Beauty in Science

I like taking the time to take an image of a particularly stunning cell while I'm at the microscope churning through the experiments:




microtubules in yellow, DNA in green, the red is an out of focus centrosome.

Things you'll find on a lazy Sunday bike ride.....

..like an old Soviet cemetery filled with hundreds and hundreds of graves from WW II and soon after.




I'm gonna have to go back with a real camera....

My Widgets

Now that everybody seems to finally be buying macs, I thought I'd fill some blog space with the 'widgets' I use with the mac operating system. When this 'dashboard' concept first came out I thought it was pretty gimmicky, and was sure I'd never start using it. But now, 4(?) years later, I use every widget I have just about every day. So I thought I'd share with you the widgets I use to make my daily life that much easier. I don't actually spend much time looking for new widgets.
So if you have any of your own favorites, comment on what they are, there's a million out there these days, I'd be curious to know what else is cool.

In no particular order:

Leo translator widget

This is pretty invaluable. With a brush of the trackpad I get a text input to type whatever German or English word I need to translate, and then get a browser window opened up to that word on the leo webpage. I truly use this multiple times a day.


Currency Converter

I also look at this one many times a day. Watching the euro vs. the dollar mostly, but also any country I'll be visiting soon. As an example, I want to buy a camera soon that is sold in Europe, England, Canada, and the USA at different prices in different currencies. I can quickly convert what each would be in euros to see where the best deal is, having friends in the other countries that could potentially hook me up.



Yahoo Finance Stocks

I stopped looking at this one for a while because it was more depressing every day. But things are looking up now. You can follow real time updates of the dow jones, or individual stocks, or even combined mutual funds that you may have.





Calculator

Needs no explanation. handy.






Converter

This guy is a real do-it all and converts various units in volume, area, length, weight, energy, temperature, time, currency, speed, pressure and power. Particularly useful for converting the more awkward metric to US conversions.




Accuweather

Again, self explanatory.









MPI-CBG lunch display

Pretty useless for anybody that doesn't work in my institute, this widget will give you the lunch menu for the day or future days of the week in the MPI-CBG cafeteria. Can be helpful for deciding when it's one of those days where it's time to go out for lunch, or if it's build-your-own hamburger day and you should probably show up for lunch 10 minutes earlier to avoid the lines.





MPI-CBG staff search

Again, institute-specific, but easy to quickly look up emails and phone numbers. Would be nice if it included pictures like the database, though, in case you need to find somebody you haven't met before.





Genetic Code

This is my most recent addition, and I've been using it a lot. You get all the codons plus the 3 letter and one letter amino acid code. They appear to even be color-coded as to their structure/function. With a quick brush of the trackpad, it's much faster than finding a book or website. This is my nerdiest widget.









Screenshot Plus

This guy comes in handy because I can NEVER remember the keyboard shortcuts for taking screen captures/window captures/etc. You get a number of options, then a preview, and an option to save the picture, re-take the picture, or open it up as a preview. I use this actually more than I would have expected.







Right, that's it. Le me know if there are others I'm missing out on.

New website

I haven't had time for many new posts recently, but there's a number of things I want to post on - mostly being held up by the time it takes me to scan in my slides/negatives since I've decided I would no longer pay 15 euros or whatever for the photo developer to scan them in. It's like 4 euros to get the film developed. So I've been doing it at home which is a constant battle against dust and, in the case of color negatives, color-balancing. Eventually I'll have some cool pics of Iceland, and also my experiments with infrared film, which is my way of staying sane with my old 35mm SLR while I wait to buy a digital job.

Anyway, I've also been spending time recently making a new work-related website, one about what I'm studying in the lab and why and how. It's geared towards other scientists, but there are some pretty pictures and movies I made in there.

Visit the new site here.

Deep.

Watch the following video and try to understand the logic:



Get that? Yes, I know what you're thinking. We all are. But it's funny when somebody with comedic skillz writes it down:


special bonus: notice the horrible fear that the politicians will appreciate praise of 'teh Europeans'. Those God-hating socialist terrorist-loving Europeans.

