Face2Face with a Dragonfly: Photos from a rare encounter.

I recently had the rare opportunity of coming face-to-face with a Dragonfly in the rain forest near Loreto in the Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon - this is what it looked like (click on pix to see a slightly bigger version or ask for originals, if you have a good idea for using them):

and coming up close to the bugger…

—– great pattern, init?!?!?

This is a link to a 1200×803px JPEG shot of the Dragonfly - cropped a bit and compressed with The GIMP:

and also an un-cut 1024×768 on MyShutterSpace:

WORLD FACING HUGE NEW CHALLENGE ON FOOD FRONT: The 11th Hour in context

We watched Leonardo DiCaprio’s “11th hour” last night (you might be able to watch it here or via quicksilversreen.com and read more about it here) and although it was by no stretch of the imagination a very good film on any terms (structure, presentation of material, cinematography or in terms of delivering a profound radical political message) it was still a positive surprise. But hey! what would you expect, come on, be honest?

In the critical (mainstream environmentalist?) words of Rikke Bruntse-Dahl, writing for smartplanet.com:

“The overall message was that we’ve forgotten that we’re part of nature and even though the Earth as such will survive, it will not be a pleasant — or indeed habitable — place to be if we don’t start looking after it and each other. While it’s undoubtedly a good message, which we’d like as many people as possible to hear, the film itself is just not up to scratch.

Cerro Azul - a beach in Peru

Some random pix from Cerro Azul:

It is all in the eyes of the beholder?

“But the river-boat captain, he knows my fate…”

Home Sweet Home: Reflections on the Amazon - Part One of ?

Seeking refuge in Europe, to breathe and to reflect, the long, light evenings and the friendliness of the forest (that is the absence of the eternal threat of creatures out to get you) have besieged our imaginations.

The loved ones, the long-time friendships and the new friends are the medium of reflection - telling stories, observing reactions and thinking about it all at a distance ….we get high on our own anecdotal supply with a little help from our friends.

Ecuador Photos

While doing some tag search for Ecuador photos I came across Paki Nuttah’s Ecuador set on Flickr, which is a nicely varied set in a collection by what appears to be a prolific, cosmopolitian photographer. I particularly liked this one:

Unfortunately one cannot download or link straight from a regular blog entry to her photos because they seem to be under a form of Digital Restrictions Management (she protects them somehow, haven’t figured out yet exactly how and why), but they’re certainly worth a look (and now I know how to “blog a photo” from Flickr, which then gave me an URI for the picture, -whatever good that’ll do me?!?!?!).

Flippn’ Fotos: 2

Been testing jUploadr, which is a convenient tool that allows for drag-n-drop and automagic resizing of photos. It has an authentication method that takes place via your browser so that it simply connects to your photo album and adds your new stuff. jUploadr also works with Zooomr, which is the new hot thing, coded by a teenager and modelled in great part on Flickr. We tested Zooomr with jUploadr, which has some clear advantages over Flickr, such as a much bigger upload allowance if you blog. However, the “graphical user interface” (GUI) of Flickr appears a bit more simple, easy for your mother to navigate, as it were, and the slide show function is quite neat without being tacky.

Zooomr looks promising and Yahoo! has bought Flickr, so why stay with Flickr? Well, it was basically the way that the slideshow works and the simplicity of the GUI (which might well be a very subjective issue) - but one final point worth mentioning may be that, yes, Flickr is owned by Yahoo! and so be it, Zooomr, on the other hand, is still young, fresh, hip and in Beta, but that really means that anything could happen: Rupert Murdoch might buy it tomorrow. I do not wish to engage further with the Flickr/Zooomr politics, have to get on with my life and upload some photos that my mum on the other side of the planet can easily look at.

With regards to jUploadr, still have to file a bug: it cannot upload more than one photo at a time, if you drag-n-drop several and choose upload it just stalls….  And ohh, we are fasting before our Yule Ayahuasca ritual tonight, so no dead birds or feast: we will be here tonight: