When I was a kid, magicians were very popular on TV. Of course I believed they were really doing magic.
Then I saw a real life magician, and somebody, maybe my dad, explained to me that “magic” involved trickery.
Later, an uncle showed me how he made pennies come out of people’s ears, and I got a small cheap “magic set” with pretty obvious props that would fool no one over three. Not sure which came first.
Not much later, maybe still first grade age, i was crying over horses being trampled in a cowboy movie, and my mom explained that not everything in a movie was real, and that they stopped and started cameras, moved things, and used fakery to make you think something happened.
I still remember that soon after, when a magician made a lady disappear on TV, and my parents were talking about how he might have done it, I realized that maybe it wasn’t a trick he was doing, but a camera trick. They said no, that he was a famous magician, and all that…. but for me, it was the end of watching magic on TV.
For more decades than I prefer to admit, I’ve enjoyed watching a bit of magic in person, when I can admire the skill involved, but I’ve been completely uninterested in watching it on camera.
I know it isn’t fair, and that Doug Henning and his ilk could probably do that stuff on stage… But I’m just not impressed when it could be a special effects crew making it happen. Maybe I should love it anyway, the way I love animation… but….
I do like Penn and Teller and sometimes a few others, cos they laugh at their own tricks or explain them. Or a small time magician filmed in front of an audience, where you can see that it isn’t just for the camera.
But a TV show featuring a big splashy Las Vegas magic extravaganza….¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Long ago on TV was a special about a magic convention and contest someplace in Europe. One guy did sleight if hand sitting at a card table with an audience member sitting across from him. On the table was a stack of paper.
The magician would wad up a paper ball and make it disappear for the guy sitting at the table. But everyone else could see where the balls were going.
By the time he was out of sheets of paper, paper balls were all over the stage.
The guy never saw one.
Long ago I got to see an elderly Mandrake the magician (Yup, the real one) perform at a children’s party. He shook so badly even the children could see how he did the tricks. It was the saddest birthday party I ever attended.
British actor Peter Butterworth was in Stalag Luft 3 POW camp where the escapes took place.
From the BBC website:
“Butterworth, who appeared in 16 ‘Carry On’ films, helped hide the sand for the escape tunnels featured in the Great Escape and was on the organising committee for the tunnels featured in The Wooden Horse.”
From Wikipedia:
“Butterworth was one of the vaulters covering for the escapees during the escape portrayed by the book and film ‘The Wooden Horse’. Butterworth later auditioned for the film in 1949 but “didn’t look convincingly heroic or athletic enough” according to the makers of the film.”
Bristlecone Pine. That one one is the Great Basin bristlecone pine, over 5,000 years old, while another famous example, “Methuselah,” is around 4,850 years old.
From the NASA website, where the photo originates:
“Mars’ largest moon Phobos as seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2008.
The image was taken from a distance of about 4,200 miles (about 6,800 kilometers). It is presented in color by combining data from the camera’s blue-green, red, and near-infrared channels.
The illuminated part of Phobos seen in the images is about 21 kilometers (13 miles) across. The most prominent feature in the images is the large crater Stickney in the lower right. With a diameter of 5.6 miles (9 kilometers), it is the largest feature on Phobos.”
My note: the whole moon is only about 27km wide at its widest diameter… so this is most of it. Amazing that we can see detail like this from so far away.
Will this be the end of the Masked Muttonheads…er…Dynamic Duo? Will the Evil White Cat Empire prevail? Will the Shrinkinator turn Batbasset and Sparrow into little collectible figurines like I have all over my home? (Sorry…TMI.)
Stay tuned – same Batbasset channel, same Batbasset time!
On a more serious note, it was found that elderly women who were a few pounds overweight usually lived longer than their in-weight counterparts. The thinking was that the few pounds of weight helped supply nutrition if the woman got a serious disease and couldn’t keep food down, like with the flu or other diseases.
This happened to one of my cats, Jodie. She was quite rotund, but for her it was a normal thing, cutting back on her food didn’t change her shape. She developed a bleed in her stomach, and it took me a while to realise, I spotted it because she started to lose weight. If she hadn’t been the size she was, by the time I realised that there was a problem, she would have lost too much body mass, and probably not survived despite the treatment for the bleed.
Sometimes a little extra weight (Not too much) can be a good thing.
As we’re now heading into winter, I’ve let my current feline, Ivy, have a little bit more food recently to add just under a pound of weight. I’ve cut her back to her normal amount of food now, and in the spring I’ll reduce it to let her burn off the extra ‘padding’ for the summer.
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Gekko!
Oh my, Granny! What large eyes you have!
Quantum physics in the macro world.
..
Aw! I thought it was because Ancient Aliens built them…
…
I’d like to see that done IRL…
Me too.
When I was a kid, magicians were very popular on TV. Of course I believed they were really doing magic.
Then I saw a real life magician, and somebody, maybe my dad, explained to me that “magic” involved trickery.
Later, an uncle showed me how he made pennies come out of people’s ears, and I got a small cheap “magic set” with pretty obvious props that would fool no one over three. Not sure which came first.
Not much later, maybe still first grade age, i was crying over horses being trampled in a cowboy movie, and my mom explained that not everything in a movie was real, and that they stopped and started cameras, moved things, and used fakery to make you think something happened.
I still remember that soon after, when a magician made a lady disappear on TV, and my parents were talking about how he might have done it, I realized that maybe it wasn’t a trick he was doing, but a camera trick. They said no, that he was a famous magician, and all that…. but for me, it was the end of watching magic on TV.
