Acme

I was plugged in and time advantaged so I found the antipode to Lake Toba. Mind you I am not suggesting every hotspot or super-volcano has its beginning in an antipodal impact, but as the case is well made for some it behoves us to at least have a look. There is also the possibility Toba is the result of rebound from an impact right where it is, though I've not read anything suggesting that. Not sure if any impact has been suggested off the coast of Ecuador, so I'll poke into that a bit too. So looking on GoggleEuth, no apparent impact crater off Ecuador. Toba's antipode is right on the subduction plate boundary there so maybe any trace was erased. While 75,000 years seems not long enough to erase impact evidence, geologic study has shown that Toba has been a caldera for ~850,000 years*. Duck & cover!! *source: >>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toba It seems this scenario may have been over-hyped. I feel so used. source: >> http://www.drgeorgepc.com/TsunamiMegaEvaluation.html Not to worry. The next major extinction event may be heading right for us as one of the estimated 5% or so massive asteroids we haven't found yet. In such an event I marvel at how clever the survivalists have been to have already constructed their tombs. Duck duck, cooked goose.

A few cotton swabs are useful in the camera bag. Use them alone or with lens paper to get into nooks & crannies and keep skin oils out of the mix.

I don't believe you based on what you have written in this thread alone. What's more, your occasional slip ups where you use proper punctuation, contractions, and other standard English grammar lead me to believe your poor English usage is an affectation. What is your purpose in bringing up the girl band? Are you simply trolling?

I wouldn't classify such an adjustable camera as 'point and shoot', but of course it's a subjective call as I intimated. As I say above, the camera choice is subjective, but having the ability to make basic adjustments is part-and-parcel of photography in my humble opinion. Agreed that as equipment accumulates a bag of some sort is desirable. These days most of my photography is of wildflowers with an eye toward identification and I have replaced photography books with plant ID books. I did invest in a dedicated camera bag suited to field use, but I'm pretty hard on tripods and go for inexpensive models in the $25 range. Again, thrift stores are good places for the thrifty, as well as finding older cameras such as the twin lens reflex style you pine for. Of course you still need to find a film source and a lab to do the processing. A moment of silence for the passing of the last Kodachrome lab.

I'm not dismissing it out of hand; I'm dismissing it after weeks of thoughtful consideration of all that's been writ here. UNLESS ...CHANCE put enough stuff in the right places at the right times so's gravity could make some form of generation appear. And before that, chance burped up a hair-ball we call the big bang, and after that chance spat us into the torrid mix. No plan, no clever, no generative this-or-that... To suffuse a little humor, allow me to quote from the Deteriorata: source: >> http://plodplod.blogspot.com/2006/07/deteriorata.html

I no longer have the TLR. It was a Mamiyaflex Junior and it became hard to find the 120 roll film for it. I gave it to some kid that liked to take stuff apart. As to camera choice, it's a tough call. If someone wants to do photography rather than take pictures then I think the point & shoot is pretty limiting. It took me several months to save up for even the used Nikon, but as nothing else would do what I wanted I just had to suck it up and wait. There is always the kindness of family, who armed with some hints may see their way to helping a budding photographer bloom.

This is what he is trying to do with the entropy and bell curve. The problem is as I said, that these approaches only describe was has happened -or more to the point what we have witnessed happening-, not what will happen, must happen, or must have happened. We find ourselves as we are due to blind luck and it is blind luck that will find us as we will be. This is not to say we don't know things or can't learn things about the cosmos, only that we can only do so as luck allows us.

Here I would defer to Charon's view and say start simply. A camera & a tripod. Good advice. I think for someone wanting to go beyond simple picture taking, an introductory book on photography would be helpful in understanding not only how to hold a camera and such, but how cameras works so as to get an understanding of the why's of the basics. My first good camera -i.e. adjustable f/stops and shutter speed- was a used Twin Lens Reflex. After a little while I added a tripod and a cable release. Its maximum shutter speed was 1/200 & when I started running into blurring problems from subject movement I bought a used SLR with just a Normal lens and a case. This gave me a shutter speed of 1/2000 and aperture priority automatic metering. Only over years did I add filters, wide-angle lens, zoom lens, flash, and motor drive. Along the way I started doing my own B/W developing and printing. I now use the still-photo function on a video-cam, but a couple months back bought my first roll of film for the SLR in 15 years. At the rate I'm going I should have the 24 exposures shot in another 3 months.

That too has an implication of foreknowledge, in my humble opinion. Generative is just a euphemism for the idea behind all this, as is entropy euphemistic. Chance by any other name would be as lucky.

It was nearby but I didn't go. A little too expensive and a little too macabre for me. Depending on the viewer it -they?- could be art, science, or both.

I understand your arguments, though I think you draw too much out of it. A polarizing filter held in front of a lens is not 'advanced' in the same way your triple flash gimbal example. Any outdoor photo with sky in it can -and often does- suffer from a washed out sky compared to the featured subject no matter how carefully framed or otherwise composed. A polarizing filter is a simple and inexpensive solution to the problem for beginner and advanced photographer alike. EDIT: PS I think there is a distinction between picture taking and photography. In this the title is incongruent with the opening post. Picture taking is more about simply capturing some event with little regard for photographic issues beyond 'camera' & 'got it', while photography puts the focus on the technical issues we are discussing.

