Cephalopodcast

It can be a challenge for environmental non-profits and educational outfits to produce original multimedia content. On a tight budget it can be tough to produce compelling content in-house, so at some point, the question of using stock images or video comes up. This has a cost too in the form of licensing, clearances and properly managing the rights to the media. Fortunately, there are some low cost (and free) resources available.

Reef Vid

A resource of free coral reef video clips for educational use

Professor Peter Mumby from the University of Exeter has made available a number of coral reef video clips. The database has over 500 clips which are free for educational and research use. The clips on the Web site are suitable for use in a PowerPoint presentation. Full-quality footage is available on mini-DV tapes, DVD, or DVD-ROM (recorded in PAL) by contacting them.

Environmental Video from the Feds

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration also maintains a library of public domain video footage. The only cost is for reproduction, there are no other licenses or clearances required. All they ask is that you credit them as the source. In particular, I’ve found the Year of the Ocean, Turtle Excluder Device (TED) and Commercial Fishing to be useful stock footage for many projects. They also have a photo library of royalty-free still images.

Quality at a Price

Finally, there are also exceptional stock libraries available for a fee. The quality of these is incredible and the staff are available to help you find just the right image for your message. Some of the more marine-themed ones are listed below.

Have you used any other video resources for ocean conservation? Let me know.

• Reef Vid
• NOAA B-Roll
• Stock Photo: Image Quest 3-D
• Stock Video: Ocean Footage
• Stock Video: BioMedia Associates. Bacteria, Protozoans and more.
• Stock Video: Al Giddings Images
• Previously: Vintage Ocean and Science Fair Footage
• Previously : Free fish pics: NOAA updates online photo library
• Previously: Free undersea images from Coral Reef Alliance

QUEST is a savvy multimedia (TV, radio, web) series by KQED that explores the science, environment and nature of Northern California. On April 1st they start their second TV season with a feature on Humboldt squid and an interview with humble squid expert Professor Bill Gilly (Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station).

If you can’t tune into Channel 9 in the San Francisco area, then head over to iTunes to pick up the podcast.

Also, if you have a story idea germane to their series, they’d like to hear about it. Personally, I think it’d be neat if they did something on the recent (and rare) wolverine sighting in north California. Or better yet, it’d be neat if they did an animal face-off between a wolverine and a Diablo Rojo. Talk about compelling television! But I guess that’s the fare of a different kind of network.

Also, a quibble: they include the scientific name of the Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) on the sneak peek Web site. They get the capitalization correct, which is exceptional, but not the italicization. Why is this matter of styling binomial classification always handled so poorly by journalist and editors?

• Sneak Peek of QUEST’s New Season – Fierce Humboldt Squid

UPDATE: Something mysterious is stirring in the waters of Half-Moon Bay. It’s a “web-exclusive premiere” and additional photos of the new KQED program.

[via Kasey]

I first came across Australian cartoonist Phil Watson back in late 2006. I reckon his work is on par with the likes of Toomey. Now it looks like he has since teamed up with the Mall of America and their Underwater Adventures Aquarium in Bloomington, MN. This must be a good thing because he is turning from one-off one-panels to full blown animated shorts. Some of them are quite topically amusing, managing to poke fun at Paris Hilton, Damien Hirst, Steve Jobs and the like. But here’s one of my favorites, since it also features a cephalopod:

A couple of other amusing ones include his movie parody called 20 Last Dates and Sharky in Lock Ness.

• Phil Watson’s YouTube Channel
• Sherman’s Lagoon
• Previously: Daily Shark! Cartoon

Last Sunday was International Rock-Flipping Day. I made another 60 second video highlighting some of our discoveries. It’s a little choppier production, since I only had the Powershot A95 (movie setting). Once again, edited with iMovie and scored in Garageband.

Click To Play

Blip.tv | YouTube

• Official IRFD declaration
• Flickr: International Rock-Flipping Day photo pool
• Previously: International Rock-Flipping Day is September 2

Make magazine has instructions on building your own miniature aquatic biosphere. I took the weekend challenge and made my own using specimens from a retention pond near work. There were snails and crustaceans in abundance, including grass shrimp (Palaemonetes sp.), amphipods (aka, scuds) and copepods.

The instructions call for the use of a sea shell to help with buffering. I thought I would be smart and use a small deer antler instead. It looked good at first, but I never properly degreased the thing, so the set up went south pretty quickly. I removed the antler and restarted with a little crushed coral gravel. I also added the iconic econaut refuge (orange diver) and a little bit of hornwort purchased from the pet store.

Cephalovlog #2: 60 Seconds of Green Pond Scum

I made a little video featuring some of the critters. I used a jeweler’s loupe held next to my Canon ZR500 and Powershot A95 (movie setting) to get close-up shots of them in action. It was edited with iMovie and scored in Garageband.

Click To Play

Blip.tv | YouTube

Lessons Learned

Needless to say, this is a great lesson in ecosystem management. Unlike an aquarium, the tabletop biosphere is a closed system. All nutrients must cycle from the plants (producers) to the animals (consumers) and back again (via decomposers/bacteria). A well balanced biosphere can last a couple of years, with some commercial manufacturers claiming systems that have run for ten years or more.

