo.

h/t PetaPixel

All of Broadway, top to bottom

This biker made a video of his ride of the entire length of Broadway along the island of Manhattan. You can see the building I grew up in if you look closely at 3:43 in the video. My only complaint is when he rides right through the pedestrian area of Union Square. Bikers not respecting pedestrian areas is one of my NYC pet peeves!





h/t to Jim Barstow and gizmodo

Herman Tyson or Mike Cain?

About as intelligent...

AT&T Call International app offers inexpensive world calling to iPhone users

AT&T Call International app offers inexpensive world calling to iPhone users:

AT&T has released a free application called the AT&T Call International App that is designed to let wireless users in the U.S. make inexpensive international long distance calls with their iPhones. The service uses your existing wireless service, and you can actually use the service when overseas when connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The rates, which are found on AT&T's Call International web page, start at 2¢ per minute to Canada and calls to wireline phones in countries such as China, France, Germany, and the U.K. are only 4¢ a minute.

Unlike many of the international calling plans that exist with traditional landline carriers, there are no monthly charges or packages of minutes to purchase. You dial your friends and family from your iPhone contact list, and the charges go straight to your credit card. There's an online account management feature for looking at statements or seeing how much a recent call cost.

Note that your regular airtime rates apply as well, so you're getting charged for a "local" call as well as the international connection. Calls to wireless numbers are more expensive, and you'll also incur "a small amount of domestic data usage" while connecting a call.

All in all, though, the service sounds like it may be a bargain for those who want to use their iPhones to make a lot of international calls. The app is free, so there's really not a reason to avoid trying it for your next call overseas.

AT&T Call International app offers inexpensive world calling to iPhone users originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A billion years in the blink of an eye

An old family friend, Al Jarnow, was linked to today by kottke.org. His work always has been amazing and its nice to see some of the other stuff getting some attention. This is a shout out on a blog with tons of traffic. Well done.

A billion years in the blink of an eye:
When I was a kid, one of my favorite things on one of my favorite shows (3-2-1 Contact) was Al Jarnow's Cosmic Clock, a short video animation showing a billion years of time passing in fewer than two minutes. There's so much science in this little video.





This is one of those things I thought I'd just never see again. YouTube is truly a global treasure.
Tags: 3-2-1 Contact Al Jarnow time lapse TV video

Matrix-view of surfing

Bullet time surfing:

Using a rig of 30 GoPro cameras, these guys captured surfers in Matrix-esque bullet time.

(via petapixel)

Tags: surfing video

Time Lapse Videos from my wedding

Here are 3 time-lapse movies that I made during Holly and my wedding in September using my Brinno Time-lapse camera. Images were taken every 5 seconds and made into a movie.

Ceremony.

Camera angle accidentally excluded the actual wedding to an interesting effect

Cocktail hour.

Reception.

Sadly the camera fell off the tree midway through the night.