Some say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Well, that makes me insane. This is the third year I've submitted pictures to the Trains Magazine photo contest. Thus far, nothing has happened with my submissions save for an envelope full of returned prints arriving in my mailbox between February and March the next year. This year's theme was "Bridging the Gap," and I submitted some pictures similar to a couple I've posted here, including an earlier frame from the series I took of a City Night Line train crossing the river Spree just east of Berlin Hauptbahnhof (bridging the gap between the former West and former East Berlins), and two different pictures of trains (one French, one German) crossing the Rhein between Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany (bridging the gap between former Ally to former Axis). The remaining two submissions are quite different. One is a rather ordinary picture of a narrow-gauge tram crossing the Neckar on a reasonably elegant arched steel beam bridge in downtown Mannheim, and the most creative one I think is of a temporary footbridge laid upon the railheads of brand-new tram tracks that haven't yet had their crossties set in concrete. To make it even better, the shot's at night, and the street lights all have consistent six-pointed flares whilst projecting clear shadows of the bare rebar crossties awaiting the next day's pour.

On a completely unrelated note, I just got a six-pack of National Geographic nature programs on Blu-Ray, and it is an incredible experience to watch them projected on the wall with 5.1 surround sound. It's better than an action film, plus who wouldn't like to see an infant blue whale close up? It just happened for the first time in January of 2008. The scientists confirmed three big theories during the same expedition: 1. that blue whales feed year round, unlike most other species that feed in the north, then fast whilst calving in the tropics. 2. that blue whales calve in the region of the "Costa Rica Dome," an area in the Pacific where the nutrient rich, cold water of the deep rises close to the surface, pushing krill and other whale food to convenient depths for mothers to feed without leaving their calves unattended on the surface. 3. that blue whales mate in the same area. It was also found by a team of anti-whale-poaching sleuths in Japan, that there are confirmed cases of blue whales and fin whales interbreeding, creating a whale that looks like a fin whale from above and a blue whale from below. The theory is that the extremely low population numbers of blue whales has inspired some to mate with their close cousins.