In addition to the articles from Make, there are several lesson plans out there for starting biospheres in the classroom. It might be interesting to get students started with these at the beginning of the year and see which ones last the longest. See the links below for more ideas.

Tendrils

I also wanted to highlight another sources of inspiration for this project. It is an aquascaping photoblog simply called Green. I encourage you to marvel at the beautiful macro photography of Marcus Wallinder’s miniature worlds. And if its zen-like, award-winning design inspires you, then here are more than 130 palettes to “help you get your green on” too.

• Make: Tabletop Biosphere, with resource citations
• Make a Tabletop Biosphere - Make: PDFcast
• Make a Tabletop Biosphere - Make: Video Podcast
• Home Made Biospheres
• Make Labs Biosphere & more!
• Lesson plans (Ohio): It’s a Small World After All! (Pond Microcosms)
• Lesson plans: Examining the Human Impact on our Environment
• Water on the Web: Microcosm Setup and Sample Collection Instructions
• Bottle Biology
• BBC/OU Open2.net: DIY Science - Ecospheres
• Make your own homemade ecosphere
• The Miracle Whip Microcosm
• Ecobottle Investigations
• Green: aquascape photoblog
• Best Of Color Inspiration: 130+ Green Color Palettes
• Flickr: Biosphere symbol/label
• Flickr: My BioJar photos
• Previously: Tiny Lightbulb Tanks

Sticking a tentative tentacle into the world of video podcasting. This first one is something of a test.

60 Second Sunset, Siesta Key, Sarasota, FL

Click To Play

Shot on 07/28/2007 with my peewee Canon ZR500. Edited with iMovie and scored in Garageband. Inspired by this series 60 Seconds in the Life of the Galapagos Islands over at Ironic Sans.

• Cephalopodcast on YouTube
• Cephalopodcast on Revver
• Cephalopodcast on Blip.tv

BTW, my buddy SB just coined a new word tonight. I was asking him about youth culture and the balkanization of all these social networking sites. He said that geeks go to blip.tv and the “general public & yutes go YT [YouTube].” So there you have it:

yutes |yoōts|
noun
1. [informal] plural for young adults.
2. [slang] YouTube enthusiasts (often obsessive youths).

youts
British spelling of yutes

During Skype, podcast and webcast sessions, I needed a way to let other folks know that the microphone was hot. I wanted a minitature on-air light flashing so they’d know they could be overheard. But where could I find such a device?

I considered all kinds of crazy schemes, from wiring up LEDs to sacrificing my moribund Palm Tungsten T3. But then it hit me. I already had an auxillary 320×240 LCD screen sitting right next to me in the form of my 5G iPod with video. Why not use the photo slideshow feature in that? So here are the steps to making your own miniature on-air light for podcasting, etc.

1. Download the following graphics (available under Creative Commons license). You can customize them or make something similar on your own.
   
2. Open up iPhoto and create File>New Album. Call it ONAIR or something similar. Alternatively, you could skip iPhoto and create a folder for the images. ITunes accepts either solution.
3. Upload the graphics and move them into the new album/folder.
4. Connect your iPod and under the Photos tab in iTunes, select the new album/folder for synchronization.
5. Then under the iPod itself, select Photos>Slideshow Settings.
6. I changed the following settings:
   Timer Per Slide: 2 sec
   Repeat: On
   Shuffle Photos: Off
   Transistions: Dissolve
7. Back out one click to the Photos submenu, highlight the ONAIR album and press play. You should now have your own miniature on-air sign to warn your mates that the microphone is hot.
8. Adjust the backlight timer to keep the images bright.

Other Uses

This might also be useful in public areas or when recording at conferences. You could create additional graphics with an advert for the show or details about the current recording session.

You could also sychronize it with an audio file, set it up remotely and send out a warning message. The TV out option also allows you to display it large.

This technique has an additional psychological effect for me. When the on-air light is lit, I know it is time to record. Now I just need an elegant way to display my iPod so people can see it.

• iPod: Viewing a slideshow
• Brenthaven Flip Case for 30GB iPod

[via TONMO]

Attention marine biologists of the world! Gather up your plankton nets and Nansen bottles! You are urgently needed to star in the “most rockin” music video ever.

Toren Atkinson, lead singer for the Lovecraftian rock band, The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets will soon release a new track from their forthcoming album “The Shadow Out of Tim.” The track is called “A Marine Biologist” and is all about “bathyscaphes, benthic trawlers, architeuthis, etc.” They want to create a video for this song that features marine biologists from around the world. All they need is any video, even previously produced footage, of you doing anything marine biological.

If you want to help out, contact Toren Atkinson at thickets [at] uniserve [dot] com. I believe cephalopod costumes are optional. Or if you are not a marine biologist (or only play one on TV), please spread the word to any marine biologists you know.

• More details from Toren’s initial request over of the TONMO forums
• Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

UPDATE: DotHT have released the mp3 of their song. Check it.