Majestic Time-lapse Landscapes Will Blow You Away - Arizona/Utah

by Charlie White

from http://mashable.com/

This spellbinding video is by master photographer and time-lapse creator Dustin Farrell, who took a Canon 5D Mark II digital SLR and created an awe-inspiring work of art.

In his latest work, “Landscapes Volume Two,” the Arizona photographer has elevated the artform to the highest level, using motion control and HDR (High Dynamic Range) techniques to reveal an unseen world of landscapes in Arizona and Utah, where space takes on a different meaning when he’s altered time. It’s set to the music of John Murphy’s “Sunshine (Adagio In D Minor).”

Specifically, how does Farrell create this magic? He says on his Vimeo site, “Every clip is a RAW image sequence (5616 x 3744) that I rendered out as a 1080p 23.976fps QuickTime movie. The motion control is achieved using servo motors.”

Sounds complicated, but that’s only half the work. After he shoots the images, he places them in Adobe After Effects, a professional video compositing program, where he says he “stacks” the clips, allowing the thousands of images to play back, drastically sped up for our viewing pleasure.

This guy is one of the foremost time-lapse experts in the world. Take a look at how he accomplishes these feats in greater detail here. By the way, Dustin urges you to watch these sequences in HD, full screen with sound.

Want to see more? Here’s Dustin’s “Landscapes Volume One,” representing a year of his time-lapse work:

[via Gizmodo]

Mesa, AZ Arc

  From: http://i.imgur.com/CmNAE.jpg

i.imgur.com

Arizona Taqueria Puts Lion on the Menu

By Ian Froeb

From: http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/

Image via
Someone just told this fella about "Exotic Taco Wednesday."

 

Regular readers know that Gut Check loves few things more than a taco. So great is our love that we've developed a sort of sixth sense for when something is...amiss...in the world of tacos. Thus, when we awoke this morning feeling unsettled, we knew it wasn't simply because we would be snowed in today with only a single bottle of wine in the house. When we found this story, via Gawker, the cause of our discomfort became clear.

A restaurant in Tucson, Arizona, will serve tacos filled with lion meat.

The restaurant is called Boca Tacos y Tequila, and the lion tacos are part of a weekly promotion called "Exotic Taco Wednesday." Previous "exotic" tacos have featured kangaroo and python, but serving Simba clearly takes it to another level. The tacos will cost $8.75 and must be preordered because, you know, ordering more lion meat than you can sell is gauche.

Which, of course, compels me to ask: Who among you, dear readers, has tried lion meat?

The Grand Canyon Skywalk: Stepping Over the Edge

From: http://www.vivaboo.com/

Stepping out onto the Grand Canyon Skywalk is like walking effortlessly across the sky. You step out over the edge, a full 4,000 feet above the Colorado River below and walk along the skywalk, experiencing the Grand Canyon from a truly amazing perspective. Being able to walk 70 feet straight out from the rim allows you to take in the beauty that only Mother Nature can create…the Grand Canyon.
Image By Jonas K
The Grand Canyon itself is 277 miles long and stretches over 18 miles wide at some points. It has been a national monument for over 100 years, but its history dates back millions of years. The canyon we see today is estimated to have taken at least 3-5 million years for the Colorado River, erosion and nature to carve.
Up until 2007, visitors were only able to go to designated viewing sites and of course, travel down into the canyon (which is a life-changing experience all its own). Then in 2007, the Grand Canyon Skywalk was officially opened making the Grand Canyon an even bigger tourist attraction that it was already.
Now this skywalk isn’t for those who have any fear of heights. Although, there is no need to worry about safety, it is very sturdy and safe. The skywalk was built strong to withstand not only the daily tourist traffic, but to withstand the elements as well.
The deck was built to handle 100 lb per square foot load. It weighs in at a little over 1 million lbs with a counterweight of about 1.6 million lbs. The skywalk deck floor consists of 6 layers of low-iron glass and structural interlayer glass, which is what gives it its structural integrity while still allowing visitors to see directly below them to the canyon floor.
The “walls” of the skywalk are made of the same glass, but are only 3 layers thick and stand at just over 5 feet tall with a curve in them designed for a better viewing experience. As only 120 visitors are allowed on the skywalk at one time (even though it could handle over 800), the skywalk truly delivers a breath-taking experience.
Keep in mind though, as you walk out onto the skywalk, you will be standing over the canyon at a height that is taller than the Gateway Arch, the Empire State Building and the CN Tower combined. Enjoy the views!

