National Trust
View allAll Photos Tagged explainer
♫ Keith Whitley - When You Say Nothing At All♫
It's amazing how you
Can speak right to my heart
Without saying a word
You can light up the dark
Try as I may, I could never explain
What I hear when you don't say a thing
The smile on your face
Lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes
Saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall
You say it best when you say nothing at all
All day long I can hear
People talking out loud (oooh)
But when you hold me near (you hold me near)
You drown out the crowd (the crowd, the crowd)
Try as they may, they can never define
What's been said between your heart and mine
The smile on your face
Lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes
Saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall
You say it best (you say it best) when you say nothing at all
The smile on your face
Lets me know that you need me
There's a truth in your eyes
Saying you'll never leave me
The touch of your hand says you'll catch me wherever I fall
You say it best (you say it best) when you say nothing at all
(You say it best when you say nothing at all
You say it best when you say nothing at all)
That smile on your face
The truth in your eyes
The touch of your hand
Lets me know that you need me
(You say it best when you say nothing At all
You say it best when you say nothing at all)
{Le'La}
LeLa - Ottavia Outfit
40 Textures Plain & Pattern
Jacket | Dress | Boots
Multiple Colors Combination via HUD
sizes Outfit
Maitreya/Petite Legacy/perky Kupra Belleza Gx Classic & Curvy Ebody Reborn Kalhene Erika
all info in the blog
♥ MeHoney ( Sponsor ) - Peyton
♥ BONDI ( Sponsor ) - Tamabondi Drone
♥ RAWR! (Sponsor ) - Regina Nails
The terraces were dug following the natural curves of the landscape. The thickness of the walls stores heat during the day and diffuses it at night. Thanks to this method it has been possible to obtain a different microclimate as one goes down and gets closer to the centre. An average temperature difference of 5°C was observed, whereas the difference is only 0.5°C over comparable height differences at the same location. Due to its sheltered position, each of the terraces represents approximately one thousand metres of altitude under normal growing conditions.
It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind.
T. S. Eliot
Mother Nature can be hard to explain, she is a figure who symbolizes our earth and the beauty of nature. Many see her as our supreme mother, who has created the wonders and gifts of nature that we are so lucky to live among.
"Mother Nature is always speaking. She speaks in a language understood within the peaceful mind of the sincere observer."
-Radhanath Swami.
Hace meses que se busca al arquitecto del hangar..debe explicar algunos cálculos. Since months ago seeking the hangar architect.... he must explain some calculation. :))
This isn't a planned photo. In fact I surprised Fynn when he played with the tinsel which was waiting on the living room table for my sister to come by and choose one for her tree. I could only quickly grab the camera and take this photo before Fynn remembered (a) that playing with the tinsel isn't allowed and (b) that he doesn't like the camera right now.
I think tattoos are a way to express yourself without words. Without having to explain yourself, people can look at your tattoos and see who you are.
~JODI MORGAN
Oxalis triangularis, commonly called false shamrock, is a species of perennial plant in the family Oxalidaceae. It is native to several countries in southern South America.
Oxalis triangularis are often referred to as “purple shamrocks.” The plant’s history can be traced back to St. Patrick, who held a similar plant and used the three leaves to explain the concept of the Holy Trinity to the Irish. Oxalis triangularis are not Irish natives, however – instead, they hail from Brazil.
Another eagle was approaching rapidly off frame towards this eagle with its meal pulled from the river.
I always have to explain this. This isn’t a baited image. I’m in a blind and behind me are approximately 200 doves eating away at feeders. The snowy love to predate on the doves. So this one obviously silent and me nearly asleep snuck up on me and this is all I got.
Does someone can explain why ever time I focus my camera on a flower, a wind (light or not) instantly begins to blow? :))
Crown-of-christ (Euphorbia milii) is a thorny shrub from Madagascar that is very widespread in Brazil, where it is used as an ornamental plant and as protection in hedges. Very widespread in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Bahia, it also receives the names of two-lovers, happily-married or two-friends, due to the fact that its small, red flowers always appear in pairs, at terminal summits. .