The Trabi

My blogging has slowed down considerably recently. Other than the last post, I had one post of a youtube video in the last 2 months. Unfortunately, nobody complained. Nevertheless, I will push on. Again, in the spirit of documenting my experiences as I go. And it may be long-winded. I still actually need to finish posting on my Africa trip, which is now over a year old. But this first. For those that don't know, last year I was part of an effort among friends/colleagues to acquire a Trabant 601. This is the Trabant, also known as a Trabi:

This is ours, and as you see it has a custom logo on the side. More on that in a minute.
At first this was going to be a post about an epic trip from Dresden to Krakow in the Trabi, but then I realized I should just start with a post about the Trabi itself, and get to Krakow another time.

The Trabant is basically the car of the DDR (GDR/former East germany). This was far and away the most common car in East Germany, and it was made not far from Dresden. I don't know the numbers, but judging by photographs I would say 90% of the cars on the roads during the time were a Trabi. Google 'Trabi" or "Trabant" to learn more about it. It was not built to appeal to customers. It was almost the only choice, and most had to wait 10-15 years or more to get one. For most of the 30+ years the Trabant was in production, it was more or less the exact same model, the 601, and it basically did not change. A '69 and an '88 Trabant 601 are more or less identical.

Dresden likely has the highest concentration of Trabants anywhere in the world I would say. Perhaps Zwickau has more. I'm not basing that on any stats, but I would be surprised if I was wrong. Drive anywhere in Dresden and you will see a Trabant.

And so, I became very curious about this fascinating tiny little car. They even have "Trabi Safaris", tours where for a price you can get behind the wheel of real Trabi and drive with other customers around Dresden. I never had any plans to have a car while in Germany, but I thought if I ever did, it would be fun to get a Trabi. But that was about the extent of it for years, just thinking about it. Then a couple years ago this fellow Cliff shows up in the lab. One of the first things he does after arriving in Germany is to buy a 70s-era BMW motorcycle. interesting. We get to talking and I say how I've always dreamed of having a Trabi, and we toss around the idea of buying one, maybe to share between a few people, and also to tinker around with.

Search the German Ebay for Trabant and you will see dozens of old Trabis for sale - almost all under 1000 euros. This was promising. But between Cliff and I we just didn't have the activation energy to pull the trigger. He had just invested in a new motorcycle, and I was thinking the German bureaucracy involved in purchasing, owning, registering, etc a new car was pretty daunting. As I said, we had thought of maybe getting a few guys to go in together on it. And then it occurred that maybe the coworkers in our lab would get a kick out of it. We approached our boss, Tony, with the idea of a "lab Trabi". Tony was instantly on board, and quite excited about the proposition. Within minutes he was on the phone with his local mechanic, inquiring into where and how the best way to get a respectable Trabi around here was. And before we knew it, the three of us were out looking at Trabis.

In the end, Tony was so game on the idea of a lab Trabi, that we worked out a deal. Tony would buy the Trabi and pay the initial expenses to get it running smoothly. Then everybody else that wanted to drive it would pay for registration, etc, and any repairs or costs that would come up over it's lifetime. A good deal. As it turns out, there's only 4 people that account for 90% of the mileage on the Trabi, and Cliff and I account for about 60%.

Since it's the lab car, we needed a logo. Nate had designed a logo for the lab, a mitotic spindle (the apparatus that divides chromosomes when cells divide, and the focus of most of my research), and so we had in translated into decals made to stick on the car. It actually turned out pretty nice, and Cliff, Misho, and I managed to professionally apply it to both sides in a few hours one evening.

There's so much more to tell about the Trabi, I really love the thing. Driving it is quite an experience. For example, there is no gas gauge. There is a stick under the hood with liters marked in it that you stick into the tank. It holds 24 liters (~ 6 gallons). It's a 2-stroke engine, like a motorcycle or a lawnmower, and you mix oil directly with the gas every time you fill up - mix it right into the tank. Top speed (in perfect conditions) is about 110 km/hr (70mph). The gear shift is on the steering column. etc.