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600 lbs Spokesman Hired to Sell Burgers

From: http://videogoneviral.com/

If you’ve been eating too much healthy rabbit food lately, The Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, AZ has the solution for you. The medically-themed restaurant has a staff of sexy “nurses” who serve such entries as the Quadruple Bypass Burger, french fries cooked in lard, and unfiltered cigarettes to the “patients” as they wear hospital gowns over their clothes.

The owner, Jon Basso, is a former nutritionist who owned seven Jenny Craig franchises. Maybe hiring sexy nurses to sell junk food is an easier racket to run.

Heart Attack Grill just hired their latest spokesman, 6’8″ 600lbs Blair River–a Biggest Loser reject–to star in their new ads. See him here:

[via AZ Central & Heart Attack Grill]

A dam big project: Incredible images of construction work on 1,900ft-long Hoover Bridge

By Mail Foreign Service

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

It is one of the planet's newest awe-inspiring superstructures - the Hoover Dam Bridge.

Now the giant construction project which is on schedule to be completed in September can be seen in all its glory in a series of stunning photographs.

Twelve years in planning and five years under construction, the development - known officially as the 'Mike O'Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge' - is finally taking shape.

Spectacular structure: The Hoover Dam Bridge rises from the river banks in the middle stages of the £160million project. This image, which was taken in April this year, shows how the new bridge will replace the old road which crossed the top of the dam

Rising 890 ft above the Colorado River, when finished, its total length will be 1,900 ft, with its longest supported span running to 1080 ft.

Built in the shadow of the iconic Hoover Dam, which powers most of states Nevada and Arizona, the construction is the first concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the United States.

With costs estimated to run to £160 million, the bridge is designed to take the pressure off the congested US Highway 93, which connects Las Vegas, Nevada, in the west with Arizona and the Grand Canyon in the east.

The bridge is expected to carry 17,000 trucks and cars every day and will allow the roadway that runs on top of the Hoover Dam to close.

Having long been the most accessible river crossing between Nevada and Arizona, the dam is thought to be at risk of a terror strike, with trucks already banned from crossing.

In November, cars will no longer be able to cross the dam which was built in 1936.

Don't look down: Workers use a crane to construct the top of the bridge's arch during the large-scale project. The picture, taken in August, 2009, shows how engineers anchored the structure in the canyon's sides

Let there be light: Night work on the Hoover Bridge continues unabated thanks to huge lighting towers in September last year. The bridge is due to be completed later this year

Designed by T.Y Lin International, the bridge will be four lanes wide and is designed to match the style of the dam shadowing it, which holds back artificial Lake Mead.

Around 3,000 workers have helped construct the bridge using 2,300 feet long steel cables held aloft by a 'high line' crane system.

The distinctive arches are made up of 106 concrete and steel arches, each one 24ft-long.

The bridge has been named after Mike O'Callaghan, a former Nevada Governor and Pat Tillman, the American Football player who left the NFL and joined the army after the 9/11 attacks.

Tillman was killed in a friendly fire incident in Afghanistan in 2004.

Documenting the last 18 months on camera has been Santa Fe resident Jamey Stillings, 38.

Patriotic: The new bridge will provide much needed relief for cars and lorries using U.S. Highway 93. The road provides a scenic link betweej the Grand Canyon, to the east and Las Vegas to the west

Enlarge

'I was driving on a road trip through Nevada across to Arizona when I took in the Hoover Dam as a tourist,' said Jamey, who has been photographing the Bridge since March 2009.

'I came across the construction of the bridge without warning and it captured a piece of my imagination.'

Deciding to stay for a night nearby, Jamey set about forming a project to photograph the bridge as it's put together step-by-step.

'I fell in love with it and wanted to begin a photographic project immediately,' said Jamey.

'I have been a photographer working in environments such as war zones in Nicaragua and in advertising and corporate work, but this was a chance to return to my roots.

'I have made ten trips in total to the bridge. I have spent 26 days and nights at the site with the workers and have taken over 12,000 frames.'

High and mighty: The bridge nears completion, providing a four-lane highway crossing from Arizona to Nevada and on to Las Vegas

The Hoover Dam, seen in the background, was started in 1931 and completed in 1936. It spans the Black Canyon and uses the Colorado River in a giant hydroelectricity project

Relief from congestion: A satellite image showing how the bridge will connect US Highway 93 at the top of the picture with the road towards the bottom

