Category Archives: Uncategorized

Harvey Potts – Photographer / Thief Extraordinaire

Harvey Potts - Photo Thief

A photo of a "Pygmy Owl" supposedly taken by Mr. Harvey Potts in Green Valley Arizona. IN reality? It's MY PHOTO, taken near Tucson Arizona, and is of an ELF OWL.

If you get a chance check out the wonderful photography on Harvey Potts website.  He’s got some truly beautiful photography.  Gorgeous nature photography, beautiful landscape shots, photos of old bridges and barns…he has a really diverse set of photos.  I’m particularly amazed by the quality of some of the nature photos.

I’m amazed that he was able to PERFECTLY replicate, down to the pixel level, shots taken by other photographers!!  IMAGINE the patience and determination it must take, to find someone else’s photo online and try to recreate it! Traveling to the location, finding a bird that is EXACTLY the same, positioning it EXACTLY the same, waiting for EXACTLY the same lighting conditions…what amazing devotion to his “art”!!  What an INCREDIBLE photographer!!

Elf Owl - Terry Sohl

MY Elf Owl photo on my website, taken on the outskirts of Tucson Arizona. Mr. Harvey Potts just cloned out my name and copyright symbol, and placed on his photography website as his own.

For example, look at this “Pygmy Owl” photo above, supposedly taken in Green Valley, Arizona.  Now compare to this ELF OWL photo that I TOOK near Tucson Arizona.  Note the attention to detail!! Note the PERFECT replication of nearly every detail from my photo!! In fact, the ONLY difference between the photos is that Mr. Potts digitally removed my name and copyright symbol from the photo!!!  AMAZING WORK, Mr. Potts!!!

Pretty “ballsy”, Mr. Potts!! If you have a public website with displayed photos, those photos WILL be used by others without your permission.  It’s a fact of life, and something any photographer with a website should expect.  I’ve been absolutely amazed at how often I run across my own photos.  Usually, it’s something like a blog where somebody wanted a bird photo for a blog post, but even in my work at the U.S. Geological Survey, there have been a number of times where I’ve gone to a conference, and seen my photos pop up in other scientists’ presentations and on their posters of their work.

It’s damned annoying when people use your photos without permission, particularly when you clearly define usage limits on your website, but Mr. Harvey Potts has taken it to an entirely new level!  A supposed PHOTOGRAPHER, displaying photos from OTHER PHOTOGRAPHERS on his own personal website and claiming they are his own!! This Elf Owl is NOT the only stolen image.  Another photographer noted their images stolen, and Mr. Potts even had the nerve to put his OWN NAME AND COPYRIGHT symbol on the stolen photo.

Mr. Potts, you are TRULY a piece of $hit.  Displaying and marketing photos from other photographers as your own?  That goes WELL beyond simply using someone else’s photo for a blog post.

Did you take ANY of the photos on your site?  Do you even KNOW how to use a camera?

Fortunately, I am QUITE sure my website gets much more traffic than yours, Mr. Potts. I sincerely hope anyone searching for the “WONDERFUL” photography of Mr. Harvey Potts ends up finding this blog post.  You, Mr. Potts, are one despicable piece of crap.

New Cichlid Aquarium

Aquarium

Our new 55-gallon, "African Cichlid" aquarium.

I’ve had aquariums for most of the last, oh, 30 years or so, sometimes to the dismay of those around me.  In high school, I had an aquarium at home and one time decided to stock them with a handful of salamanders.  Unfortunately, one night those salamanders, er…disappeared.  They were never found, which means somewhere at my parents’ house, there’s a little salamander skeleton behind some piece of furniture or in some nook.

Bumblebee Cichlid

One of the Bumblebee Cichlids. This is my son's favorite...they ARE darned cute. As they get bigger they, they may get very aggressive. If so...back to the pet store for them, much to my son's dismay.

In college, I always had pets in my dorm room and apartments.  In my dorm room I once decided to lose the fish and instead get a snake, making my aquarium into a terrarium.  Just a little snake, but not exactly a “hit” with my roommate, who hated it (and likely me) with a passion.  It didn’t help when the box full of crickets I used to feed it once sprung a leak, and crickets were hopping everywhere in our dorm room.

