Still on the topic of volcanoes, here’s a “A Day in Pompeii,” a vivid 3D animation of the destructive eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD, by Zero One for Melbourne Museum in 2009.
Tavurvur Eruption
Here’s a video of active volcano Tavurvur erupting in Papua New Guinea in August, recorded by an Australian taxi driver named Phil McNamara.
It’s an impressive explosion, with a visible condensation shock and a loud, delayed sonic boom. Tavurvur has killed people before, but current conditions during this eruption have spared surrounding populations from ash and debris.
BIG Maze
BIG Maze (designed by Bjarke Ingels Group) is just that: a giant maze of high wood walls, but with a twist: as you go deeper in, the walls gradually descend towards the core, revealing more and more of the structure as you approach the center.
We visited last weekend and I got a POV traverse video with Glass.
We hadn’t been to the National Building Museum for a while; it was nice to see it again.
While in the maze we also ran into old friends and neighbors Jodi and Roberto.
Sadly the last day of the BIG Maze was on September 1st and it is now being dismantled. No word yet on if it will go elsewhere; would be nice if NBM acquired the piece as part of their permanent collection.
Corcoran Farewell
With the Corcoran Gallery transitioning to NGA and GWU owernship, admission is now free till the museum closes indefinitely in October, so we dropped by last weekend. This would probably be our final visit to the Corcoran as a private institution.
Farewell, Corcoran Gallery. More photos here.
Kings Dominion Revisited
We went to Kings Dominion for a Saturday day trip. No roller coaster Glass videos this time as I forgot my head strap, but here’s the view from the Ferris wheel:
Vegas Trek
They call it Sin City, but we weren’t in Las Vegas for gambling or sex: my primary mission was to get the nerdiest possible photo I could with William Shatner at the Star Trek Convention.
Mission accomplished.
Hersheypark with Google Glass
Amy and I met up with her dad in Hersheypark on Saturday for roller coasters and animals, and I brought along the Google Glass to see if I could get some good POV coaster videos. I was not disappointed.*
Chincoteague and Orb-2
Been a year since our last trip to Chincoteague, so we drove to the shore over the weekend to bask on the sand, kayak around a bit, eat some oysters, and see the Orb-2 rocket launch from Wallops. Also brought along the Google Glass to get some POV video of our adventures.
Fourth of July Weekend in NJ/NYC
Fourth of July in New Jersey presented an opportunity to test out how well Google Glass captures fireworks. It was pretty fun to be able to record video while also looking at the explosions rather than checking a screen constantly. (With thanks to brother-in-law Bob for driving us to Nomahegan Park to see the show.)
Over the weekend we took a Circle Line boat ride around Manhattan to see the updated skyline with the almost-finished World Trade Center tower.
It’s a tour I haven’t taken since I was a kid, and it was nice to be on the water and see the Statue of Liberty and the undersides of the East River bridges again.
Full Fourth of July Weekend 2014 photo album here, and a Google+ story auto-generated from my Google Glass photos and videos here.
Folklife 2014
This year’s Smithsonian Folklife Festival had just two rather than the usual three cultural themes: China and Kenya. The Festival ran into some trouble with NPS over new park landscaping concerns, but everything seems to have been ironed out for at least the next five years.