AZ Switches Off Speed Cameras For Privacy, Revenue Reasons

By John Voelcker
Senior Editor
From: http://www.thecarconnection.com/

July 19th, 2010 Last fall, we wrote about citizen initiatives to ban the use of traffic enforcement cameras in three small towns in Ohio and Texas. Now, the backlash has intensified, with the state of Arizona switching off its 76 cameras altogether last Friday, when its contract expired with the private operator who maintains them, issues tickets, and bills the drivers caught on camera speeding on state highways. Arizona joins Maine, which banned camera enforcement outright last June. With the latest addition, six states have now booted speeding cameras off their roads. (The others are Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia.) The state was the first to adopt camera enforcement for speeders, back in October 2008, but it banned them for two reasons: Infringement on individual privacy, and a belief that the operation was intended only to raise revenue, without independent, peer-reviewed data demonstrating their impact on road safety. While the camera system issued more than 1 million tickets, only about a third were ever paid, and the money collected was roughly one-third less than the projected $120 million promised by the operator, Redflex Traffic Systems. Almost 500 localities now use red-light cameras, which seem to evoke less negative reaction than speeding cameras, currently in less than 60 jurisdictions. In some areas--New York state, for instance--public support for red-light cameras is strong. Red-light runners are most likely viewed as a far greater threat to other drivers and pedestrians than are the drivers who run a few miles an hour over the limit. Fighting camera enforcement tickets in court is usually fruitless, with conviction rates over 98 percent--which has led irate drivers to some unusual protest tactics. One Phoenix Subaru driver wore a monkey mask while he or she racked up dozens of speeding tickets. But the cat-and-mouse game between speeders and the municipalities that target them for revenue (and road safety, don't forget that one) is likely to escalate. The latest wrinkle is ... wait for it ... satellite-based speed tracking. You have been warned. [The New York Times]

Red light camera in Beaverton, Oregon, from Wikipedia

Enlarge Photo

Last fall, we wrote about citizen initiatives to ban the use of traffic enforcement cameras in three small towns in Ohio and Texas.

Now, the backlash has intensified, with the state of Arizona switching off its 76 cameras altogether last Friday, when its contract expired with the private operator who maintains them, issues tickets, and bills the drivers caught on camera speeding on state highways.

The man banned, Tom Riall, is CEO of Serco, supplier of traffic cameras to the British government

Enlarge Photo

Pulled over by the police

Enlarge Photo

Arizona joins Maine, which banned camera enforcement outright last June. With the latest addition, six states have now booted speeding cameras off their roads. (The others are Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, and West Virginia.)

The state was the first to adopt camera enforcement for speeders, back in October 2008, but it banned them for two reasons: Infringement on individual privacy, and a belief that the operation was intended only to raise revenue, without independent, peer-reviewed data demonstrating their impact on road safety.

While the camera system issued more than 1 million tickets, only about a third were ever paid, and the money collected was roughly one-third less than the projected $120 million promised by the operator, Redflex Traffic Systems.

Almost 500 localities now use red-light cameras, which seem to evoke less negative reaction than speeding cameras, currently in less than 60 jurisdictions. In some areas--New York state, for instance--public support for red-light cameras is strong.

Red-light runners are most likely viewed as a far greater threat to other drivers and pedestrians than are the drivers who run a few miles an hour over the limit.

Fighting camera enforcement tickets in court is usually fruitless, with conviction rates over 98 percent--which has led irate drivers to some unusual protest tactics. One Phoenix Subaru driver wore a monkey mask while he or she racked up dozens of speeding tickets.

But the cat-and-mouse game between speeders and the municipalities that target them for revenue (and road safety, don't forget that one) is likely to escalate. The latest wrinkle is ... wait for it ... satellite-based speed tracking.

You have been warned.

[The New York Times]

Chandler Woman Renting Out Retired Drug Dog to Patrol Teens' Bedrooms

By James King
From http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/

www.tf.com

Attention Valley teens: Just when you thought your weed stash was safely hidden from your parents, get ready to say "fuuuuucccck!"

A Chandler woman has started a business called Desert Drug Dog, where she rents out her retired, drug-sniffing dog to parents who suspect their teens of using drugs.

Amy Halm and her dog, Dargo, will come to your house and flip it for drugs like it's a mini-van at a border-patrol checkpoint. She'll even do it when the kids are at school so they'll never know how you found their stash.

Amy Halm Dargo hard at work

​Dargo used to work for a police department in Indiana but has since retired and come to live with Halm in her Chandler home.

Halm tells New Times that Dargo had to leave his job as a working drug dog because, while he was great at sniffing out dope, he would often freak out if -- while he was searching for drugs -- a loud vehicle sped by.

Dargo's specialties are cocaine, marijuana, crystal meth, and just about any other mind-altering substance your kids probably don't want you to find.