Cobalt Blue Zebra Cichlid

A Cobalt Blue Zebra Cichlid in the tank

In my more “adult” life, I’ve also had aquariums most of the time, sometimes to my wife’s consternation.  She’s not a fan of anything “unclean”, so I do my darnedest to keep things in order.  Well, normally.  However, my last aquarium was “just” a little 20-gallon thing and I was losing interest.  It started to get a little gunky, and after some discussions…out the door it went.

Yellow "Lab"

An Electric Yellow Cichlid, often known as a "Yellow Lab". They really offset and go well with the blue Zebra Cichlids.

It’s been a few years, and the aquarium itch struck again, very much spurred on by my very eager 9-year old son. Over the last week we’ve looked at options, looked at fish, and made the plunge and purchase a nice big 55-gallon aquarium and stand. Keeping my wife in mind, we  also bought what we hope is a decorative stand and canopy.  We have it up and running, and it’s certainly a huge hit with my son.  My wife may be another matter…but we’re working on her.

Acei Cichlid

One of the Yellow-fin Acei. I think these are my favorite so far.

VERY nice to be sitting here in my office, look over, and see this beautiful big aquarium.  Over the last 2 days, my son and I bought the fish.  We decided to try something I’ve never done…an African Cichlid aquarium.  Specifically, “Lake Malawi” Cichlids, as we learned in our reading that if you get Cichlids, you’d better be sure the fish you get are compatible.

We have 12 fish, 3 of four different species.  Unfortunately, my son’s favorite also happens to be a species that may not be compatible for the long run.  Here’s what we have.

  • 3 “Bumblebee Cichlids”  (Pseudotropheus crabro).  These are the first that caught my son’s eye, and the first we bought.  It wasn’t until later that we found “crabro” may describe their behavior, as they can get very aggressive towards other fish.  Beautiful, but when they get bigger, we may end up having to bring these back to the store.
  • 3 Electric Yellow Cichlid (Labidochromis caeruleus).  Yellow “labs” are evidently relatively mild-mannered for African Cichlids, and certainly look great in the tank.
  • 3 Yellow-finned “Acei” (Pseudotropheus species). Another supposedly relatively mild-mannered Malawi Cichlid, these are dark blue with yellow fins and tail.
  • 3 Cobalt Blue Zebras (Metriaclima callainos). These are a beautiful pale blue, and really look wonderful with the other cichlids that have a lot of yellow.

So far, so good!  The 12 fish are all in the tank and behaving so far, but they are all pretty small, at 1 1/2 to 2 inches.  Each should get to between 4 and 6 inches, so our 55-gallon should be just about right once they grow up. That is, if the Bumblebee Cichlids behave themselves.  My son was heartbroken at first when I told him his favorites, the ones he wanted first, are very aggressive and may have to go at some point when they mature and become interested in mating.  But as we’re learning from reading about cichlids, their aggression is part of their natural behavior, and we’ll keep a close eye on things and adapt as need be.  We’ve provided a home for them with many caves and other hiding spaces, a key for keeping African Cichlids. 

Hopefully they all get along in the long run!  We’re certainly enjoying things for now!

Tiny Penis Men Renew Fight to Compensate with Guns

Just a few months after the Newtown tragedy, America is getting back to normal.  With our incredibly short attention spans, the deaths of a few dozen children seems like a distant memory for most folks.  With the incredibly pathetic, half-hearted efforts by the Obama administration and state governments to strengthen gun legislation, we’re returning to the status quo.  Tiny-penis men across America are ramping up the fight to compensate for their shortcomings by ensuring their right to carry the largest, most destructive weapon possible.