It consists of a perennial shrub up to 2 meters high, very branched, with long contorted branches, provided with numerous sharp needle-shaped spines, measuring about 3 centimeters in length.
These plants should be grown in full sun, preferably on fertile soils and with regular watering, but they adapt easily after being established in weak soils with little water.
Its handling must always be carried out with thick gloves and with great care, due both to the presence of the numerous thorns, and because it presents a toxic latex, which can cause irritation in the mucous membranes of the eyes, mouth and skin.
From Wikipedia.
I tried to explain to Gerrie that I did not want it untied and that it was to be used for props. He seemed to think it was a reading gift. He likes to read a little. I think he pretends to read.
Happy Teddy Bear Tuesday
Published by Berkeleyside, in the Berkeley Wire!
Thanks, Editors!!
----------------
A Berkeley institution. World-renowned pizza!
HDM! HTM!
AND it's a bakery--breads. This view shows the bakery work section, which is why we don't see any big pizza ovens. My son straightened me out on this. This is also adjacent to the sales, shipping , and carry out section, which may explain some of what we see.
And who better can explain this than David Attenborough, we need to pay attention to what he says and learn how we can make a difference!
David Attenborough: A Life on Earth | Full Documentary
www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_n4fFWcHAs
HSS 😊😊😍
With heartfelt and genuine thanks for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day, be well, keep your eyes open, appreciate the beauty surrounding you, enjoy creating, stay safe and laugh often! ❤️❤️❤️
As I already explained, I only had my zoom lens on my camera when I visited Nancy. It was therefore impossible for me most often, to my great regret, to take overall views of the monuments I saw.
Here, I fortunately found a reflective half sphere placed on the sidewalk. You could admire a reflection of the cathedral there. By taking this sphere from afar, I was able to restore with my zoom lens an original overall view of this building.
_____________________________________________
La cathédrale de Nancy en reflet
Comme je l'ai déja expliqué, je n'avais que mon objectif zoom sur mon appareil photo lorsque j'ai visité Nancy. Il m'était donc impossible le plus souvent, à mon grand regret, de prendre des vues d'ensemble des monuments que j'ai vus.
Ici, j'ai heureusement trouvé une demi sphère réfléchissante posée sur le trottoir. On pouvait y admirer un reflet de la cathédrale. En prenant cette sphère de loin, j'ai ainsi pu restituer avec mon zoom une vue d'ensemble originale de cet édifice.
_____________________________________________
Nancy - Lorraine - France
Can't explain this wind of the moment , it made me smile while taking it . She seen me... smiled .... the wind .... i click .... and i smiled too :)
cute Lady
Quoting Wikipedia to explain this German phenomenon/cult object:
The "Strandkorb" ((from German, lit. meaning: 'beach basket'; Danish: strandkurv; English: 'hooded beach chair') is a special hooded windbreak seating furniture used at vacation and seaside resorts, constructed from wicker, wood panels and canvas, usually seating up to two people, with reclining backrests. It was designed to provide comfort seating and shelter from wind, rain, sand gusts and sunburn on beach seafront resorts frequented by tourists. Other built-in details, like extendable footrests, sun awning, side folding tables and storage space, provide the user with several comforts.
Strandkörbe are found at nearly all beach seafront resorts of the German North Sea and Baltic Sea costa, as well as other beach seafronts. The Strandkorb beach-chair is considered a cult object of German "Gemütlichkeit", which has survived two world wars, social and industrial revolutions and the East-West divide of Germany. From spring to autumn, they can usually be rented from beach-chair wardens (German Strandkorbwärter). Two different shapes can be distinguished, the straight angular North Sea variety and the round rolling Baltic Sea variety.
This photo shows the Baltic - round - version :-).
