Caitlin Burke

But, hey, Rush, if you need a ride to the airport, or some extra hands for packing, I am happy to help.

Yesterday I saw a 26-second movie being used as a magazine cover described as the kind of thing that will enable the iPad to ‘save’ magazines. But I didn’t like splash screens on websites, and I don’t like pre-roll ads on video, so why would I want this? People are falling all over themselves to tout the “immersive” experience this kind of development allows. It’s cool for some stuff, sure. I’m just getting a little fatigued by how many things people want to turn into a Total Experience.

A blog entry at O’Reilly complains that stand-alone magazine apps are trapping information in silos. For now that has to be an artifact of the iPad debuting without multitasking or fast switching. The smoother the switching, the more insistently the advertisers will demand hooks to their properties, so at least some of this has a built-in shelf life. But it’s still being brought to us by the companies behind the Power of Print (under its oh-so-evocative logo). I can’t wait for this thing to get to version 2, and let some of this hype/handwringing play out already.

Front Street from California to Sacramento gets closed down for the evening on St Patrick’s Day. Royal Exchange, Harrington’s, and Schroeder’s all open into the street, and the barricades go up in the mid afternoon. These pictures are from 9 AM, noon, 5 PM, and 7 PM. The Paddy Wagon (yes, I went there) wasn’t doing any business—it was just sitting there, flashing its lights from time to time.

… internal marketing. I don’t know how effective it will be at anything other than impressing other people in the industry, though.

This video was prepared by the UK branch of Dorling Kindersley Books. Originally meant solely for a DK sales conference, the video was such a hit internally that it is now being shared externally.

Of course, everything really clever has already been done:

The second-place in AARP “U@50″ contest, in 2007, itself explicitly inspired by an award-winning ad made in Argentina for candidate Lopez Murphy.

I’m doing a terrible job, sometimes going days without taking a picture, but I’m still doing a lot more photography than I was doing last year. The best part is when I finally see something I’d walked past mindlessly countless times before, like this gate and door.

Late as usual, but I haven’t failed yet! I have officially embarked on my artificial lighting journey.

OK, fine. I got detail on the fur of a black cat inside late at night. I guess I understand the appeal of artificial lighting now.

and other images were captured in the 70s, commissioned by the Nixon administration in conjunction with the creation of the EPA, for a project called Documerica. The National Archives have recently been making photos from the collection available.

A couple of days ago, Wired Science published a selection of these photos, and you can search the archives at the National Archives (you might want to use the search instructions at the Documerica site at the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism).

Do you feel lucky? A set that’s set to grow.

All-black penguins are so rare there is practically no research on the subject–biologists guess that perhaps one in every quarter million of penguins shows evidence of at least partial melanism, whereas the penguin we saw appears to be almost entirely (if not entirely) melanistic….

Observing this black penguin waddle across South Georgia’s black sand beach revealed no different behavior than that of his fellow penguins. In fact, he seemed to mix well. Regarding feeding and mating behavior there is no real way to tell, but I do know that we were all fascinated by his presence and wished him the best for the coming winter season.

Lots of discussion about this photo and this kind of coloring, plus other links, at the National Geographic blog entry about it.

March: 1 shot a week with lighting (not just available light)
April: CAT A DAY! (Does your cat need a portrait? I might need to visit other cats to keep it interesting.)

Stay tuned to see what I end up making. Or, you know, just to snigger at my failure!