Yesterday's update to my "Dinosaurs are with us" collection

The last thing many a fish see before the end.
A little difficulty with depth of field (Osprey are YUGE!) vs speed and maintaining focus, but I'll take it!

DeSantis signs ban on kids using social media

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill blocking most kids from social media websites, setting up an expected court battle that could prevent the legislation from ever taking effect.

House Bill 3, passed by lawmakers with bipartisan support this month, forbids kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts and requires the platforms to seek out and remove their profiles. Kids 14 and 15 would need parents’ consent.

The legislation also blocks all minors from adult websites, requiring all visitors to prove their age before viewing content.

Florida follows a handful of other states, from California to Arkansas, that have placed similar limits on kids’ social media use in response to rising rates of teen depression and suicide.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2024/03/25/florida-desantis-social-media-ban-kids-tiktok-consent/

About to move to some mirrorless macro work

but for now, playing with the new 180-600 handheld at less than 10ft.

at 600mm, 1/1000 sec, f6.3 ISO 720


at 1200mm, 1/1000, f/13, ISO 3200, but a very tiny subject and horrible background of a screen room

It's Spring Break at the Habanero House!

Saturday musings: Which dinosaurs survived?

The ones that shrank the fastest.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/122888033

thanks to tblue37 for this article, which came to mind when I took the #1 photo of the Blue Jay which looked so Jurassic. I grabbed a few representative photos of dinosaurs being dinosaurs. Be glad they got smaller.

Birds are the remnants of the fastest-evolving group of dinosaurs.
The family tree of more than 1,500! skeletal characteristics over 50 million years, shows that the theropods—the carnivorous dinosaurs, including Tyrannosaurus, that would eventually become birds—shrank markedly at least 12 times. Starting from an average mass of 163 kilograms, the theropod suborder eventually produced the .8 kilogram Archaeopteryx, which is considered the earliest bird.

The theropods were the only group to continually push the envelope when it came to skeletal size. It's possible that herbivores simply couldn't shrink, since a plant-based diet requires a larger gut for digestion. Meanwhile, theropods could explore alternate resources, habitats, and even prey. "It would have permitted them to chase insects, climb trees, leap and glide, and eventually develop powered flight, "All of these activities would have led to novel new anatomical adaptations." So as the dinosaurs shrank, their other features evolved more quickly (which led to faster shrinking to take advantage of these new abilities, and so on).

Spring has sprung!

January moon was a bust for me

a few near hits, but February is a winner. These two are of the rising moon late in the day.

#1 on 2/20 at 17:51 is a Southwest flight having departed Fort Myers, destination Indianapolis at 32,000ft and 10 nautical miles.
#2 on 2/21 at 16:32, American approaching Tampa International(TPA) from DC at ~7000ft and 3.5 nautical miles.
Both with a 180-600 w/TC2.0 for 1200mm on a Nikon Z6ii

Analyzing Trump: 15 Logical Fallacies in 3 Minutes

I love Fani Willis

that's all

As a subset of my current obsession, Plane Spotting

I have a new slideshow gallery of a favorite type of photo where I catch the plane in a bank when the wing dips enough to give the impression we are flying alongside or close behind. Hope you enjoy: https://jamesdevore.smugmug.com/SPECIAL-SLIDESHOW/n-P57Kks

Teaser photo