Here's the chair's history: sunlimitedpatio.com/history/
IMPORTANT: for non-pro users who read the info on a computer, just enlarge your screen to 120% (or more), then the full text will appear below the photo with a white background - which makes reading so much easier.
The color version of the photo above is here: www.lacerta-bilineata.com/ticino-best-photos-of-southern-...
THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO:
So far there's only been one photo in my gallery that hasn't been taken in my garden ('The Flame Rider', captured in the Maggia Valley: www.flickr.com/photos/191055893@N07/53563448847/in/datepo... ) - which makes the image above the second time I've "strayed from the path" (although not very far, since the photo was taken only approximately 500 meters from my house).
Overall, I'll stick to my "only-garden rule", but every once in a while I'll show you a little bit of the landscape around my village, because I think it will give you a better sense of just how fascinating this region is, and also of its history.
The title I chose for the photo may seem cheesy, and it's certainly not very original, but I couldn't think of another one, because it's an honest reflection of what I felt when I took it: a profound sense of peace - although if you make it to the end of this text you'll realize my relationship with that word is a bit more complicated.
I got up early that day; it was a beautiful spring morning, and there was still a bit of mist in the valley below my village which I hoped would make for a few nice mood shots, so I quickly grabbed my camera and went down there before the rising sun could dissolve the magical layer on the scenery.
Most human activity hadn't started yet, and I was engulfed in the sounds of the forest as I was walking the narrow trail along the horse pasture; it seemed every little creature around me wanted to make its presence known to potential mates (or rivals) in a myriad of sounds and voices and noises (in case you're interested, here's a taste of what I usually wake up to in spring, but you best use headphones: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfoCTqdAVCE )
Strolling through such an idyllic landscape next to grazing horses and surrounded by birdsong and beautiful trees, I guess it's kind of obvious one would feel the way I described above and choose the title I did, but as I looked at the old stone buildings - the cattle shelter you can see in the foreground and the stable further up ahead on the right - I also realized how fortunate I was.
It's hard to imagine now, because Switzerland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world today, but the men and women who had carried these stones and constructed the walls of these buildings were among the poorest in Europe. The hardships the people in some of the remote and little developed valleys in Ticino endured only a few generations ago are unimaginable to most folks living in my country today.
It wasn't uncommon that people had to sell their own kids as child slaves - the girls had to work in factories or in rice fields, the boys as "living chimney brushes" in northern Italy - just because there wasn't enough food to support the whole family through the harsh Ticino winters.
If you wonder why contemporary Swiss historians speak of "slaves" as opposed to child laborers, it's because that's what many of them actually were: auctioned off for a negotiable prize at the local market, once sold, these kids were not payed and in many cases not even fed by their masters (they had to beg for food in the streets or steal it).
Translated from German Wikipedia: ...The Piazza grande in Locarno, where the Locarno Film Festival is held today, was one of the places where orphans, foundlings and children from poor families were auctioned off. The boys were sold as chimney sweeps, the girls ended up in the textile industry, in tobacco processing in Brissago or in the rice fields of Novara, which was also extremely hard work: the girls had to stand bent over in the water for twelve to fourteen hours in all weathers. The last verse of the Italian folk song 'Amore mio non piangere' reads: “Mamma, papà, non piangere, se sono consumata, è stata la risaia che mi ha rovinata” (Mom, dad, don't cry when I'm used up, it was the rice field that destroyed me.)... de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaminfegerkinder
The conditions for the chimney sweeps - usually boys between the age of 8 and 12 (or younger, because they had to be small enough to be able to crawl into the chimneys) - were so catastrophic that many of them didn't survive; they died of starvation, cold or soot in their lungs - as well as of work-related accidents like breaking their necks when they fell, or suffocatig if they got stuck in inside a chimney. This practice of "child slavery" went on as late as the 1950s (there's a very short article in English on the topic here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spazzacamini and a more in depth account for German speakers in this brief clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gda8vZp_zsc ).