I agree. Note I put 'photoshop' in quotes. This is to indicate the term has become a catchall for digital photo editing; it is a genericization, otherwise called a proprietary eponym. Any digital editing software will do. Good points. A tripod is also handy for elevating the camera above obstacles, as in having the tripod in hand and holding it up. For low shots it can be laid down so 2 legs contact the ground and then a suitable height support placed under the extension tube near the camera. On the remote activation, while not all cameras have this facility, many have a timer that can achieve the same purpose in many situations. Another useful concept/tool in the science of photography is the filter. In this category I think the best and most useful first choice is a polarizing filter. If one is available for a specific camera, all well and good, but if not then one only has to hold a polarizing filter in front of the lens. They can be found used at camera shops as well as thrift stores at reasonable prices. Polarizing filter (photography @ Wiki >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarizing_filters_(Photography)

No. Clever implies foreknowledge; blind chance is not clever.

Well, those 2 sets give you 9 square areas that could contain the central character. But it's arbitrary anyway. Perhaps I was transposing a technique from woodworking that requires divisions of ninths in measuring to produce an end construction result of thirds. Back on topic, I think another helpful beginner recommendation is to get a tripod & use it. Not only can it keep the camera steady, it can put it in positions you can't otherwise reach and free your hands for other work such as positioning subjects or lighting modifiers such as reflecting or shading cards.

All-in-all I think Mike & TAR have failed to make their case. The only universal element connecting all these different scales/contexts is chance. Blind chance. While bell curves and paintings may make you feel all cozy & secure, there is nothing in them or probability that tells us one whit about when -i.e. what order- or even if a particular data element occurs.

A tic-tac-toe arrangement would, I think, be a rule of ninth's, not thirds. I suggest that a good starting rule, especially now in the age of digital photography, is to take a lot of photographs. Whether you have in mind thirds or ninths or whatever matrix, shoot your main subject in all positions and then later you can sort out which best achieves the effect you want. Even then there is plenty opportunity after the fact for darkroom -or now 'photoshopping'- techniques that recompose the original shot.

I have come across another major eruption ,akin to a mass extinction event . ... Toba .... Indonesia..Sumatra 75,000 years ago . Although it is 45 mins long ( the video not the eruption) , it is worth watching if you are interested in near , mass extinction events. I've done some reading on Toba, but I don't think I ever checked its antipode for a possible impact site. Currently running short of time and battery so will just give you a handy antipode mapping tool for now. >> http://www.findlatitudeandlongitude.com/antipode-map/#.U0HNFY2PJLM IIRC, the East coast of the US is in more danger of loss of life & property than La Palma itself in the event of a quake large enough to shear off a major chunk of island. Can we say tsunami? Can't wait to hear your report & see your pics. Bon voyage.

Painful is an understatement; it's downright torture. Anyway, I think I understand what you're after in spite of the communication, so I'll try & jump that gap. By all means correct me if I screw it up. Back in post #11 you said: From this I gather the issue is really the gap between primes, or more to your point the gap between prime pairs. Since such a gap must be all composite numbers, this is why you have talked about relative primality. Oui/no? So I think your issue is actually a special case of the prime gap 'problem'. Anyway, whether I hit the nail or mashed my thumb, you may find this article of interest. Bounded Gaps Between Primes >> http://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2013/05/bounded_gaps_between_primes.html

What you have drawn is nearly a planar net, were it not for the diamonds 'floating' free and vertex joinings. >> planar net @ Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_(polyhedron)

Borrowing from Swan, nuh uh. Where's a ROTFLMAO smilie when ya need one. The dishonesty and disregard for truthiness are tools of the trade, but not what defines the troll. The defining nature is the intent to disrupt & annoy, or in the vulgar vernacular of Leave it to Beaver, give people the business. To that end the troll has many tools in their bag. Anyway, roger on Urban Dictionary. If I may be so bold as to quote liberally from your link in support and expansion of my assertion.

I think different circumstances dictate different approaches. What venue do you have in mind?

My fear of #1 & #2 -column in #2 aside- is not born out of claustrophobia, rather out of not having a clear view of what lies beyond. Neither do I fear passing under a broad [apparently] unsupported span and it falling on me. What I do fear is collision with the columns in #2, #3, #5, and #6. Slightly off-topic here, but I'll allow it on the basis of rhetoric being an art in science itself and your mention of boats & bridges. Anecdotal aside: >> A friend & I were out on the Columbia river in a 12ft motorboat when a thunderstorm blew up. Too far from port to run, we took refuge under the Glen Jackson bridge. While we did have fear under there, it was not of the high massive structure falling, but rather of the multiple grand streams of water pouring down through the drains. They made a fire hose look like a squirt gun and had we come under one our little boat would have been swamped & sunk in seconds. source: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Jackson_Bridge

We agree to disagree.

Presuming the vertical lines are support columns, I prefer to approach #4 as well as finding it most aesthetically pleasing.

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think TAR was referring to your avatar.