Trump Melts Down Into Gibberish While Declaring Emergency For His Wall

Trump Melts Down Into Gibberish While Declaring Emergency For His Wall

Under Tropical Storm Gordon

Under Tropical Storm Gordon now. Not fun. Lucky for South Florida it is not too strong yet. It will get stronger when it gets in the Gulf and might hit New Orleans.

All ok here (Miami)

Just a quick note to let my blog readers know we are ok. We were in the lighter side of Irma and received no damage to building or car. We lost four trees up front but that was it. We had power and internet restored within 24 hours. No issues.

B.B. King dies at 89

"B.B. King in 2009" by Tom Beetz - http://www.flickr.com/photos/9967007@N07/6577873073. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.


So sorry to hear the news. I listen to BB King's Bluesville on XM Radio every day on the drive to work.

We'll have your music forever BB. Thanks for your passion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/16/arts/music/b-b-king-blues-singer-dies-at-89.html

Philae Spacecraft Landed 3 Times on Speeding Comet: See Its First Photos

Amazing and awesome. Gives me Goosebumps just to comprehend what this is all about.

Think of it. Years in planning and design (it was approved by ESA in 1993). 10 years in transit (Rosetta was launched in 2004). A bullet is sent to catch a bullet. l Comet  67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is very small (about 4 kilometers in diameter) and is travelling at a speed of 135,000 kilometers per hour. It is at 673 million kilometers from the Sun.

(see what the Rosetta mission is all about: ESA Rosetta FAQ)

Video from Space.com

http://www.space.com/27761-philae-comet-landing-bounces-first-photos.html

Go Takes Over Seoul Streets

American Go E-Journal:
Go Takes Over Seoul Streets

"Hundreds of people gathered to play Go in Korea’s Gwanghwamun Square, on September 21. The event was part of Seoul’s Street Without Cars 2014.09.21_Simultaneous-Go-Games-Seoul-550x367Festival and Learn Go Week"

Would have loved to attend this event.

See jets from Rosetta’s comet up close

Emily writes a nice piece on her blog including a close-up picture of cope Churyumov-Gerasimenko (Wikipedia) from Rosetta (Wikipedia) where you can see jets from the comet.

Maven arrives on Mars today!

After 10 months travel time, the Maven probe (Wikipedia) arrives in Mars orbit to test the composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

http://www.space.com/27185-nasa-mars-maven-spacecraft-arrival.html

Isn’t science grand?

Hypocrisy over Gaza

Pat Condell always tells it like it is, without sugar coating. I do not always agree with everything he posts but I do most of the time.

Here he shows he knows his history.

D-day landings scenes in 1944 and now

The Guardian has an interactive set of images, then and now.

It is surprising how little has changed.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/ng-interactive/2014/jun/01/d-day-landings-scenes-in-1944-and-now-interactive

Equality and justice for all

Tilda Swinton risked arrest waving a rainbow flag in front of the Kremlin in violation of Russia’s new homosexual propaganda bill. And she wants everyone who can to reblog it in solidarity.

Congrats!

Come see my new website!

My new Photography Website is now live. It contains all my images past and present, as the previous site did but with a totally new design.

What do you think?

Comments welcome!

http://www.alexfeldsteinphotography.com/

Asiana Flight 214 Reconstruction

CGI recreation of how Asiana Flight 214 descended for landing, compared to how it SHOULD have descended for landing. (posted by John Suchocki)

The Founding Fathers Versus The Gun Nuts

A great post at truth-out.org about the wingnuts harping about their Second Amendment rights.

“in a tirade against CNN’s Piers Morgan, Alex Jones argued, “The Second Amendment isn’t there for duck hunting. It’s there to protect us from tyrannical government.”

The entire city of Boston was under martial law the last few days. You get that, right? Martial Law.

In a cameras-everywhere society, we went from tragedy to identification to capture in less than five days.  And to make that happen, the full-force of the government came in, shut down a major metropolitan area, instituted a no-fly zone, flooded the place with troops and technology and locked it down until it completed its mission.

With thanks to P. Zuppo.

Link

The definition of “Oh crap!”

B612 Foundation– We all need to help

I am a contributor to the B612 Foundation, a private foundation dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes.

Formed by Astronauts Edward Lu and Rusty Schweickart, they are trying to raise private money to put a telescope in orbit (called SENTINEL) to give us early warning of incoming asteroids.

As we say today with the impact at Chelyabinsk, and the close pass by 2012 DA14, both in one day, it illustrates the need and the urgency for this. We have the technology. All we need is the money and the political will.

I donated to the foundation. Would you consider making a small donation too! It is too important to let it go by.

B612 Foundation page.

A rare visit to the ramp at Miami International Airport

I was invited to this year's exclusive visit inside the fence at Miami International (KMIA). This once-a-year tour has been done for a few years. It is organized by the Airport Director's office, and has been also done by the two previous directors before him whom although now retired, were there acting as Tour Guides. The tour takes photographers filling two buses. I was lucky to get in this year through a friend. They gave us badges to be worn at all times. Each bus had a tour guide (ex-director) and a badged employee. We were to stay with them by the bus at all times due to security issues.

 

The tour had unprecedented access as I had never been inside the fence and in the ramp before.

 

Unfortunately the weather was very overcast but it wasn’t that bad.

At some points we were allowed to get off (had to stay next to the bus). At other points, near Customs or busy areas, the bus drove by slowly and we had to shoot through the windows.

 

((phone-camera image)

 

We toured all the passenger ramps, plus several cargo areas, and also the flight line, where we caught several landings and takeoffs. We were in time to catch Lufthansa, flying the only A380 coming in regularly to Miami.

 

We also got her a couple of hours later taxiing for departure. Notice how she is escorted due to her over-sized width.

 

The cargo areas were very interesting. The major ones are full of Boeing 767 and 747 like these:

 

The northern smaller cargo areas have beautiful old planes like this Metroliner and Convair 580

 

The maintenance hangars had two rare Boeing 707s in. Once was John Travolta's but she was inside and could not be seen. In this area, run by private contractors, security was tight so we could not get off. Just took these pictures on a slow drive-by, through the windows (excuse the window reflections and tint). This B707 belongs to the Government of Congo and will soon be departing.

 

The day before this tour, there was a collision between two airliners. An arriving Aerolíneas Argentinas A340-312 took the wrong entry line to the ramp, going in the narrow body lane instead of the center-line for wide-bodies. An outgoing Air France B777-300 was coming out of the gate. The Argentina aircraft touched Air France and sheared the horizontal stabilizer tip. You can see the damage in these two pictures I took from the bus (sorry for the window glare)

 

Here's a close-up of the damage to the horizontal stabilizer:

 

Here is the article in The Miami Herald about the incident:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/17/3187955/two-commercial-airplanes-touch.html

 

 

Did you know that arriving passengers can see the word "MIAMI" built into the design of the ramp-side of the new terminal?

 

 

There are a lot more images in my gallery:

http://www.alexfeldsteinphotography.com/Airplanes/2012-Miami-KMIA-Airport-Tour/27623442_p2Vgjs

Hope you enjoyed the tour. I certainly did.

2012 FIFA Ballon D’or winners

 

Congratulations to Lionel Messi, Amy Wambach, Miroslav Stoch and others.

 

I have been interviewed about photography and aviation in an online magazine

 

I have been interviewed by Flightsim.com magazine, a website dedicated to the hobbies of aviation and flight simulation.

The interview is here:

http://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?13391-Freeware-Focus-Alex-Feldstein

It was fun!