Now I don't know if the people who built the old stone houses along my path had to sell any of their kids, but looking at the remnants of their (not so distant) era I felt an immense sense of gratitude that I was born at a time of prosperity - and peace - in my region, my country and my home. Because none of it was my doing: it was simple luck that decided when and where I came into this world.
It also made me think of my own family. Both of my grandparents on my father's side grew up in Ticino (they were both born in 1900), but while they eventually left Switzerland's poorest region to live in its richest, the Kanton of Zurich, my grandfather's parents relocated to northern Italy in the 1920s and unfortunately were still there when WWII broke out.
They lost everything during the war, and it was their youngest daughter - whom I only knew as "Zia" which means "aunt" in Italian - who earned a little money to support herself and my great-grandparents by giving piano lessons to high-ranking Nazi officers and their kids (this was towards the end of the war when German forces had occupied Italy).
I never knew that about her; Zia only very rarely spoke of the war, but one time when I visited her when she was already over a 100 years old (she died at close to 104), I asked her how they had managed to survive, and she told me that she went to the local prefecture nearly every day to teach piano. "And on the way there would be the dangling ones" she said, with a shudder.
I didn't get what she meant, so she explained. Visiting the city center where the high ranking military resided meant she had to walk underneath the executed men and women who were hanging from the lantern posts along the road (these executions - often of civilians - were the Germans' retaliations for attacks by the Italian partisans).
I never forgot her words - nor could I shake the look on her face as she re-lived this memory. And I still can't grasp it; my house in Ticino is only 60 meters from the Italian border, and the idea that there was a brutal war going on three houses down the road from where I live now in Zia's lifetime strikes me as completely surreal.
So, back to my title for the photo above. "Peace". It's such a simple, short word, isn't it? And we use it - or its cousin "peaceful" - quite often when we mean nice and quiet or stress-free. But if I'm honest I don't think I know what it means. My grandaunt Zia did, but I can't know. And I honestly hope I never will.
I'm sorry I led you down such a dark road; I usually intend to make people smile with the anecdotes that go with my photos, but this one demanded a different approach (I guess with this latest image I've strayed from the path in more than one sense, and I hope you'll forgive me).
Ticino today is the region with the second highest average life expectancy in Europe (85.2 years), and "The Human Development Index" of 0.961 in 2021 was one of the highest found anywhere in the world, and northern Italy isn't far behind. But my neighbors, many of whom are now in their 90s, remember well it wasn't always so.
That a region so poor it must have felt like purgatory to many of its inhabitants could turn into something as close to paradise on Earth as I can imagine in a person's lifetime should make us all very hopeful. But, and this is the sad part, it also works the other way 'round. And I believe we'd do well to remember that, too.
To all of you - with my usual tardiness but from the bottom of my heart - a happy, healthy, hopeful 2025 and beyond.
Some things you can work out just by looking at them - some you can't. (Usually until someone explains it; and sometimes not even then).
Mid Devon show, Knighthayes Court, Tiverton, Devon, UK.
The Ocean's Tides Explained
The alternating pattern of rising and falling sea level with respect to land is what we know as the tides. What causes this "motion of the ocean"? In one word, gravity. Specifically, the gravitational forces of the Sun and Moon.
The key to understanding how the tides work is understanding the relationship between the motion of our planet and the Moon and Sun. As the Earth spins on its own axis, ocean water is kept at equal levels around the planet by the Earth's gravity pulling inward and centrifugal force pushing outward.
However, the Moon's gravitational forces are strong enough to disrupt this balance by accelerating the water towards the Moon. This causes the water to 'bulge.' As the Moon orbits our planet and as the Earth rotates, the bulge also moves. The areas of the Earth where the bulging occurs experience high tide, and the other areas are subject to a low tide.
Moonconnection.com
Tomorrow it's the turn of another guy.
