Fashion Faves – Cara Delevingne

Posted By Mark on Jan 20, 2013

Via Fashiontography is this somewhat eclectic shoot by Mikael Jansson of London-born model Cara Delevingne (no, I’ve no idea how you pronounce her surname either) for W magazine. Lovely understated elegance demonstrated here in this shot of Cara in a Bottega Venata dress; great tones and relatively low contrast in this image impart an old sense of warmth and style. More importantly, we also get a great demonstration on how not to stand up straight, an excellent skill to have that boils the blood of health and safety officials whenever they see it in the workplace. This photo is both wonderful and awful, which makes it even more wonderful. Great choice of fashion here: the Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière embroidered silk top and skirt coupled with the fox-fur boa looks really good on Cara. With the hairstyle she’s sporting this has a science fiction feel to it that wouldn’t look out of place amongst some of Pierre Cardin’s weird and wonderful shoots in the 1960s. And the lighting is excellent too; that strip across her face in particular really draws the eye to to Cara’s sultry stare (not that I needed any help in that respect). The awful part of this picture, though, is the confusion it initially presents. The black and white treatment means that there’s a split second of hunting to pick out Cara’s legs against the stonework and next to the boa. I’ll be honest: when I first glanced at this photo I thought Cara was sitting with legs akimbo. Wonderful and awful. Also: handbags that look like buckets! No! See the full Heavenly Creature spread on W magazine’s site...

Neptune’s Moons

Posted By Mark on Jan 19, 2013

Reproduced with permission from the neOnbubble Know You Some Science series of student learning guides. What is Neptune? Neptune is the outermost planet in our solar system. Pluto used to sometimes be the outermost planet (its orbit and that of Neptune crossed over occasionally) but it was relegated from the list of planets after going into administration during the recession of the early 21st century. Neptune is a gas giant world named after the Roman god of the sea and the first planet to be detected using mathematics rather than eyeballs. Its presence was later confirmed by eyeballs because nobody trusts mathematics. Oh, mathematics says it’s your friend and it will turn up but then it lets you down. What is a moon? A moon – or satellite – is a body that has been captured gravitationally by a planetary body. Moons typically orbit planets trying to gather enough speed to escape the pull of the planet to which they’re bound because only by being set free can they possibly hope to be re-classified as a rogue or dwarf planet of their own and that’s where the big money sponsorship deals are made. What are Neptune’s moons? Neptune has thirteen known moons but most of them are small and boring. Here are some of the more interesting ones: Triton Triton is the largest of Neptune’s moons and is named for the god of the sea’s most-treasured possession, the trident. The person who did the naming had a cold, though, and was misheard on the phone. Triton orbits Neptune in the opposite direction to all the other satellites. Some people believe that this is because Triton is an artificial construct put in place to determine whether we have advanced as a species far enough to question the absurdity of its presence. But these people are nutcases. More likely, Triton is simply a non-conformist rebelling against the man. Triton’s surface is mostly chalk. It couldn’t be more different from our moon, although that’s not because our moon is made of cheese; it’s simply that our moon’s surface isn’t mostly chalk. Proteus Photographed by Voyager 2 in 1989 as it passed Neptune and its moons, this picture shows Proteus, the largest of Neptune’s satellites after Triton. Proteus has an irregular shape as it is still growing but in time it will become a beautiful, spherical moon just like all the other great moons in the solar system. The black dots on the image do not actually exist on the surface of Proteus. In 1989 Voyager 2 had attained level 2 of sentience and was attempting to encourage its creators back on Earth...

Outer Space Triple

Posted By Mark on Jan 19, 2013

I’ve been watching a lot of science fiction television and films recently. I’ve also been watching quite a few space-oriented documentaries (astronomy programmes, solar system programmes, that sort of thing) too. So when I thought about updating the site with a trio of music videos the theme to tie in the choices was pretty obvious. Sarah Brightman And Hot Gossip – I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper Incidentally, Sarah Brightman has genuine plans to venture into space in the near future. Monster Magnet – Space Lord Underworld – Between...

Pleasantries

Posted By Mark on Jan 18, 2013

Under Cover

Posted By Mark on Jan 14, 2013

I dunno. You wait ages for a photograph and then two come along at once. It was snowing this morning on the way to work. As this is England that meant I had plenty of time to observe its prettiness as I sat there inching along in the traffic jam that had suddenly formed because absolutely nobody in this country appears to know what to do when snowflakes turn up on the scene. It was lovely looking at the inch or so of snow that formed along the side of the dual carriageway, and the boughs of the trees looked truly beautiful. I was genuinely looking forward to getting out at lunch and take some shots. Did I mention this is England? Well, this is England. The snow had gone and rain had replaced it all within a few hours. Arse. Google+: View post on...