The fight has been spearheaded by tiny-penis men in my very own state of South Dakota.  Yesterday, tiny-penis governor Dennis Daugaard signed a bill that makes South Dakota the first state that allows teachers to carry guns in class.  The bill was sponsored by tiny-penis state legislator Scott Craig, a freshmen Republican (duh), who states that now “dominoes will start to fall, people will see it’s reasonable.”  Of course it’s “reasonable”!  Do you have kids?  Picture your kid’s teacher, carrying a gun in class, trying to fight off a nut with an assault rifle.  What?  A little difficult to picture that in your mind?  Hard to see that as more “reasonable” than simply disallowing access to assault rifles?  This is the 2nd bold effort by tiny-penis South Dakota men to ensure gun rights.  Last week, they voted down a bill that would have limited gun access to mentally ill people who have been deemed “dangerous” to others.  Just like tiny-penis men, crazy people have gun rights too!!!

The tiny-penis men of South Dakota are hardly the only tiny-penis men fighting for their right to compensate.  Kansas, a state that along with South Dakota is known for having a large population of weak, tiny-penis men, is considering a bill to greatly expand concealed gun carrying on college campuses. 

Compensation efforts by tiny-penis men extend all the way to the Federal level.  At Congressional hearings this week, miniscule-penis Senator Lindsey Graham stated he owned an AR-15, arguing for folks to imagine a scenario in a post-disaster world where government breaks down and roaming gangs are a danger!  EXACTLY!  WELL thought out, tiny-penis Senator Graham!!  This is EXACTLY the kind of realistic scenario that screams for the right of tiny-penis men to carry large weapons!  In a “Mad Max” post-apocalyptic world that is sure to come, tiny-penis men NEED automatic weapons to fend off gangs of evil-doers!!

FEAR NOT, TINY-PENIS MEN!!!   In America, there are SO many of you weak, tiny-member men fighting for your compensatory gun-carrying rights, that I truly doubt you’ll never have to worry about your right to carry gigantic weapons that you’ll never have use for any practical purpose other than trying to overcome your own insecurity.  With tiny-penis men like Lindsey Graham, Scott Craig, and Dennis Daugaard fighting for you, your right to access massive weapons will forever be secure.

NOT cool, Google! Google Stealing Online Photos

NOT COOL, GOOGLE!!!

Traffic on my photography and birding website has been very consistent over the last several years.  Suddenly, in the last 3 days, traffic has plummeted by 40%.  Looking at incoming traffic to my website, the reason is obvious…traffic from Google’s “Image Search” is dramatically down.  People searching for photographs on Google through Google’s “Image Search” are no longer actually reaching my website.

Google Image Search - Example

This is what happens now when a web searcher uses Google's Image Search. This is MY Gyrfalcon photograph, in full-resolution, displayed in all it's glory, not on MY website, but on Google's Image Search. Google searchers can now actually DOWNLOAD and save photographs and images, WITHOUT ever actually visiting the website where the images are hosted. NOT COOL GOOGLE.

The reason?  This week, Google changed their Image Search pages.  At first, the Image Search looks the same.   You type in a search term and a long gallery of thumbnail images appears. However, now, when you click on a thumbnail image, it no longer takes you to the webpage where that photo is found.  Instead, it now actually BRINGS UP THE FULL-RESOLUTION PHOTO for people to look at.  You can now actually DOWNLOAD an image directly from Google’s Image Search, WITHOUT EVER VISITING THE WEBSITE ITSELF!!!

For example, let’s say someone is looking for a photo of a Gyrfalcon.  They type in Gyrfalcon, and one of my images appears right in the top row of the Google Image Search page, as one of the thumbnail images.  However, now, when a user clicks on the thumbnail of my photo, Google’s Image Search actually brings up the original photograph, WITHOUT taking the user to my website!! There’s a VERY tiny message at the bottom, barely noticeable, that says “the image may be subject to copyright”, but a user can simply right-click and save the Gyrfalcon picture directly to their hard drive, without visiting my website.

Search Traffic

Traffic to my main website from Google searches over the last 2 weeks. Note what's happened since January 25th, the day Google started STEALING PEOPLE'S IMAGES and displaying them on their OWN Google pages. Traffic from Google is now down 75% and just keeps dropping. No reason for people to continue to the actual SOURCE website where a photo comes from, when Google TAKES your image and displays it on their own pages.

