Here's my contribution to a fund-raiser for a local non-profit art institute. I was given a 12"x12" panel of 1/2-inch plywood and assigned to do whatever I wanted. First off, I made my job easier by designing a very big frame, leaving me with only about 5"x5" of space to fill. As to subject matter, I've been spending 10-11 hours per day looking through a microscope at these things, so when I sat down with a pencil to start sketching ideas, this is what came out. The technique employed in the painting is a slightly abbreviated version of the 7-layer oil-painting system used by some of the old Dutch and Flemish masters (Rembrandt and his ilk), which was taught to me by Russian painter Alexei Antonov. More than ten years ago now I spent about 60 hours (spread out over a span of 18 months) learning from him. This is the first time I've painted anything since. It was great fun, and barring any calamatous increase in work demands, I intend to continue. For a description of the cell types portrayed here, you can check out the album on my facebook page (I'm listed as Micaiah Evans).

Speaking of private space enterprises...

First privately funded satelite launched into orbit! Check out the video.

Increasingly impatient for the future!

This makes me happy.

Happy Birthday NASA!

Today is the 50th birthday of the National Air and Space Administration. Will the administration continue to dominate space exploration over the next fifty years? Or will China, the EU, and private groups take the lead? Unless the US get's off its ass when it comes to funding scientific endevours, it seems all too likely that we'll soon be left in the dust... or perhaps the military applications of space dominance will be attractive enough to our war-mongering nation to keep the money flowing spaceward.

Here's a fun article on the same topic.

Now here's something exciting!

Take a look at this... the first planet outside our solar system to actually be "seen".

Virgin Territory

First time blogger embarking on new adventures. Will I stick with it? No other way to find out.

So, what inspired me to start a blog of my own? Well, I was reading a bit about Ken MacLeod, the author of the novel I'm currently reading and discovered that he has quite an extensive, entertaining, and educational blog (http://kenmacleod.blogspot.com), and I got to thinking that maybe if I started my own it'd help me keep track of some of my thoughts and ideas. I haven't managed to keep a journal for almost fifteen years now, so I think this is my best bet.

Okay. 'Nough for now. Must wait for the inspiration to strike... and must get some work done.

-m