Wet, Wonderful West Virginia

Decker's Creek rapids near the rail trail below Masontown. Shot Saturday, March 17, with a Canon 550 using a EF 28-105mm lens.

In quieter water, I saw snapping turtles and frogs (already!).

Scientific Basis for Bar Flies

An acknowledged pest in bars and taverns, the fruit fly it seems has been driven to drink out of sexual frustration.

According to a group of scientists at the University of California San Francisco:

Sexually deprived male fruit flies exhibit a pattern of behavior that seems ripped from the pages of a sad-sack Raymond Carver story: when female fruit flies reject their sexual advances, the males are driven to excessive alcohol consumption, drinking far more than comparable, sexually satisfied male flies.

Dead in Morgantown

A black & white sepia effect sets the proper mood for this early evening shot:

View From the Outside

This is the view of One Waterfront Place, which among other things is home to the Office of Information Technology. My office is on the 5th floor, which would be on the 3rd row of windows from the top.

Lichen Log

Lichen growing on a log along the Mon River bike tail near Hildebrand lock & dam.. This is from a photo stack of four shots taken with a Canon EF28-105 on Sunday, March 11.

Coltsfoot

Yesterday was my first bike ride of the season. Given how unseasonably warm it has been of late, I thought there would be more blooms than daffodils and coltsfoot plants.

Truth be known, these were probably early bloomers.

Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)

It had been so long that I'd taken my camera out that I couldn't tell my favorite macro lens from my trusty EF28-105. These were shot with the latter, near the Uffington boat launch near the Mon River bike trail.

We Talk the Talk, But We Can't Walk

No surprise here: Press Freedom Index 2011/2012

Reporters Without Borders ranks the US, which loves to talk about its freedom, as 47th in the world. Woohoo! We're 47! Wait a second, though. Last year, we were 20. What happened?

Something to do with the number of journalists arrested while covering Occupy Wall Street protests. Shame on them. Shame on me, for being so unpatriotic about this.