November 13, 2008

Fall Forest Canopy

Gigapan photo (360 megapixels, give or take) of my backyard, taken straight upwards, among some of the 20 trees on our property. Taken just before a storm came in and removed the vast majority of leaves that were still remaining on the trees. Zoom in by clicking on the picture and try to identify each tree by its leaves.

Posted by acarvin at 8:54 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

Backyard in the Mist

I took this 370-megabyte panorama photo of my backyard today using the Gigapan robotic camera mount. Click the picture to keep zooming closer and closer to see the full resolution.


Tags: | | |

Posted by acarvin at 8:42 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

September 11 Memorial at the Newseum

Here's a high-res panorama photo (250 megapixels) I took of the Newseum's 9-11 Memorial. Because the panorama is taken as a series of dozens of photos that later get stitched together, it causes an eerie effect, with people moving around within the photograph. Click the picture and zoom in - you can actually read the headlines on the newspapers in the background.

Tags: | | | |

Posted by acarvin at 8:06 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

October 24, 2008

Sneak Preview Tour of NPR's Election Studio

I just streamed a live 15-minute tour of NPR's election studio with NPR election producer Tom Bullock. Here's an archive of the video in case you missed it:

Posted by acarvin at 1:23 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

October 4, 2008

It's Sean!


It's Sean!, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

Yeah, it's a bit out of focus, but it's a real cute pic of him nonetheless. -andy

Posted by acarvin at 2:28 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

September 29, 2008

Mixed Messages from Starbucks


Mixed Messages from Starbucks, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

While having coffee at a Starbucks with a couple of NPR colleagues today, one of them noticed that the cardboard jacket holding our cups was from Seattle's Best. We swear we didn't stage this.

I'm sure there's a lesson in it, particularly in the midst of the financial meltdown, but I'm not sure what it is. What do you think? -andy

Posted by acarvin at 3:56 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

September 24, 2008

Introducing Sean David Carvin!


Sean, Susanne and Andy, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

Our son Sean David Carvin was born today at 1:40pm. He weight 7 lbs, 8 oz and stretched an even 20 inches. Susanne and Sean are both doing great, though she'll have to be in the hospital for a few days to recover from the c-section. Tomorrow, we'll bring in Kayleigh to meet her new baby brother. -andy

Posted by acarvin at 8:45 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

Sean meets his mom

- Taken at 1:47 PM on September 24, 2008 - cameraphone upload by ShoZu
Formats available: MPEG4 Video (.mp4)

Posted by acarvin at 3:34 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

September 7, 2008

Mothra Lives!


Atlas Moth, originally uploaded by andycarvin.

The Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) is one of the largest moths in the world. This one, which I photographed at the Brookside Gardens Butterfly Pavilion in Wheaton, Maryland, has a wingspan of approximately 10 inches. Each wing was just a little larger than my entire hand.

Atlas Moth

This was as close as I could get to the moth without disturbing it. If my hand had been adjacent to it, each wing would have been a little bit larger than my hand. It's the largest type of moth in the world.

Posted by acarvin at 4:42 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article

August 31, 2008

Getting Involved in Gustav Online Volunteer Efforts

I was hoping to get through August without interrupting my self-imposed summer blogging siesta, but circumstances have changed. As you probably know by now, Hurricane Gustav is en route to the Gulf Coast, and thinks are looking pretty bad right now. Given all the work we did organizing online information in the hours after Hurricane Katrina struck three years ago, I figured it would be much more productive if we could get organized at least a couple of days before Hurricane Gustav came ashore.

Right now, I'm juggling a number of activities, and could use your help in both promoting and volunteering with content production.

For coordinating online volunteer efforts, I've set up a social network called the Gustav Information Center. I'm hoping it'll work like Katrina Aftermath, with aggregations of content generated by the public, news orgs and govt agencies, but the social networking tools will allow us to use it as a place to coordinate volunteer activities - who's working on what project, etc.

We're also setting up a wiki called GustavWiki.com, built off the wiki we organized for Katrina. Essentially, we've taken all of the pages from the Katrina wiki and moved them to the new one, so the first thing we need volunteers for is going through each page and making sure all the info contained is accurate and relevant to Gustav. Please go to the wiki to-do list discussion on Ning if you want to volunteer as a page editor. If you want to edit a page someone else is working on, contact them through the wiki or Ning so you can coordinate directly with each other. Once the pages are verified, we can then concentrate on building new pages from scratch.

On Twitter, we have several new accounts running. GustavAlerts is already sending out official government notifications from a number of sources. GustavNews will feature news content, while GustavBlogs will feature blog discussions. They're still being tweaked, though, so it may be a few hours before those two Twitter accounts are useful.

I'll post updates as I can, but most of my activities will be in the Gustav Information Center, so please join the conversation there. -andy

Tags: | | | | | |

Posted by acarvin at 12:03 PM |

Listen to this article Listen to a computer-generated podcast of this article