Vigilance

ORIGINAL IMAGE: FoundPhotos 10 Eastern > DSC00452.jpg

Saturday Salticidae: Tiny Tiger

Photographed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina by Lynette Schimming.

Phidippus mystaceus is one of the most colorful North American jumping spiders, and with a startling haircut to boot.

Just imagine strolling around the edge of a leaf and running into this eight-legged, orange striped, green-eyed tiger. ROWR!

Smithereens

Moving in for a close encounter at two football fields per second.

In perhaps their most widely seen test, Sandia National Labs mounted a McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom jet — sans crew — onto a rail rocket sled and propelled it at 480 mph into a large reinforced concrete block 3.66 meters thick. Why?

The purpose of the test was to determine the impact force, versus time, due to the impact, of a complete F-4 Phantom — including both engines — onto a massive, essentially rigid reinforced concrete target (3.66 meters thick). Previous tests used F-4 engines at similar speeds. The test was not intended to demonstrate the performance (survivability) of any particular type of concrete structure to aircraft impact. The impact occurred at the nominal velocity of 215 meters per second (about 480 mph). The mass of the jet fuel was simulated by water; the effects of fire following such a collision was not a part of the test. The test established that the major impact force was from the engines.

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object? I'll put my tax dollars where they have the biggest impact — on that 12 feet of concrete:

Watch SNL's streaming video for different angles of view and super slo-mo playbacks.

Small Faces

Henrietta Anne, Duchess of Orleans (1660-61). Watercolor on vellum by British portrait miniaturist Samuel Cooper [high-res, watermarked].

Until the advent of inexpensive photographic carte de visites, locket-sized hand painted portrait miniatures — typically executed in watercolor on vellum (mounted on playing cards) or thinly-sawn sheets of translucent ivory (for luminous skin tones) — were de rigeur personal gifts among European royalty, nobility, and the comfortably well-off from the 16th to 19th Century.

The best small paintings came from Britain, and Samuel Cooper (1608-1672) is regarded as the finest artist of the genre: more of his beautiful work is here, here, and here. Other British portrait miniatures can be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum, including excellent examples by:

• Richard Cosway (1742-1821)
• Richard Crosse (1742-1810)
• Richard Gibson, (1615-90)
• Nicholas Hilliard, (1547-1619)
• John Hoskins (1590-1665)
• Anna Mee (1771-1851)
• Jeremiah Meyer (1735-1789)
• Isaac Oliver (1560-1617)
• Andrew Robertson (1777-1845)
• William Charles Ross (1794-1860)
• John Smart (1742-1811)

A superb self-portrait in watercolor on ivory by John Smart (1797).

Brief biographies of the artists are here (sorted by last name): A-E, F-L, M-Z.

Most patrons (and many miniaturists) turned to photography in the 19th Century because it quickly captured a "better" likeness at less expense. Until color film and paper arrived, black & white photographic miniatures were printed on ivory substitutes, then hand-painted with watercolors to add life to the image.

Unfortunately, a camera never sees the whole truth. OTOH, the eyes and hand of a good painter can reveal what their subject should look like.

Pics in Space

NASA enhanced* image of Grey Glacier [high-res] in Chile's spectacular Torres del Paine National Park. The original image was taken through the International Space Station's optical WORF window with a digital Kodak DCS 760 camera and 800mm lens, June 4, 2007 (exposure data).

The above photo is part of the Earth Observatory collection at The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth (GAPE), which contains over one million images shot by NASA astronauts:

Beginning with the Mercury missions in the early 1960s, astronauts have taken photographs of the Earth. Our database tracks the locations, supporting data, and digital images for these photographs. We process images coming down from the International Space Station on a daily basis and add them to the 726,535 views of the Earth already made accessible on our website. These images include 282,936 from the International Space Station.

Other GAPE image collections include Mission Highlights, Earth from Space, Cities, Earth Disc, and the Weekly Top Ten. A clickable world map lists all photos in a particular grid location.

Talk about a tripod to die for: the current orbital position of the ISS can be seen in real time.

*The image enhancement process is explained here, along with a slide show of the Photoshop steps used to transform a camera photo into a final image.

There's No Beatin' Keaton

Buster Keaton silently takes the fall in Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928)

As big Hollywood stars are paid ever more astronomical sums, no production can risk losing a leading actor, and cast/completion insurance is as vital as a camera in making a movie. Risky scenes are planned and performed by professional stunt men and women, and truly dangerous scenes may be created entirely out of whole CGI cloth.

In Hollywood's early days, stunt work frequently fell directly on the star's shoulders. Silent film star Buster Keaton — the deadpan Great Stone Face — was intimately involved in the production of his films. Besides acting and directing, he planned and performed dangerous stunts himself, and it's that extra edge of reality behind the screen illusion that makes Keaton's films enjoyable even today.

One of his most memorable stunts starts about 57:20 into Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) [full YouTube movie]. Hiding in bed from a windstorm that wrecks the town of River Junction, he's blown down a street and stops in front of a house. Its front wall blows down, and the open attic window falls precisely around our unsuspecting hero. Had Keaton moved a few inches in any direction as the wall fell, he could have been seriously injured or killed.

Humor is a close relative of tragedy: as TIME magazine essayist Pico Iyer once said, "Comedy is nothing more than tragedy deferred." When it comes to slapstick screen comedy that hits the mark just this close to disaster, there's no school like the old school to keep us entertained.

Many classic Buster Keaton films can currently be seen in their entirety on YouTube: there's a list of links here: make some popcorn and enjoy.

Peace, Noun

ORIGINAL IMAGE: FoundPhotos 10 Eastern > img_0018.jpg