Seattle's 12th man

Seattle fans are quite proud of being the "12th" man on their Seattle Seahawks football team.  As American football goes into its playoff season, the team has home-field advantage for all of its playoff games - and this is quite an advantage as our football stadium is famous for being the loudest in the country.  We are seeing the number 12 with blue and green all over the city - including on our downtown office buildings at night.   This is the Russell Investments Center building in downtown Seattle photographed by David Rosen of SlickPix Photography.

Calibration on Mars

Here is some interesting reading for the geeks among us who might be curious how one goes about calibrating a camera on Mars: 

• http://www.wired.com/curiosity-mars-rover-cameras/

And here are some details about the calibration target used on the Curiosity:

• http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/images/?ImageID=3804

Quiz your fellows over the water cooler: How much US currency is on Mars?

Actual pictures from Mars coming to us over the next few weeks & months promise to be high quality, clear and sharp.  Not the sorts of images we're used to seeing from other planets!

Smallest camera

I just think this is cute.

This little thing takes still images at 1600 x 1200 resolution and captures video at 30 fps at 640 x 480 resolution. Images are taken as JPEGs and videos as AVIs, saved onto an included 2 GB microSD card (supports up to 32 GB cards). Images and video can be viewed when connecting it to a computer running a Windows operating system.  Includes a USB 2.0 cable. Rechargeable battery provides up to 30 minutes of operation from a one-hour charge via USB. Includes wrist lanyard.  $99.

Take your own picture of outer atmosphere for $800

This story out of Britain is for those of us financially strapped individuals who have always had a love for photography and a love for flying.

A 38 year-old man launches high altitude balloons and takes pictures of the earth from the upper atmosphere. He "captures pictures of earth using a standard camera fixed to a weather balloon."

The story:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7514429/Father-captures-pictures-of-earth-using-camera-fixed-to-weather-balloon.html

His photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30721501@N05/