We have the "kombi" - kind of the station wagon version of the Trabant 601. Basically instead of a trunk it's a hatchback. And it's functional - perfect for a trip to the gardening store:

Obamamania in Dresden (Nu Glaar, We Can)

Tomorrow, Barack Obama is coming to Dresden. And the city is FREAKING OUT. It's quite impressive. The newspaper has been running articles on it for 2 weeks. The Dresden police have been rehearsing for the visit the same if not longer. The city has even set up a website specifically for the visit: www.obama.dresden.de

Obama will be here I believe less than 24 hours total. He will make no scheduled public appearances. He will give no speeches. But that doesn't matter. The hype is out of control. Not being one to ignore hype, I got involved with Nate and Cliff and we conceived and designed the following graphic:

For those not familiar with Dresden, the building there is the most famous Dresden landmark, the Frauenkirche. Below, "Nu glaar, we can" is a shout out to the Saxony German dialect, where instead of "ja" you sometimes will here "nu" for "yes". "Glaar" is a phonetic spelling of the Saxon "klar". So it's meant to be a "yes we can" with a local appeal. Cliff and I have made it into stickers. I'll write it again here "nu glaar, we can", in case anybody sees a sticker and googles it - this is where to give credit/hate.

To give another example of the mania surrounding Obama's 18(?) hour visit to Dresden, every single tram in the city, as far as I can tell, has been outfitted with a banner declaring "Welcome, Mr. President!". This has been on the trams for the last week.

Air Force One is scheduled to land at the Dresden airport sometime tomorrow evening, along with ELEVEN other planes of support staff. And that doesn't include the giant C-5 that landed at the airport a few days ago and unloaded a helicopter and limo that will be Obama's transportation while he's here. Less than a day!!

Anyway, the city seems to be encouraging people to get out and about to perhaps catch a glimpse of the president - but with no guarantee that he will even appear in public. Also, a sizable fraction of the Altstadt around where Obama will be staying will be off limits to almost everybody as a security precaution. You're not even allowed to swim or fish in the Elbe tomorrow - special orders. I think I'll go out to check out the commotion, maybe to the airport, maybe around the secure area. The city apparently is planning a celebration nearby featuring American activities such as "cheerleaders" and "mechanical bull-riding" (no joke, check out the webpage). If I see anything interesting, I'll post more.

Sublime....

CocoRosie - Animals

In the Supermarket

I decided one day in the supermarket I would take a photo of everything with American- or Texas-related marketing. Interestingly, you see almost as much Texas stuff as American stuff.
As you will see, it's the most unhealthy and tasteless looking stuff you can find that gets the American branding. Sadly, fitting.

Here's what I saw:

We start off with the American classic, the cheeseburger. This one is prepared, packaged and frozen for your convenience, with the American flag in the corner. And what American wouldn't go for a good ol' "gebratene Rinderfrikadelle mit Schmelkäse" aka Cheeseburger?

And of course if you have cheeseburgers you got to have hot dogs:

American Style, which I suppose means made with all the bad parts of the pig and not the good parts like much German sausage. Although it's not very American-style to put them in a glass jar and advertise that they're wrapped in their own soft skin. Notice the prominent Statue of Liberty. A theme repeated in the American Style Pizza Supreme:

Also with American flag decoration. You can even more region-specific with a Texas big pizza, which appears to just be a spiced up pepperoni pizza. Although this combination brings up an interesting quirk of ordering pizza in Germany as an American. If you ask for 'pepperoni', you will get spicy pepper. If you want pepperoni, you would ask for 'salami'. Thus the peperoni-salami pizza below:

And then you have the Texas-Ribs. Already marinated and cooked and ready to go.

These don't actually say "American" or "Texas", but it's close:

It's not just meat, too. Check out the "Old Century Bourbon Whiskey".

Notice that it is "De Luxe". I wonder how much of the 8 euros per bottle is just to cover importing it from the USA. This stuff just seems really scary.

These may look familiar:

"Cool American" Doritos. Of course in the US we just call them "Cool Ranch". And I think when you're on a cool ranch you just call them "doritos."
And finally, I saved the best for last:

Feurige Texas Nudeln. It's like instant cup-o-soup. I actually had to buy this one. Surprisingly, it was actually spicy. Not real tasty. But it was spicy. Which is hard to find over here. Even when something says "fire-hot!"