Halm's operation is fairly unobtrusive to parents -- Dargo doesn't scratch or dig when he finds something, just indicates that it's there, at which point Halm will come and put a sticky note where the dog suspects drugs to be hidden. Parents can handle what they find as they see fit.

Halm isn't limiting Dargo's work to suspect teens, though, Dargo's services can be used in businesses and schools, too.

For more information on Desert Drug Dog, click here.

10 Most Incredible Images of Anticrepuscular Rays

From: http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/

Anticrespulcular rays captured just outside Boulder, CO
Image: John Britton

How many people turn around when they watch a beautiful sunset? Not many, but here are a few good reasons why they should. Anticrepuscular rays are spectacular optical phenomena that are quite rare and they require the viewer to have his or her back to the sun or sunset point. Like crepuscular rays, covered here earlier, they are columns of sunlit air streaming through gaps in clouds. Yet while the former seem to converge from the sun, anticrepuscular rays converge toward the antisolar point – the point in the sky directly opposite the sun – creating some stunning effects.

Nothing supernatural here or is there?

Image: Carolina Ödman

Radiating from this ship in Ye Liou, Taiwan?

Image: Unknown photographer

Anticrepuscular rays actually do not radiate from one point but are parallel shafts of light. They produce an optical illusion explained by da Vinci’s linear perspective according to which at distance, all things convert to a central point. It’s similar to a long, straight road converging toward the horizon regardless of which way one is looking.

The illusion is even more spectacular when the anticrepuscular rays seem to converge from an object like the ship above or this rock at Horseshoe Canyon in Utah, below.

Image: Peggy Peterson

With a tinge of pink, in Florida:

Image: Daniel Herron

The hours around dusk and dawn are called the crepuscular hours (literally: relating to twilight) and have given this light phenomenon its name. Dusk and dawn are the times of the rays’ most frequent occurrences because then, the contrast between light and dark is the most obvious.

Seen from a plane while flying over Arizona:

Image: Craig Gould

If crepuscular rays are called God’s Fingers, would anticrepuscular rays be the opposite, the Devil’s Feelers maybe?

Divine intervention?

Image: Piccolo Namek

We can see why these images are often used for religious pamphlets:

Image: Luis Argerich

The image below seems to show anticrepuscular rays converging from a gorgeous glory, captured above the clouds on a flight to southwestern Tennessee. Below the clouds, the phenomenon would have been observed as crepuscular rays.

Rays and glory:

Image: Tim Stone

The last pic should clear up any questions about anticrepuscular rays:
Setting sun + well placed clouds + a bit of luck = anticrepuscular rays.

Panoramic view of anticrepuscular rays over Chandler, Arizona:

Image: Ian Schlueter

So next time you watch a spectacular sunset, make sure to turn around as something unusual if not even more spectacular may be awaiting you.

Sources: 1, 2, 3

Driver Wears Monkey Mask to Beat Speed Cameras

Valley Monkey Has 37 Unpaid Photo-Enforcement Tickets; Actually He's Just a Dude in a Mask Who Won't Pay the Tickets

By James King

DPS Believes that Dave Vontesmar is the "man behind the mask" in 37 photo radar photos

​If you live in the Valley of the Sun, you probably have a trick or two to avoid getting busted by the speed cameras we all love so much. Some people just know exactly where they are, some buy devices to mask their license plates, and one man, police say, resorted to wearing a mask.

The man, according to police, is Dave Vontesmar.

Police say Vontesmar is the man behind the mask in at least 37 photo-radar tickets, where the driver can be seen wearing a mask to hide his identity.

Vontesmar says it's not him, despite being the owner of the car, but police disagree.

www.facebook.com

Dave Vontesmar, seen here, is believed by DPS to be the man behind the mask, responsible for at least 37 photo radar tickets

​

"Our officers actually conducted surveillance on him and observed him putting the mask on just prior to the photo-enforcement zone. So obviously, he intended on speeding through the zone and was covering his face intentionally," DPS Lieutenant Steve Harrison tells 92.3 KTAR. "He had two masks. One appeared to be [of] a monkey, the other one appeared to be [of] a giraffe or some type of gazelle design."

Vontesmar tells the Arizona Republic that he is refusing to pay the tickets

"Not one of them there is a picture where you can identify the driver," Vontesmar said. "The ball's in their court. I sent back all these ones I got with a copy of my drivers license, and said, 'It's not me. I'm not paying them.' "

Harrison says this is no laughing matter

Umm, yes it is.There's a guy cruising around town evading police by wearing a monkey mask; if that's not a laughing matter, what is?

Here's an idea; maybe DPS officers should go back to actually pulling people over, like in the old days. It may be difficult to nail this driver by claiming -- through speed-camera pics -- that he must be the man behind the chimp get-up.

