Majikthise

Fossil sea-scorpions bigger than humans

giant shrimp, originally uploaded by erin_designr.

 

I think somebody should come up with a way to breed a very large shrimp. That way, you could ride him, then after you camped at night, you could eat him. How about it, science?--Jack Handey

Scientists have recovered the fossilized claw of an 8-foot sea scorpion from a quarry in Germany.

They call it "an amazing discovery," I call it "proof of concept." I know, shrimp and scorpions aren't that closely related. The point is that giant arthropods ruled the earth. With sufficient ingenuity, perhaps one day giant shrimp will rule our grocers' freezer sections.

Imagine tucking into a succulent scampi roast, instead of a Thanksgiving turkey. Picture a shrimp so big you could impale it on a rotating metal skewer and shave off slices of shrimp schwarma?

How 'bout it, science?

"Bush's Iraq War Fodder With Rubber Ducky"

Bush's Iraq War Fodder With Rubber Ducky, originally uploaded by casual clicks.

Today's Flickrfind, entitled "Bush's Iraq War Fodder With Rubber Ducky" by casual clicks who captions the picture as follows:

Godson #1 was sent to Iraq yesterday. He will be in a hot zone. He's the one who carries the extra ammunition for his unit. Here, he's having a heart-to-heart with his little yellow friend. Note his "shades" and lips match the ducky's. He's enjoying a little last day pool fun. What a contrast to what he'll face in just a couple of days.

The picture was uploaded on July 18 of this year. I hope the subject and his family are doing okay.

Brown pelican

chillin', originally uploaded by amaw.

This one's for Uncle Kvetch who loves pelicans as much as I do.

Memorial Day

RUSSELL LEE KLIKA IRAQ, originally uploaded by klika100.

Today's FlickrFind.

Flickr copyright kerfuffle

Flickr censored comments complaining about copyright violations, the BBC reports.

It all started when popular Flickr photographer Rebekka Gudleifsdóttir found out that the online gallery Only-Dreemin' UK was allegedly selling her images without her consent.

Gudleifsdóttir estimates that the gallery made several thousand dollars off the illicit sale of  her work. The photos were eventually taken down, but the gallery refused to compensate the 28-year-old Icelandic student and single mom for the images.

The gallery claims to have bought the images from a third party who produced false documents to support their claim to copyright.

At this point, events become murky. According to the BBC article, Gudleifsdóttir posted a new photograph to her photo stream to protest her exploitation at the hands of Only-Dreemin'.

That image got more than 450 comments, including some that Flickr's administrator's deemed hostile or threatening towards the operators of the gallery. The article claims that Flickr deleted "the entire post," which I take to mean the image and all associated comments.

The image was reportedly deleted without warning, but not before racking up over 100,000 views.

I don't know what Rebekka's picture looked like, but somehow I doubt the image itself was threatening towards the Only Dreemin' Team. It wouldn't surprise me if individual commenters crossed the line and wrote inappropriate comments that deserved to be deleted. Flickr should have a zero-tolerance policy for threats.

However, I can't see any justification for deleting the image and all the comments.

To its credit, Flickr has since apologized to Gudleifsdóttir and admitted to deleting her image in error.

Gudleifsdóttir accepts the apology and continues to press for a legal resolution of her copyright dispute with Only-Dreemin' UK. I hope she gets a nice chunk of change from those who tried to rip her off.

Hat tip to reader Jonathan.

Update: Here are Gudleifsdóttir's own blog posts on the dispute.

FlickrFinds

The FlickrFind is one of our most popular ongoing features at Majikthise. Here's how FlickrFinds work...

All the FlickrFinds are from users who enable the "blog this" function on their accounts. Users choose who can blog their photographs--just themselves, their contacts, or any Flickr user. All my FlickrFinds come from users who opt-in and allow any Flickr user to blog images from their photostreams. 

I assume that users are turn on the "blog this" feature because they want their photos to be blogged.

Of course, FlickrFinds automatically include attribution and a link to the user's photostream.

Your Monday musk ox

Musk Ox, originally uploaded by Shamarukh Alam.

There, don't you feel better now?

Musk Ox is made from a single square of uncut paper, designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and folded Shamarukh Alam.

Anna's Hummingbird: You want a piece of me?

Anna's Hummingbird, originally uploaded by supercilium.

Today's FlickrFind.

This is a male Anna's hummingbird photographed in British Columbia, Canada.

Vancouver HDR

Aquabus, originally uploaded by Stuck in Customs.

 

My friend Macon sent me a link to a remarkable Flickr portfolio.

The photographer, Stuck In Customs, is doing really interesting things with high dynamic range (HDR) imaging. HDR software combines multiple exposures of the same scene to create images that have more gradations in tone between light and dark.

Today's FlickrFind is a great example of what HDR can do aesthetically.

Digital pictures tend to have a restricted dynamic range compared to film. HDR is one way to compensate for the limited dynamic range of digital sensors.

(Cockatoo)2

Boss Cocky, originally uploaded by AlexandraPhotos.

Today's FlickrFind.

These beauties are sulfur crested cockatoos.