In the Headlights

Breaking the Barrier

 

Dee Ray sent us an email with a bunch of pictures of jets with vapor cones around them.  According to Wilk4, this phenomenon can be seen at lower speeds under the right conditions. 

This phenomenon, called the Prandtl-Glauert singularity has to do with rapid changes in temperature and pressure as a plane approaches the speed of sound.  Condensation forms because of cooling of the air.  This phenomenon is more common as planes fly over the ocean, because of the high humidity.  Many great photographs have been taken  from Navy carriers.

[Image and details from Wilk4]

[Thanks, Dee Ray]

Limnology

Yesterday, I was talking with a friend and found out his father was a limnologist.

I nodded sagely, thinking fast.  "Limn--outline with light, like a cloud with the sun outlining it from behind", thought I.  I said  "so he does something with lights?"

No.  Somehow, it was another limn.

Limn means to portray or represent in drawing or painting.  "To illuminate" is obsolete!  Limn comes through old French back to the Latin, inluminare, to embelish or light up, the same source as for illuminate.

Limnology on the other hand, comes from the Greek, limne, meaning pool or marsh.  Limnology is the study of the physical, geographic and biological features of fresh bodies of water like lakes or ponds.

[Image via Wangjianshuo's Blog]

Brown to Black and Back Again

I first decided I really liked Brighton products because a few years ago I became very frustrated with having to change everything in my purse if I wanted to go from brown to black shoes.  I even designed a purse "shell".  You'd have a purse liner in which you kept all your stuff, and could change the outside shell, altering colors, styles, levels of dressiness.  I even saw a patent lawyer about it, but found that this type of idea had been patented before.  Not exactly the same thing, but the ideas were similar.  Good thing I didn't quit my day job.

Speaking of which, one day, black shoes, next day earth tones.  It got tiring.  Not that I actually changed my purse, mind you, but the fact that I didn't and the knowledge that I wasn't coordinated rankled a bit.

It was a revelation when my friend Sue visited a few years ago.  She had a brown and black Brighton  bag.  "Eureka", says I.  When I looked into it further, I decided (after I recovered my breathing) that they cost more than I could in all conscience pay for a purse.  I did, however, manage to spend countless hours on eBay looking for the right purse.  I wound up finding a couple of wallets I liked and bidding on them.  My wallet rule is that it has to be narrow enough that I can take it out of the purse and slip it into my jeans if I don't feel like carrying a purse.  I found just the right one.

Anyway, to make a long story even longer, last Spring, a friend gave me the perfect Brighton purse.  She said it was to make up for my recent birthday and last Christmas.  It's perfect.  I've been carrying it for a year now, and it still looks brand new, in spite of the fact that I am not particularly easy on purses...or clothes, or shoes...but I digress.   It goes with everything unless I get a wild hair and decide to wear bright blue, which, for some reason never happens.

Thanks, M.  I'm still dazzled.

[The illustration isn't the same bag, but it's pretty close.  From Brighton.]

Berry Worst of 2006

It's that time of year again.  Yes... time to pick movies that represent the very worst in filmmaking for the 27th Annual Golden Raspberry (affectionately known as "Razzie")Awards.

Actually, nominations are in, but this year, in a complete departure from tradition, movie-goers like (or maybe unlike) you (and me) can help decide who gets plutoed this year.  Sadly, you have to join (i.e. pay money) to get voting priviledges.  But membership has its rewards.  You'll get invited to attend the ceremony in Hollywood.

Anyway, here are the nominations:

Worst Picture:

Basic Instinct 2
Bloodrayne
Lady in the Water
Little Man
Wickerman

Worst Actress:

Hillary & Haylie Duff
Lindsay Lohan
Kristanna Loken
Jessica Simpson
Sharon Stone

Worst Actor:

Tim Allen
Nicholas Cage
Larry the Cable Guy
Rob Schneider
Rob and Marlon Wayons

Go here for the details and other categories.

I can't vote.  I didn't see any of the nominated films.  I do like this quote, though, from the L.A. Times review of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct 2 playing a femme fatale who was "footloose and panty-free".

[Via Razzies]

What Not to Name Your Pet

Top 10 Dog Names in the U.S.:

Max
Jake
Buddy
Maggie
Bear
Molly
Bailey
Shadow
Sam
Lady

Top 10 Cat Names in the U.S.:

Tigger
Tiger
Max
Smokey
Sam
Kitty
Sassy
Shadow
Simba
Patch

Lots of imagination out there.  Heck, some of the names even overlap. Apparently owners of Max, Shadow and Sam suffer from pet ambiguity.