You are crossing a line, Google.  You’re providing a search service, pure and simple.  In NO WAY should you be allowed to actually DISTRIBUTE THE CONTENTS OF OTHER PEOPLE’S WEBSITES!!! Webmasters around the world are complaining of dramatic drops in traffic to their websites, especially websites devoted to imagery and photography.  With Google now DIRECTLY displaying and allowing download of full-resolution imagery, web searchers are simply looking at full-resolution images on Google itself, without visiting the source websites.

NOT COOL, GOOGLE. I have no doubt there will be a legal challenge here, as I simply can’t understand the legality of Google itself effectively distributing CONTENT from other people’s websites.

2013 Big Year Underway! Kind of…

Snowy Owl

A nice start to a "Photo Big Year", getting a Snowy Owl on January 1st! Click for a larger view.

I’ve never been a “lister”.  I’ve never been one of those birders whose obsession is their life list, their state list, their yard list, etc.  If you tell me a bird species, I can tell you whether I’ve seen it before, if I’ve photographed it, and where.  But I have no idea what my species “count” is, either for sight or photographs.

For background…in 2012, I did much less birding than I’ve done since I started birding in 2000.  Part of it was time and other issues, but a lot too is that it’s hard to get motivated to go out and take photos of the same species that I already have 100 photos of.  I did miss getting out in 2012 though, so have vowed 2013 would be different.  For motivation?  I am now starting a ‘Big Year’!! 

 For many outside the birding community, the term “Big Year” may likely bring to mind the recent movie with Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson, where 3 obsessed birders try to set the record for most North American bird species seen in one year.  That’s the general idea for me too, but modified significantly!  First of all, I’m calling it a “(Not so) Big Year”.  I’m not going nuts.  I’m not going to travel to all corners of the country, or even in South Dakota.  Secondly, it’s a “Photo” big year.  I simply plan to get out and see how many different bird species I can photograph in South Dakota in 2013, without turning it into an obsessive quest, ala what was seen in The Big Year movie.

I already can see it’s going to be fun!  Instead of watching college football all day on New Year’s, I instead went birding on the grasslands in the central part of the state.  While I normally would ignore most species that I already have plenty of photographs for, I found myself actually CHASING some common birds to try to get a 2013 photo.  Last year, I don’t think I would have thought twice about the scads of Ring-necked Pheasants, Horned Larks, or Lapland Longspurs I came across, but yesterday, it was fun trying to get a documented 2013 photo for even the “common” species.

A good start to the year!  The highlight was coming across a Snowy Owl towards the end of the day, definitely a nice one to get a photo of for a “Photo big year”.  I also managed photos of a Townsend’s Solitaire, a pretty uncommon site around here, and most of the  “winter” raptors that are found in the central part of the state at this time of year.  We’ll see where it takes me, and how many different species I can photograph this year!  Here’s the page where I’ll keep things updated…

The 2013 (Not So) Big (Photo) Year

Today’s Rememberance…and The Average NRA “Member”

Average NRA "Member"

I've had multiple blog posts about my feelings about the typical NRA "member". Today's gutless comments from NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, offered just a few moments after a touching remembrance of Newton's Sandy Hook victims, certainly reinforces my feeling about gun-toting wackos and their need to "compensate" for other things they seemingly lack in life.

I have the day off, getting ready for a weekend of family celebration and fun. While running errands this morning, I was stopped cold in my tracks when I passed a TV and saw a “special report” breaking into regular programming, as the TV stations carried a remembrance and moment of silence for the 27 kids and teachers slaughtered last week in Newtown, Connecticut. I stood there next to a lady and her daughter as it started. The daughter was a beautiful young girl who had to be around the same age as the innocent 1st graders who were gunned down last week. As the moment of silence began, the television carried a loud bell chiming 27 times, once for each life lost. With each chime came a picture of the victims…27 times…in alphabetical order, until the last, a 6-year old Allison Wyatt, was shown. Miss Wyatt looked remarkably similar to the young girl standing next to her mom, and the already flowing tears of the mom next to me turned into a full-body sobbing as the last bell chimed, and the TV lingered on this last victim. I’m a guy, so I’m not supposed to react that way in public, right? While I managed to suppress the full-body sobbing of the mother next to me, I also had tears on my face as the moment ended and they resumed normal programming. I’m sure that any parent with a young child felt the same at that moment. I would hope ANY human being felt the same at that moment.