Africa - Part 3: Visiting a Masai 'village'

On the second day before we headed out in the morning the guides asked us if we wanted to take an opportunity to see a Masai village (the tribe of this region). They would show us around their village and their traditions, show us some sort of traditional dance, etc. etc., and it was going to cost us each 40 dollars, I think it was. Maybe it was 20. Anyway, my initial reaction was to skip it – especially with the 40 dollar price tag in the middle of the Masai Mara – it seemed like there’s no way it would be genuine but rather a rehearsed show and dance that would leave me feeling uncomfortable. But the other five in our group were happy to go through with this and so I went with the crowd. We arrived at the village and were greeted by a young group of the village men. Most of them could speak English to some extent, some much better than others. These guys were all very tall and all looked to be between 17 and 25 in age. Except for one guy, who played kind of the part of tour leader among them, who looked unusually short and in his late 20s, but who was also the best English speaker and seemed to be in charge of the whole production. We later found out that he was the only one of the men not married, especially unusual given his age, and were given the impression he never would be. It wasn’t clear to me if this was because of his short stature which would make him relatively unattractive to the women in terms of the tribe traditions, or because perhaps he was gay. I’m thinking it may have been both.
So these guys did some singing and yelling and dancing for us – kind of what I had expected. And then proceeded to start what I’ve many times seen played out on TV and decided was one of my worst nightmares…
This is the part were the local tribe is doing their traditional dance and drags one of the white guys up in front of them to join in - simultaneously seeming to me to be making a mockery of their traditions and knowingly or unknowingly making a fool of the guys up there trying to dance (see George Bush on a number of occasions.) (Or maybe everybody’s trip to Hawaii that I’ve seen photos of.) You get the idea.
And so I was thrust into the middle of the Masai Mara warrior men to dance their traditional dance with them, trying my best to be a good sport and actually enjoy the experience, but in reality just thinking “this touristy crap is EXACTLY why I didn’t want to come out here and lose 40 dollars”. Anyway, all the guys in our little group were forced to eventually give it a shot. And at least I can come away saying I didn’t go through it sporting the most ferocious white man’s overbite that Mike was wearing (HA!) (see photo/click to enlarge)

They then showed us how they traditionally make fire...and then tried to sell us the sticks and wood they used to do this. Next we split up and each went into one of the family huts and the father figure would explain some of daily life...which was really the only interesting part of the whole thing. These tiny little huts made of cow dung were so dark and cramped. And then they would build a fire inside of them so also full of smoke. I guess they were very cozy though.

At the end of the tour we were directed over where, immediately adjacent to the village, was an area of about the same size, but compromised completely of makeshift cow dung tables where tribe women were selling handcrafts. It was basically a Masai shopping mall for tourists. I couldn't imagine this was representative of Masai life, which we'd paid 40 dollars to learn about. I'm not even convinced anybody there made the majority of things they were selling.
And I couldn't figure out what they could be doing with all that money. This little tribe must have been taking in 1000 dollars a day if not more in peak season. They appeared to be living off the land with everything we saw. I assume they actually lived there.

The rest of the day we spent finding more giraffes and elephants, hippos and crocodiles, ostriches and antelope.
The next morning we got up early and made the long journey back to Nairobi, and on the way we actually passed some real Masai villages, where the guides urged us not to take any photos.

We arrived back in Nairobi in the afternoon and Mike and I were able plan and buy tickets for the next leg of our trip, which we decided should be to fly straight to Zanzibar, as I didn’t have a lot of time to waste cruising by land over Kenya and Tanzania to get there. We found some dinner downtown near our hostel and got off the streets before it turned late.

Africa - Part 2: more Safari

We booked probably the shortest safari possible – 3 days, 2 nights I think it was. During the day on the way in to the park we already saw enough to be excited about, and we got up early after the first night in the camp to head out again. About 10 minutes out of camp I went to put my long lens on my camera and discovered I somehow had failed to include it in my backpack that morning. Distressed at the thought of bringing that giant lens all the way there and then going out on a safari in one of the situations where it really is necessary, I started to fret out load at my predicament, wanting to gauge if anybody cared enough to be willing to go back for it. The truck stopped, and after sitting there and some discussion, it was clear that nobody was really excited about turning around the truck and wasting more time, but nobody wanted to say it and probably wanted to keep me happy since we’d be spending the next 3 days together. And then just as we turned around I found my lens sitting next to me, which was quite embarrassing, but a relief for everyone.