For more decades than I prefer to admit, I’ve enjoyed watching a bit of magic in person, when I can admire the skill involved, but I’ve been completely uninterested in watching it on camera.
I know it isn’t fair, and that Doug Henning and his ilk could probably do that stuff on stage… But I’m just not impressed when it could be a special effects crew making it happen. Maybe I should love it anyway, the way I love animation… but….
I do like Penn and Teller and sometimes a few others, cos they laugh at their own tricks or explain them. Or a small time magician filmed in front of an audience, where you can see that it isn’t just for the camera.
But a TV show featuring a big splashy Las Vegas magic extravaganza….¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Long ago on TV was a special about a magic convention and contest someplace in Europe. One guy did sleight if hand sitting at a card table with an audience member sitting across from him. On the table was a stack of paper.
The magician would wad up a paper ball and make it disappear for the guy sitting at the table. But everyone else could see where the balls were going.
By the time he was out of sheets of paper, paper balls were all over the stage.
The guy never saw one.
That would be funny.
Long ago I got to see an elderly Mandrake the magician (Yup, the real one) perform at a children’s party. He shook so badly even the children could see how he did the tricks. It was the saddest birthday party I ever attended.
I didn’t really want to put a like on it, but we have no “awww” button.
And I didn’t know there was a real Mandrake the Magician!
I don’t suppose he could turn invisible like the 1930s comics hero.
,
Look at that! I tell ya kid, they’re following each other like sheep!
Another 100 feet, or, say, 15 or 20 sheep-lengths behind the ones we can see at the bottom of the image…
is the back of the herd, and then one very tired, exceedingly hard working border collie.
,,
Sporting a stylish Japanese parasol…
,,,
Big or small, I still wouldn’t want to meet any one of them in a dark alley!
Fangs for the memories… 🎶🎵
Those are claws.
You meet the fangs after meeting the claws. 😛
There won’t be any memories…
Tough audience…
,.
Did you know that the “Wooden Horse” escape took place in the same POW camp?
British actor Peter Butterworth was in Stalag Luft 3 POW camp where the escapes took place.
From the BBC website:
“Butterworth, who appeared in 16 ‘Carry On’ films, helped hide the sand for the escape tunnels featured in the Great Escape and was on the organising committee for the tunnels featured in The Wooden Horse.”
From Wikipedia:
“Butterworth was one of the vaulters covering for the escapees during the escape portrayed by the book and film ‘The Wooden Horse’. Butterworth later auditioned for the film in 1949 but “didn’t look convincingly heroic or athletic enough” according to the makers of the film.”
said to be world’s oldest tree?
Bristlecone Pine. That one one is the Great Basin bristlecone pine, over 5,000 years old, while another famous example, “Methuselah,” is around 4,850 years old.
,..
Imagine carrying one of those in your jump bag…
It would have been convenient to mention her name.
Maria Telkes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A1ria_Telkes
Thank you!
,…
Wiggly wiggly wiggly…
My boys do that too. Always leaves me giggly.
GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!!!
Exactly what I was thinking.
.,
I just like the composition of the image.
,,..
Same.
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Were they taken somewhere or just dumped at the next port?
Phobos
Wasn’t “The Eye of Phobos” one of the chapters in 2001?
All those impact craters look truly striking! 🤣
Maybe cos they were truly struck.
From the NASA website, where the photo originates:
“Mars’ largest moon Phobos as seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2008.
The image was taken from a distance of about 4,200 miles (about 6,800 kilometers). It is presented in color by combining data from the camera’s blue-green, red, and near-infrared channels.
The illuminated part of Phobos seen in the images is about 21 kilometers (13 miles) across. The most prominent feature in the images is the large crater Stickney in the lower right. With a diameter of 5.6 miles (9 kilometers), it is the largest feature on Phobos.”
My note: the whole moon is only about 27km wide at its widest diameter… so this is most of it. Amazing that we can see detail like this from so far away.
..,,..
Sure…but these lizards aren’t near as cute as the one at the top of the page.
Got it!
Cricket or baseball?
Will this be the end of the Masked Muttonheads…er…Dynamic Duo? Will the Evil White Cat Empire prevail? Will the Shrinkinator turn Batbasset and Sparrow into little collectible figurines like I have all over my home? (Sorry…TMI.)
Stay tuned – same Batbasset channel, same Batbasset time!
A Country Road (1893). By Danish painter Hans Andersen Brendekilde (1857-1942).
Blue Heron.
Barn swallow.
Uh… ?
Maybe cos this Great Blue Heron could swallow a barn?
Close, but no cigar…
But is looks good on you honey, really!
On a more serious note, it was found that elderly women who were a few pounds overweight usually lived longer than their in-weight counterparts. The thinking was that the few pounds of weight helped supply nutrition if the woman got a serious disease and couldn’t keep food down, like with the flu or other diseases.
Yup! It’s true.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
This happened to one of my cats, Jodie. She was quite rotund, but for her it was a normal thing, cutting back on her food didn’t change her shape. She developed a bleed in her stomach, and it took me a while to realise, I spotted it because she started to lose weight. If she hadn’t been the size she was, by the time I realised that there was a problem, she would have lost too much body mass, and probably not survived despite the treatment for the bleed.
Sometimes a little extra weight (Not too much) can be a good thing.
As we’re now heading into winter, I’ve let my current feline, Ivy, have a little bit more food recently to add just under a pound of weight. I’ve cut her back to her normal amount of food now, and in the spring I’ll reduce it to let her burn off the extra ‘padding’ for the summer.
Don’t try doing that to your wife.