Just a little later in the morning, National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre provided the NRA’s first public statement after the massacre of a week ago. LaPierre, as noted by NBC, took a “defiant” tone, stating that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun“.  I’m sure the 20 families with children slain in Newtown took comfort in LaPierre’s statements.  I’m sure that family of Allison Wyatt and the other beautiful young children feel comforted to know that the NRA is working to solve the problem by recommending armed guards at every school across the nation. I’m sure that families of gun violence victims across the nation take heart in the notion that the NRA will be fighting the evil media, Hollywood, and the music industry, the TRUE perpetrators of the culture of violence in the United States, according to Mr. LaPierre.

After all, it’s not the GUNS that perpetuate a violent gun-based culture in the U.S., right?  It’s not groups like the NRA that perpetuate gun violence, right?  There’s no blame to be assigned to the NRA’s insistence that private citizens have the same access to weapons of mass destruction as do our military soldiers, right? No!  Of course not!  Don’t be silly!!  It’s an evil media misrepresenting the NRA and a gun-based culture!  It’s Hollywood sensationalizing the USE of the weapons that the NRA endorses!  It’s popular music that glamorizes gun violence that results in freely available semi-automatic weapons being used to gun down 20 children in the span of a few minutes!!

It was quite the stark contrast this morning, seeing the incredibly moving remembrance of the Sandy Hook victims, and just a little bit later, hearing the incredibly callous and out-of-touch comments from NRA’s LaPierre. 

Bear with me for a moment as I get to my point here, but…I’m a scientist.  A large part of my job is communicating the work of my team with outside scientists and other potential users of our research and data.  When I was in high school and early in college, I was scared to death to speak in public.  The turning point for me?  Experience, especially after becoming a teaching assistant in grad school, but a large part of the turnaround for me was also seeing first-hand that the biggest BLOWHARDS, those who sometimes seem to be the confident with other people, are, in actuality, the most insecure (and the most full of shit).  I’ve said it out here many times…it’s those folks that are incredibly insecure, those that are the LEAST sure of themselves, who are also often the ones who feel the need to brag…to gloat…to ACT “confident” in public. 

Hence my analogy to the average NRA “member” above.  Disgusting display by Mr. LaPierre today, but it’s nothing new to the insecure, out-of-touch nuts that populate the NRA.  If guns are a big part of your life…you’re definitely compensating for “shortcomings” somewhere else in your life.

GOP Answer to Deficit Reduction – Cutting Tax Rates for Rich

Up until today, it was easy for Obama and Democrats to ignore the bluster from John Boehner and Republicans.  Boehner and other top GOP whiners certainly haven’t pulled any punches in their whining about Obama’s initial proposal.  But until today, they didn’t even HAVE a proposal of their own, making it very difficult to take their complaining seriously. 

Today, Republicans provided a supposed counter-offer to Obama.  And…it’s still very difficult to take them seriously.

Republicans counter-proposal on taxes?  Cutting tax rates for the wealthy…but closing unspecified loopholes to somehow increase $800 billion in revenue.   To begin with, there are no details on exactly what loopholes will be closed, or how the net outcome from cutting tax rates for the wealthy would somehow result in an increase of $800 billion to government coffers.  By CUTTING rates for the wealthy, but promising unspecified loophole closures, Republicans see the best of both worlds…not going against the Grover Norquist tax-cut pledge, AND inevitably shifting some of the revenue increase burden to groups other than the wealthy.

It’s amazing how far Republicans are going to protect tax cuts for the richest of Americans.  This same farce of a counter-proposal also seeks to cut $600 billion in health costs, with one stated Republican option being to raise Medicare eligibility from 65 to 67.  Another $200 billion would be saved by decreasing cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security, as well as all other aspects of government.   While doing everything they can to protect their wealthy donors, Republicans certainly have no problem sticking the poor or the sick with additional costs.