None of my cats has ever had a name from this list.

These lists and many more from Bow Wow Meow where they have lots of tips on animal names and meanings,some naming suggestions for singles and pairs, as well as some dog and cat food calculators and a dog age calculator.  The photos by Steve Packer the Phodographer are from the site.

[Via the Florida Times-Union]

Crystal Clear

I have a few watches.  In the past, I wore the same watch every day, but lately, I've started switching them out every day or two.  Just another attempt to keep myself amused, I guess.

I've always liked the clean, simple but elegantly beautiful lines of Movado watches.  It wasn't always that way.  My friend Sharon is a Movado lover and I guess years of seeing hers rubbed off on me, so now I have a couple:  an everyday watch and a dress watch from Movado, as well as earrings and a ring, and some glassware. The Movado Group also make lines of watches with other names (Ebel, Concord, ESQ Swiss, Coach, Hugo Boss, Juicy Couture, Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger).   I had looked for a watch on eBay for a long time, but later discovered that the outlet mall near here had a Movado store, and that was that.

I wondered what those little labels that said "sapphire crystal" really meant.  For some reason, I had it in my head that the black face of the classic Movado was the sapphire part.  But when I thought about it, the crystal is the clear part of the watch (unless you mean the "quartz crystal", which is something else entirely).

So it seems that watch crystals can be made from plexiglass (more shatterproof, but easily scratched), mineral glass (like windows) or synthetic sapphire (identical in composition to colored sapphires without the coloring agent, and almost as hard as diamond--9 on a Mohs hardness scale, compared with 10 for a diamond).

If you have more questions, Europa Star has the answers.

Wool Gathering

I bought a beautiful wool sweater (75% Merino, 25% Angora) in Scotland last year.  It's almost a jacket, with a collar that tapers down the front and two large pockets.  I love it.  But maybe a bit less now that I have noticed that it is forming pills on the sleeves and sides.

Pills are those little wool balls that form in areas of friction (or just wherever).  You can pick them off, and they coming back.

The Wool Bin suggests using sticky tape to remove them, much as you would use it to remove lint from a garment.  Sorry, mine require a bit more horsepower.  They recommend D-Fuzz-It sweater and fabric combs, or a Sweater Stone for bigger jobs, like mine.

I'd bought a cashmere sweater in Edinburgh the year before and have always taken it to the dry cleaner.  A store owner this year told me to wash my cashmere in cool water with a non-detergent wash.  I looked it up on eHow and they tell you how to do it.  Incidentally, it's just the way my Mom taught me to wash sweaters a long time ago.

Mount Cashmere says pretty much the same thing.  In fact, both sites say it prolongs the life of the wool to wash it as opposed to dry-cleaning.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, cashmere is named for the Indian state of Kashmir, though today the wool comes from many places.  The source is the cashmere goat.

[Image of goat from Karakan Cashmere-Australia]

W.O.T.D.

Pluto (v):  To downgrade, demote or remove.  From the demotion of Pluto, formerly known as a planet.

Urban Dictionary has definitions that say it is both with and without cause. 

Also:

To the left: Dismissed, dumped, dropped.

From Beyonce's Irreplaceable, this indicates where the door is, implying that you should go through it and not come back.

[Definitions from Urban Dictionary]

[Image via Yog-Sothoth.com]

"The Sun" Shines Bright on Fairchild Tropical Gardens

Dale Chihuly's "The Sun" and other glassblowing (or mindblowing) installations will be at Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden in Coral Gables, Florida, through May of this year.

His site has an exhibit overview.

Chihuly, whose magnificent glass work can be seen in museums, art galleries, universities, convention centers, hotels and medical centers employs over 100 artists to help him realize his visions.  He lost an eye in a car accident at a relatively young age, and with it lost his depth perception.  However, his vision continued (and continues) to burn bright, and his energy and intensity carry his projects through as he mentors other glass blowers.

Setting his otherworldly pieces of art in the background of Fairchild Garden, which combines beauty and function (in the form of conservation) seems to me to be a perfect pairing.

If you plan to be in Miami February 4th for SuperBowl XLI, you should take a stroll through Fairchild Garden as well, maybe feed your artistic, soulful side a bit, too.

[Image from Chihuly.com. ]

And if that's not enough to make you check out the site, how about this (wow!):

 

The Truth Comes in Small Packages

A small boy gets lost at a large mall.

He wanders around until he sees a security guard, and walks up to him sobbing.

"I lost my Daddy"  he says.

"Aw," says the guard.  "We'll find him.  What's he like?" 

"Beer and pretty women" reponds the tearful child.

[Thanks, G.W.]