Arizona approves bill allowing guns in bars

Critics of the measure say guns and alcohol are dangerous combination

The Associated Press

PHOENIX - The Arizona Senate has given final approval to a bill that would allow people with concealed weapons permits to carry a gun into a business that serves alcohol.

The 19-8 vote completes legislative action on the bill and sends it to Republican Gov. Jan Brewer. She has not said whether she will sign it, but she has long been a supporter of gun rights.

The measure has pitted powerful groups representing gun and bar owners against each other, sparking a debate about whether guns and alcohol can coexist without bloodshed.

Critics of the measure say guns and alcohol are a dangerous combination.

"We don't let people drink and drive, why should we let them drink and carry guns?" said Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, who voted against the bill.

Supporters say they should be able to protect themselves and their families even if they happen to be inside a business serving alcohol.

"It's very important that criminals are now afraid rather than law abiding citizens," said Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, the bill's sponsor.

The measure would ban drinking while packing and allow restaurants to deny entry to gun-toting citizens by posting a sign next to their liquor license.

The bill initially required that a bar serving alcohol also serve food, but that provision was removed at the request of bar owners who worried about uncertainty over which bars have kitchens.

Forty other states have approved similar measures, according to the National Rifle Association.

Former Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, vetoed a similar bill earlier this decade that would not have required people to have concealed weapons permits in order to carry guns in bars.

More than 127,000 Arizonans have concealed weapons permits, which require a gun safety course and background check, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Arizona has longest stretch under 100 deg says since 1913

June hasn't been this nice since ... 1913

by John Faherty
The Arizona Republic

Meteorologists are reluctant to call a month "nice." They have their data and their science and typically do not describe the weather in such subjective terms.

Except now, because the data prove it.

"It's probably the best June since I've been here, and I've been here most of my life," said the National Weather Service's Valerie Meyers, who is in her late 40s. "It's been really nice."

Possibly the nicest June ever.

It's that type of thing that is fun to say but hard to quantify.

Thursday, however, was the 14th consecutive day to stay below 100 degrees. That's the longest stretch of its kind in any June since 1913.

The lower temperatures have allowed people to sleep with windows open and drive with their arms out vehicle windows. Evenings, too, have been spent chatting with neighbors while children or grandchildren play. Those events are not life-changing, but they are, well, nice.

Typically in June, high-pressure systems begin to form above the Valley. High pressure means clear skies and little wind. And, in June, clear skies let in the sunshine, sending the temperatures soaring.

This June, though, has remained cool because of what Meyers called "a persistent area of low pressure off the West Coast."

The low pressure has prevented the high-pressure systems from getting into place.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. This weekend, the days will heat up. Temperatures are expected to be back in the 104-105 range by the middle of next week.

Gorgeous Sunset. Horeshoe Bend, Colorado River, Arizona

World’s Largest Solar Thermal Plant (340MW) Planned for Arizona

Written by Jake Richardson

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The Mohave Sun Power company is planning a project in Mohave County that could begin construction in the fourth quarter of 2010.

It will use 4,000 acres of land and employ concentrating solar power. Molten salt will be the storage medium.

• » See also: Wind, Solar-Powered Street Lights Only Need a Charge Once Every Four Days
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Mitchell Dong, the company’s CEO explained the technology, “It’s a parabolic trough, or a ‘U’-shaped mirror that reflects or concentrates the sunlight by a factor of 100 to this thin tube of transfer fluid. In this case, it’s a synthetic oil heated to 800 degrees by the sun’s light. There are rows and rows of these collectors and this 800 degree oil is pumped to a central power block, a central location where that hot oil goes to a boiler. It makes steam and drives a single steam turbine.” Of course the whole installation would use many arrays of parabolic troughs.

Energy generated by the plant would be purchased by California, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado. If the planning and construction processes go smoothly the plant could starting producing electricity by 2013. The planning actually has been going on for some time: “We have been working on this for over a year,” said Mohave County Supervisor Buster Johnson. (Mohave County has already had a different 200 MW project planned for construction.) This larger one will depend upon federal stimulus money for financing.

If approved and funded, the project could generate an estimated 1,500 jobs during the construction phase, and require 100 employees when operational. Such a large plant would also generate local tax revenues. Construction cost is estimated at two billion dollars.
(A nuclear power project requiring two reactors could cost 17 billion.)

In addition to the planning and funding challenges, the project must address the need for a large amount of water used for cooling purposes. The current solar power capacity of the US is over 9,000 MW, and it is growing steadily.

Image Credit: Richard Montoya, Public Domain