After the election, an emboldened Obama is finally showing a backbone.  He’s finally sticking to his guns on making the wealthy pay their fair share.  I just hope to god he sticks with it, and doesn’t cave once the fiscal cliff approaches. 

Going over the cliff, even with a short-term recession looming as a result, is far more preferable than caving to Republicans who not only want to maintain the gap between rich and poor, but seemingly want to widen it.

“Don’t Worry (Michelle), Be Happy” (poll watching…)

Electoral College Histogram - Princeton Electionl Consortium

The most recent statistical distribution of likely electoral college vote scenarios for Obama, from the Princeton Election Consortium. The bars in blue represent the 95% confidence interval. Based on the current state polls, Romney's chances of reaching 270 electoral college votes lies on the very edge of the 95% confidence interval. Intrade...Princeton...Betfair...all show the odds moving even MORE towards Obama in the past week. With just 10 days left until the election, Romney should be very worried. (Please visit the Princeton Election Consortium site for more info)

I’m feeling better and better about Obama’s chances in 10 days, especially as I see more and more statistical analysis of the polls, and the likely results.  Intrade has been the site I’ve checked several times a day to look for any swings in the betting mood, but there are other sites that make even more sense, from a scientific standpoint.

With each day goes by, it’s one less day for any movement to Romney, and for the past week, movement towards Romney has stopped, and has moved toward Obama.  Intrade continues to move up, in Obama’s favor, with betting “odds” reaching up to 64% in his favor today.  But as this analysis from the Princeton Election Consortium notes, there are issues with the “capitalistic” appraoach of a betting site, where InTrade is usually TOO conservative in its odds.  In other words, if InTrade shows a 64% chance of an Obama victory, the actual statistical odds are likely quite a bit higher.  As the Princeton analysis notes, even if poll averages are +5 for a candidate on election day and outside of the sampling error range, betting on InTrade tends to be more conservative.  As they note too…InTrade bettors skew Republican, which affects the odds.

The Princeton analysis looks at all state polls, the statistical sampling error, and statistically calculates the possible statistical outcomes.  As they state, their “meta analysis” is less sexy, less prone to be dissected and analyzed than the polls themselves…but it’s also devastatingly accurate.  If you look at the statistical analysis of all state polls, and the resulting histogram of likely number of electoral college votes Obama will get, and you end up with a nearly 90% chance of an Obama victory. If you look at the 95% confidence interval from the potential scenarios…in blue on this electoral vote histogram…there are very few scenarios where Obama fails to get 270 electoral votes.  The current trend on Princeton…statistically, the median scenario is Obama getting 297 electoral votes.

Nate Silver on the FiveThirtyEight blog continues to show a slow trend moving towards Obama as well.  As his detailed state analysis notes, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to envision a Romney victory, outside of some outside event in the next 10 days that alters the tone of the election.  Without any debates or other predictable event that could change the tone of the election…Romney should be worried.

I, for one…am ELATED. So…MICHELLE!!  Don’t Worry!  Be Happy!  And sleep well tonight!!    ;-)

(Michelle being a friend who is equally as poll-stressed…)

Late night drawing – Roseate Spoonbill

Roseate Spoonbill - Drawing by Terry Sohl

Click for a larger view

I started drawing this evening, and just kept going until I got done.  This is a Roseate Spoonbill.  In the United States, you can only find them down by the Gulf Coast.  Weird looking birds, with gorgeous plumage, but very odd colors on the head, and then the unique spoon-shaped bill.

Usually it takes me 2 – 3 hours to do a drawing, but normally I’m drawing something that’s roughly 8″ x 10″.  I decided to use my larger paper for this guy.  It’s a large bird!  And it didn’t seem like I could do it justice on 8×10. It took a lot longer to finish than I thought.

Amazon – “Binder” for sale

This is hilarious…a “binder” for sale on Amazon…

Amazon “Binder” for women