The Phoenix Sun

If you’ve already seen GigaPan panoramas on Google Earth, you know how amazing and powerful this technology is. If you haven’t seen it in action, you should. And here’s your chance, Southwestern style.

The GigaPan apparatus is a robot designed to create data-rich images that can be viewed at full resolution only on computers (the prints would be the size of a billboard depending on how many individual shots are stitched together. Here’s my image of the amazing petroglyphs at Deer Valley Rock Art Center in north Phoenix, combining 21 zoomed-in photos.

Not a whole lot to see, right? Now view it at the GigaPan site. Oh, yeah.

Want to see it in situ? Try viewing it on Google Earth: View in Google Earth 4.2+.

I bought the GigaPan for a Kickstarter project photographing one of the most important botanical gardens on Earth: Kirstenbosch in South Africa. It’s an awesome place. (There’s more information about the Gardens at my Kickstarter page — just follow the link in the previous sentence. (And if you feel so inclined, I encourage you to support for this project. You’ll notice there are lots of cool rewards for pledges — that’s how Kickstarter works.)

I’ll be writing more about the GigaPan technology in my Forbes blog soon. For now, I’ll just play with my new toy…I mean, practice my technique with this new photographic tool.

Cheers!

From the Speed channel series, Speedmakers, this video looks at the Tesla Roadster, Chevy Volt, and the Jaguar C-X75, with a fair amount of time devoted to the innovative technologies used by each car.

Here’s my post at Forbes.com after test driving the Tesla Roadster.

Nothing fancy, here — just the press release issued by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ office this afternoon:

U.S. REP. GABRIELLE GIFFORDS COMES HOME TO TUCSON FOR WEEKEND

Brief private visit follows release from Houston rehab hospital

TUCSON – U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will return to her hometown of Tucson this weekend for a brief private visit with her family.

Giffords will make no public appearances and will grant no interviews during the visit, her first to Arizona since January.

“We’ve been dreaming of this trip for some time,” said Giffords’ husband, Navy Capt. Mark Kelly. “Gabby misses Tucson very much and her doctors have said that returning to her hometown could play an important role in her recovery. It is sure to be very emotional. For this reason, I hope the media understands our need for privacy.”

The much-anticipated visit follows her discharge from TIRR Memorial Hermann and the start of outpatient treatment.

“For five long months, Gabby has been living and working in the rehab facility in Houston,” Kelly said. “Now that she is an outpatient, her first priority is coming home to the place that is such a source of strength for her.”

Giffords, a third-generation Tucsonan, was flown to Houston on Jan. 21 in critical condition. She has undergone intensive rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann since Jan. 26. Giffords’ family selected that facility because it consistently has been recognized as one of the top-rated rehabilitation hospitals in the country.

Giffords will travel by private plane from Houston to Tucson on Friday with her husband and one of his two daughters. She will spend Father’s Day weekend with her family.

Over the past five months in Houston, the congresswoman frequently has expressed her desire to return home and said how much she misses Tucson. She has talked regularly with friends and visitors from Tucson and maintains a keen interest in events in her hometown.

Since arriving at TIRR, Giffords has left Houston twice. In late April, she flew to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the planned launch of the space shuttle Endeavour, commanded by Kelly, a NASA astronaut. Mechanical problems forced a launch delay and Giffords flew back to Florida two weeks later for the successful May 16 launch.

Kelly returned from a 16-day mission to the International Space Station on June 1 and was reunited with the congresswoman a day later. Giffords celebrated her 41st birthday on June 8.

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I’ve written “Gabby-Watch” posts for Forbes.com recently, here and here.