Jardin Charles-Trenet on Rue Brillat-Savarin, Maison Blanche (13e)
Paris, France 31.05.2022
Der Welterklärer
Morgen ist ein anderer dran.
Jardin Charles-Trenet an der Rue Brillat-Savarin, Maison Blanche (13e)
Paris, Frankreich 31.05.2022
I honestly cannot explain how this outfit came about. Probably too much Easter candy. Hahaha :)
I have a nice little blog - please visit! Charisma
Put together like so:
Head: Lelutka EvoX Avalon 3.1
Body: Maitreya Lara 5.3
Skin: Amara Beauty
Eyes: Avi-Glam
Shape: Mine - Laurna v.17
Enhancements:
Lucci
Ensemble:
Outfit : Dernier - Beagle Sister Latex Mask & Catsuit in Pink
Hat: Dernier - Shea Hat in Pink
Shoes: Gos - So Chic Stilettos
Sunglasses: DeLa - Sunglasses De1 for Ladies
Headband: Monso - My Bunny Band Gift - White
Poses:
Pixit - Manaram
Everglow - Girls622 (Vintage)
I cannot. A double-exposure, the first thing one would jump to, is out. How could the second exposure on the same frame just selectively put in the three rectangular images without all the surrounding details? Very weird. I cannot possibly explain it but maybe one of you can. This was not taken through a window. I was standing out on our balcony in the open air.
Yashica FX-3 Super 2000 with Yashica ML 28mm f/2.8
Portra 400
February 9, 2021
Come here during the day and this area is awash with visitors, a plethora of selfie sticks and smiling faces- if you’re under 20 and want a picture of yourself with giant bunny ears and whiskers to post on social media against an iconic Californian backdrop, then this is definitely the location for you.But if you come here at either end of the day when the beach is practically deserted and the bridge lights are on, there is a completely different feel about it. And the few people that are still around are generally way more interesting.
It was here I met Santiago, sitting propped up in an old canvas chair, two wooden stakes driven into the sand on either side of him like markers of his own tiny kingdom. His grey beard was lit by the glow of a small camp fire and two dogs, each no larger than one of my cats were curled up by his feet. A pair of battered brown shoes sat near him along with a plastic carrier of sorts and a thin line of smoke curled from the fingers of his left hand as he looked out over the water. At first, I was slightly wary- I’d just taken a series of images including this one and was moving further along the shoreline to try a different angle, which meant that I passed close by him. His dogs stirred lazily at the sound of my feet and as I came within a few metres, I got to see him slightly better- he was maybe in his 60s with a deeply lined face and a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. Framed by the bridge and lit by the embers of his fire, he presented an incredible sight and so I set up to shoot with him in the foreground. Some of you have seen these images but I haven’t posted them here yet. After a few frames, I approached him and showed him the pictures, offering to delete them if he wasn’t comfortable. Turning his head, he motioned for me to sit on the sand in the half light and drawing on his cigarette asked my name.
There are moments in life which stay with you for a long time. For an hour we talked, sat in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge by his camp fire. He told me that he had retired from his business which he’d built up over the course of a lifetime and was spending a year travelling - sleeping on beaches until he was moved on. He explained that he’d had a good life – lucky in many ways- but had always yearned for freedom and adventure, things that running a business and supporting his family had not allowed. This was his time, he said.
And so, this image is for Santiago, wherever he is now. For an unexpected friendship and for his parting words as I left
“Bridges. You can never be sure whether to cross them again or burn them”
He will only access his email again in the Spring and if he allows, I’ll post his image here.
Sweet dreams!
* As if I need to explain myself, but it appears that on Flickr many people do not understand that the choices photographers make also can include soft focus. A sharp photograph here would have destroyed the kind of light I wanted coming from this window (enlarge the photograph to see its luminance). There is also the serious issue of peering into someone's room without their permission. So the choice was obvious. I will continue to make the photographs I wish to make - this is part of a series of 65 photos on suburban dreams - and if you do not like them then may I kindly ask you to refrain from visiting my page! Thank you to those of you who understand that there is more to photography than reproducing what can already be seen with the naked eye.