At first it was very exciting to spot elephants and giraffes off in the distance. But I never imagined how close we could drive up to them. As long as we approached slowly, they seemed almost unaware we were there. I always imagined a safari as sneaking up on animals from 200 meters away, catching a glimpse as they ran away and desperately trying to photograph them with a super-telephoto lens. The elephants, giraffes, various antelope, and buffaloes we came across were none shy. But nothing compared to the lions. They would always just be lying there – we could drive up literally to within 5 feet of these guys. And they would just yawn and stare off into the distance. It was surprising, but then again, I guess with no predators they are well aware they are the kings there. What were we gonna do, get out of the truck? Even when they had cubs there jumping around – couldn’t seem to care less we were there. On the other end of the spectrum, unfortunately, were the warthogs and hyenas (not to mention of course the creatures we never saw). The sound of the truck in the distance would usually send these guys scurrying off. They were both particularly intriguing because of, if nothing else, their ugliness and the ways in which they would carry themselves. The warthogs like giant cute pigs vs. giant rodents. The hyenas were like stray dogs, yet evil with their hunched shoulders and large mouths. The animal that most impressed our guide, because he had not seen one like it before, was a giant snake. It was impressive, but with all the input we were getting so fast I would not have appreciated it as much of we had not been told how rare it was to see.

The landscape and atmosphere out there was really breathtaking. At one point I told myself I was going to smack Mike if he said “This is God’s country” one more time, but there was some sort of feeling of truth to it. Standing out the top of the land-rover, Titanic-style, with the wind though my hair as we cruised over the endless plains of grass with tiny giraffes and elephants always in the distance was unforgettable. I spent a lot of time when we were flying completely alone across the savannahs between animal sightings imagining that I was part of a party here in the 19th century, before photos and video and stories of Africa had really reached the west. What it would have been like to be along with the first new westerners that would explore (and exploit) the region for adventure and tales of adventure, tracking new animals. What it was like to be of necessity self-sufficient in ones travels. Wealthy, but nevertheless putting themselves in extreme danger.

I was able to get a number of nice pictures and a few movies of some interesting creatures, here are some of my favorites (click on them, as well as the ones above, to enlarge):

Next up:

Africa - Part 3 - The end of the safari including our little trip to a 'real' Masai village.

Africa - Part 1: Nairobi and Day 1 of Safari

I’m finally getting around to putting up some stories and photos from my trip to Africa. 9 months late. This seems to be a problem. I also would like to post about my trip to Venice, the ‘new’ Trabi, a trip Munich, and more….all that happened last year. But then I get lazy, especially now that I’m scanning in slides, and everything goes up 3 months later or not at all.
I regret from previous travels that I didn’t document or keep a dairy of what happened, as I find I randomly remember some old interesting stories, only vaguely jarred back to memory in unusual situations. Thus I think I should try to use this blog as a sort of journal to write this stuff down. Which could make for slow reading, but will serve well for having a more detailed description for myself to read in the future.
Anyway. Africa. There were a number of reasons this trip came together: 1) I’d never been anywhere in Africa 2) I wanted to go somewhere where I could dive, but hadn’t been before, and preferably not too touristy (i.e. not Egypt). 3) My old friend Mike could finally no longer contain the travel-itch and was planning on heading to Africa as well, so we timed heading out together. Mike visited Dresden for a few days and got to take in BRN before we headed for Nairobi.
I got off to a rough start. In the middle of our long flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi it somehow suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t packed my diver registration card. The worst feeling of doom swept over me as I convinced myself that I would now not be able to dive and this would consume me and my whole trip would be ruined. In dread I wanted someone to commiserate with me and I turned to Mike who was sitting behind me, but he had finally managed to find sleep. I was desperate to share my misery so I actually poked Mike to wake him up and said. “Mike. Mike. Mike. I forgot my dive card.” As you can imagine he was not enthused by all this. He just kind of looked at me like “thanks for waking me up, asshole.” I felt guilty and returned to my seat. I spent the rest of the flight trying to figure out scenarios in which I could get my card or manage to dive without it, and failing that how I would mentally not let it ruin the vacation. I’ve never seen a place let anybody dive without showing a card, but maybe this day and age they would have it all in the internet. But would the remote and probably sketchy dive operators have a facility to use this? Would it be possible that they would look the other way at the prospect at getting a hundred dollars from taking me out? This drove me crazy.
We didn’t spend much time in Nairobi, and it wasn’t just by luck. Nairobi has always had a pretty bad reputation for violence and crime, and with the recent violence following the elections in Kenya in December, it seemed more than sketchy. I managed to find a hotel to book that was across the street from the safari operator I had booked a safari with. That way it would be easy to roll out of bed in the morning to walk over and get on the truck out to the park. The hotel was typical budget lodging in a third world country – no frills. Mike and I had become somewhat disoriented with what time zone we were in and when exactly we were supposed to show up for the safari in the morning. Not wanting to miss the truck, Mike went down at what he thought was 5:30 am to walk over and check out the situation. Turned out it was 4:30am. He nearly tripped over the concierge who was sleeping inside the lobby stairwell, who woke up and asked Mike what the hell he was doing trying to go outside in downtown Nairobi at 4:30am. No, no, it’s too dangerous he told him. The safari leaves at 8 anyway - go back to your room. We showed up then promptly at about 7:30 to make sure we had all the forms/supplies we would need, and, as would become a theme on the trip, there was no urgency on the part of the people there, who suggested we go get breakfast or something. We found a nice looking, although empty, restaurant in the same building and ordered breakfast – eggs, sausage, toast, tea. The waiter was happy to take our order and disappeared into the kitchen. Shortly thereafter some of the staff left out the door. About 20 minutes later a boy came back in the restaurant with a grocery bag with what we expected was eggs, bread, and sausage. Seeing this made us laugh and Mike claim “I was worried you may not get the real Africa experience. Yeah, this is what I’m talking about.” Another 20 minutes later we were served our breakfast.
Eventually after stocking up on water, toilet paper, cheap rum, and cookies, the safari took off from downtown Nairobi. Nairobi I think must be the most polluted city I’ve ever been in. This includes cities such as Jakarta, Bangkok, Quito, Dar Es Salaam, and Makassar. It seemed like every vehicle on the road was pouring out thick black smoke that left everything grey. I noticed in the city between the jammed streets at one intersection a little gardening – some flowers. Put there by the city, with a proud sign. It was there to point out that they were trying to beautify the city and make life there better. It was so sad. Just so little among the backdrop of dust, trash, black smog, etc. If the city council really were to make an impact on this city it would have to start with some sort of cleaning and/or pollution legislation. As we made our way outside the city, the trucks were still expulsing thick black smoke, but they were much more diluted in number and the smoke no longer seemed trapped by the buildings. There were 6 of us on the safari, packed into a Land Rover along with our driver/guide and our cook. I think the ride was like 6-7 hours, most over unpaved roads. On the way to the park we passed along the Great Rift Valley and stopped for a photo-op and obligatory souvenir-stop:

This is the old don't tell 'em it's a movie at first trick

Besides Mike and I the safari participants were all teachers on summer break: Two American women working at international schools in Budapest, and an Irish couple that were I believe taught English back in Ireland. We arrived at the park in the late afternoon, and got our first glimpse of some wildlife while driving through the park on the way to our campsite on the other side. The wildlife was already breathtaking. Outside the park we did see some animals, but only various antelope and maybe some buffalo.

Once we got in it was completely different. Not long after we entered the park we came upon a colony of vultures on the side of the path we were driving along. They were clearly very aggressively devouring something. As we drove up they ignored the truck for the most part and we saw they were eating a baby antelope – and making quick work of it.

The company we booked with has a permanent sort of campsite set up not far from the outside of the park (it’s not allowed for them to have them inside). It actually had a number of permanent basic lodges and tents. But it was completely empty. Our guide explained to us that since the violence following the elections, we were the first group they had to go out on a safari. The camp could hold 60-80 people, but we were the only ones there. It was nice in that we had booked to sleep in tents but they upgraded us to the empty little cabins. Nothing luxurious – there was no electricity, and we shared a common outhouse. But what was pretty luxurious was that one of the guys would get up early and start a fire under the water tank/pump so that we would have hot water for a shower. The food was quite good, the guys cooked it up over a fire in the floor. The first night there Mike was restless and instead of sleeping decided to go out and explore around at night, eventually settling on our little porch and waiting to spot nocturnal wildlife. Or maybe elephants across the stream our cabin overlooked. At some point in the night, when everybody else was asleep, there was this sudden thundering of feet across the front of the cabins, causing, we found out the next morning, each of us to wake up individually. The others speculated that it was one of the guards chasing off some animals or something. In fact Mike had spotted a small nocturnal cat on one of the other cabins' stoops with his flashlight, and as it ran away attempted to chase it down, probably frightening the heck those in that cabin.

next, but probably not soon:

Part 2: the rest of the safari (with lotsa pictures of magnificent beasts)