Archive for June, 2009
A Matter of the Utmost Importance to National Security
Let’s visit the subject of my socks. Specifically, my black socks. There’s nothing quite so disconcerting as to arrive at church, look down at your feet, and see that you have one black and one blue sock on. As with misplaced strands of hair, one can only really hope that everybody around you actually doesn’t care about your appearance so much that the little details, like two dissimilar socks, are noted and logged for later review and chortling.
So here’s my proposition: standardize the black sock, just like the IEEE standardized the format of floating point representation.
Emily has been nagging me for quite some time to get rid of my hole-y black socks, so, for the first time in our recorded marital history, I authorized Emily to purchase for me new black socks as replacements. I have been hedging, dodging, bristling, avoiding, refusing, and generally unwilling to allow my hard-earned money to be spent on something so meaningless as a black sock. A new leaf has been turned. I am a new man.
I may actually be able to dress myself properly in the dark.
Airshow Gallery Up!
Posted by Spencer in Photography on June 12th, 2009
Check out the gallery of Airshow pics I just created. It’s only got 48 photos so far, but I’ll be adding to the gallery as I go through more of them.
Jets (and eggs) du jour
If the afterburning turbofans were too much, you could also tie some balsa wood to your back then hold on to a 500-plus horsepower prop engine and fly underneath 20-ft limbo poles. That’s what this guy and others like him do for their jollies. One lady even did all that upside down. Impressive, and a little nutty.
Below, an F-16 in the middle of a high-G turn. My friend (a Physics PhD student) says the white-streaked “clouds” on the wings is condensation being lifted off. Neither of us can figure out why the engine flame (or exhaust or whatever it is) comes out in pulses. Why not just a solid flame or smoke?
Finally, and almost as exciting, I cooked up a tasty breaktfast-for-dinner course the other day. I call it Eggs Spencir. The principal ingredients were eggs, red pepper flakes, diced onion, cut-up sausage, and quartered cherry tomatos. Everything combined as a scrambled-egg kind of an omelette. Very tasty! Too moist for Emily, though–she likes her eggs more like cardboard or drywall than like eggs. Bless her heart.
Near-Death Experiences
Posted by Spencer in Photography on June 9th, 2009
Feeling bored? Like there’s not enough excitement in your life? Here’s a thought: find a buddy, strap yourselves to the backs of two Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 turbofan jet engines (nearly 30,000 lbs of thrust which won’t even notice your measly 200-lb masses), perhaps add a little glass to stop the bugs, and fly as fast as you can toward each other. To make it even more exciting, you can paint your human asteroid machine with bright, pretty colors.
Whereas you and I consist of somewhere around 62.8% water, I’m guessing the pilots of the Thunderbirds over there have replaced 80-83% of their water with pure adrenaline.
Then, do it again. And again. Because apparently, once is not enough for a Thunderbird pilot. Do you suppose they can walk after they get out of their jets? I think I would collapse in a puddle of human jelly.
Also, check out this new photo at my photography website.
In Which Elephants Fly and I (almost) Turn My Head at Nearly 1,000mph
Posted by Spencer in Photography on June 8th, 2009
I wonder if perhaps the designers of the C-17 started with a picture of an elephant (Dumbo, for instance), attached wings with a little uptick at the ends, raised the tail, and called it the C-17 Globemaster. The thing is a beast, but I have to tell you–it was one of the most graceful, impressive demonstrations at the airshow. It landed in 3,000 feet of runway. For a plane that size, you might as well land in my non-existent driveway. It was absolutely amazing. I don’t know how many tons of metal floated like a hammer (on the moon) to the runway, and seemed to stop almost immediately.
Then it taxied backwards. And did a 3-point turn inside the 200-ft width of the runway.
That pilot is my new hero, because I can barely parallel park my 15-ft Honda Accord.
Let’s just say: I’m a newly admiring fan of the C-17.
After the C-17 there were F-16s. My D300 was set to 6fps, and I chattered away every time they flew over. Even with the best of technology, however, one should note a basic limitation of the standard photographer–the rate at which he or she is able to rotate skull and gray matter atop a spinal column, taking into effect the extra drag of a DSLR with a telephoto lens. You’ll note the effects in the second photo on the right. My max rotational speed appears to be slightly less than the required (slightly less than) 1,000mph.
(For the technically astute out there, no, I’m not going to use my vast store of trigonometric identities to translate the jet’s speed to the rotational speed of my head.)
The airshow was awesome. I don’t know how else to describe it. There aren’t many things in this world I’m willing to trade for experiences like getting off that base–2 hours in the hot sun and unmoving lines. But two Thunderbirds (F-16s) thundering barely a few hundred feet overhead at afterburner is enough to make me scream and melt like a teenage girl at a Hannah Montana concert. My chest, my whole body shook with the sound and shockwave. It was exhilarating.
I’ll have more to say about the airshow in upcoming posts. Check out this photo for now. The tails on those F-16s look to be about 5 feet apart, which is more like a half-inch when you consider the speed at which they’re traveling. Those guys are insane!
(Yes, mom, I put on sunscreen. Almost everywhere!)
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