Telling NASA's Tales With Hollywood's Tools
Space Center Uses Pixar's Palette To Artfully Explain Scientific Data
By Michael S. Rosenwald
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 21, 2006; D01
[We are lucky to be working with world class data visualizers and animators. This article in the Washington Post is one of the best print stories I've seen on the folks who are on the front lines of translating our science and making it accessible to our many audiences.]
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/20/...
Every once in a while when a new movie with mind-blowing special effects or oh-my-gosh-it-looked-so-real animation opens, a nondescript office at NASA Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt will mysteriously empty of employees during matinee hours.
Before an investigation is launched into the whereabouts of these workers -- particularly, say, around last year's opening of "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" -- understand that they are not blowing off work. The absentee employees are animators, NASA staffers and contractors who use the same software Pixar Animation Studios uses to tell stories about talking cars to instead tell stories about the Earth. They just want to see what their counterparts in Hollywood have been up to.
There is the occasional did-you-see-that elbow nudge, but in their case it's about craft, not cinematic delight, said Horace Mitchell, project manager at the space center's scientific visualization studio. Mitchell is a NASA employee, but the studio is staffed primarily by animators working for Global Science & Technology Inc., a government contractor in Greenbelt. The company uses the Hollywood software, including Pixar's RenderMan and Autodesk Inc.'s Maya, to translate complicated data into animated movies that illustrate what is happening in and around Earth. The videos often end up on the evening news.
The crucial difference in NASA's use of the software is that Hollywood uses it to spin inspiring, happy-ending stories about love and courage and friendship and hope, while the animators in Greenbelt are often telling stories about bad things happening in the atmosphere, such as last year's hurricane season. In their chilling short film "27 Storms: Arlene to Zeta," set to Vincenzo Bellini's eerie music, viewers can watch the ocean heat up, helping fuel one storm after another -- thanks to the same Pixar software used in the upcoming version of "Charlotte's Web."
NASA oceanographer Gene Carl Feldman frequently collaborates with the Global Science studio. He studies the ocean from space.
"Visualization is that link between the flood of data coming down from space and the ability of the human mind to interpret it," Feldman said. "That's the crux of the story. Better than most other groups in the world, they are able to take this fire hose of data coming down and turn it into images -- visual animation -- that then allows the general public to see this data in ways their brains can interpret and study."
The Hollywoodization of NASA data is in part the result of Pixar's success in creating real-life worlds from fantasy stories. People have come to expect that even the most fantastical of ideas -- a talking, curmudgeonly Mr. Potato Head -- can look and feel exceedingly real. "They don't expect to see crudity," Mitchell said. "They expect to see sophistication because they see it everywhere. In order for us to tell the story, we have to be sophisticated about telling stories and we have to use sophisticated technology to tell them."
Pixar was spun off from George Lucas's film company, and its early days were spent selling animation software and hardware -- a way to pay the bills until computer technology caught up with the firm's vision of making the incredibly life-like films that it produces today.
Today, anyone can purchase versions of RenderMan online, for $995 to $3,500.
Global Science, a private company that employs about 250 people, is definitely not a movie studio. It was founded in 1991 by Chieh-san Cheng, a former employee of an aerospace and technology company with advanced degrees in technical management and meteorology. Global Science provides services in applied science and research, geospatial standards, engineering services, and information technology. The firm's contract with NASA is a small part of its business, contributing about $650,000 a year to about $45 million in revenue.
Global Science and Pixar know about each other, but interaction between the staffs is generally limited to animation conferences and trade shows. But the Global Science staff does feel a strong bond with Pixar, particularly when watching one of its movies.
Jim Williams, a Global Science animator, said, "I'll go into it thinking I'm going to look at the technical stuff and then I'll get completely sucked into the story."
This happened during Pixar's recent hit, "Cars."
"I'm watching it, I'm totally into the story, and they get to the end and they go into that stadium, and there's tens of thousands of cars in there and I drop out of the story and think, 'Wow, that must have been a pain in the butt to get that right.' And then I'm back into the story," he said.
The difference between the storylines is that Pixar is trying to get laughing cars right and Global Science is trying to get the atmosphere right. The way in which Global Science uses RenderMan is not easy. Here's one way of looking at it: This article has been typed on a word processor. The computer received the data -- in this case, they looked like letters -- and displayed them on a screen. The lines were long, containing dozens of words. Those words needed to appear in the newspaper, and to do that a graphic designer used another program to render and squeeze the words into narrow columns of newsprint, with black type, a font, and italics , and so forth so the words appear in the paper as they do now. That's essentially what RenderMan does for data -- whether it be information about Buzz Lightyear's appearance or atmospheric models of hurricanes. RenderMan is the mechanism by which data are translated. Another program, Maya, acts as the word processor.
Global Science translates scientific data this way. Recently, one of its animators sat behind a computer monitor in a dark room with an image that could have appeared as a backdrop in a Van Gogh painting. But it was a depiction of aerosols moving across the atmosphere, a way of illustrating air quality. Yellow represented dust, the green was sulfates produced by humans, the blue was sea salt. Altogether, it was sort of beautiful but apparently not good news for the atmosphere.
Like their Hollywood counterparts, the Global Science animators typically refer to their finished products as releases, but the scripts are composed of data and the script writers are some of the world's most brilliant scientists. The creative process generally works like this: A scientist or a public affairs officer will ask the animators to illustrate a concept or data set. It can be as simple as ocean temperatures or as complicated as a collection of satellite images. A discussion with the scientific team and public affairs officer ensues over the best way to illustrate the data, and the animators get to work.
Feldman, the NASA oceanographer, studies oceans from space because, as he said: "Oceans are really, really, really big and they change very, very quickly. You can't track that from a ship. What a satellite sees in a minute would take a ship a decade." Feldman is particularly interested in the relationship between the changing environment and ocean life, which he pursues by studying the first level of life in the ocean, or microscopic plants, through ocean color.
The only problem is that satellites collect a very large amount of complicated data. The visualization studio helps him make sense of it. Feldman has made animations of what happened to the ocean during the transition between El Niño and La Niña -- "it was the biggest phytoplankton bloom in the world ever observed," he said. He has animated Lake Michigan's microscopic plant blooms and a dust storm the size of Spain that blew across the ocean in the past few years. He has animated autumn in Boston, which roughly translates into, as he put it, "how life follows the sun."
If Cheng, chief executive of Global Science, has his way, NASA scientists wouldn't be the only people relying on his firm's handling of Hollywood software to explain complicated subjects. Cheng would like to use the software to better explain the human body to doctors. He said the company is finalizing plans for a medical-imaging division and is exploring the possibility of a partnership with Maryland universities.
"What we could do is use movie techniques to give the doctor and medical staff more dynamic and accurate images to make a diagnosis," he said.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Ads by Google
As I explained in the description to my "Suburban Dreams" slideshow, each of these photographs are related to the other. www.flickr.com/photos/luminosity7/52638166831/in/datepost...
They are not random shots, but each tells us one more thing about the nature of a typical modern working class suburb. I always work in series, but this collection was most definitely planned. The twilight setting and light is all part of the creation of a mood. Is it possible to find things of beauty in the midst of the mundane and ordinary? That's more about philosophy than photography. And why I am such an odd fit for Flickr.
We all have those days. You get in from a busy day at work - with a stomach ache, might I add - sit down to eat your dinner and would you believe it? A chestburster. Not another one. And then, as your horrified wife asks if you meant to keep that monster, you explain to her that you'd wanted one for a while and would be forever indebted to her if she let you keep it, and that you're a bit preoccupied to be having this conversation right now.