Toward the storm

The Volvo fleet is heading toward the fringes of the tropical storm that’s been spinning away north of them for the last several days. Mapfre leads, with ADOR and Brunel right there and Dongfeng close behind. Then there’s a gap before Vestas and Alvimedica, and another gap before SCA, who set up further west than the other teams and have experienced very light winds over the last several hours as a result. (That squiggly line in the tracker is a giveaway.)

The storm they’re heading for isn’t a super strong one, at least at the moment, but its winds are strong enough to push the boats fast — except it also promises to give them big waves, possibly from in front. Should make for some exciting — if nerve-wracking — sailing.

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gandalf1202:

Zeng Fanzhi – Sky Series [2005] on Flickr.

Zeng Fanzhi (born 1964) is an artist whose name has become almost synonymous with Contemporary Chinese art. His famous masks, ubiquitous motifs that encompass a large portion of his oeuvre, are never amiss from any discussion concerning Contemporary Asian art. So far is his reach that countless museums across the globe have been home to exhibition after exhibition, retrospective after retrospective, in honour of his work. And yet, Zeng is an artist who does not cease to amaze, nor is he one who settles.

[Sotheby’s, Hong Kong – Oil on canvas, 130 x 130 cm]

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thomas struth

thomas struth

thomas struth

thomas struth

thomas struth

nevver:

Looking at art, Thomas Struth

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fleurdulys:

The Flirtation – Leo Gestel

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Portrait of a woman (detail), Abraham Lambertz van den Tempel, 1670

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marieantoinete:

Thomas Fearnley; details of From Balestrand at the Sognefjord.

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mostlythemarsh:

Maple

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I’ve become a huge fan of Dongfeng on-board reporter Yann Riou. At 40 he’s by far the oldest OBR in the fleet; Brunel’s Stefan Coppers is 32, while the rest are 30 or younger.

Partly I think it’s my fantasy of sailing on the boats myself, and my recognition that at 52 I can’t credibly picture myself working the foredeck (which I did in my competitive sailing days) or navigating (which I also did, and for which being 52 actually wouldn’t be a disqualification, except I lack the extensive experience in long-distance offshore navigation that I’d need). And since I’ve spent most of my professional life doing media/Webbish-related things, my subconscious tends to slot me in as OBR.

So Yann is the closest thing to a “me” viewpoint character in the race, and I probably like him more than I otherwise would because of that.

But mostly I like him because he’s awesome. At least for me, his videos are consistently the most interesting and engaging.

He has a point of view that he gets across, but as a director he’s mostly invisible. Other OBRs are more obviously present in their video segments. Corinna on SCA feels tentative. Her viewpoint is frequently anchored in the hatchway. it feels like the point of view of a novice trying to stay out of the way. Brian on Vestas makes himself the star, pushing the Irish wit and charm in a way that is fun, certainly, but which doesn’t work as well for me as Yann’s serious, self-effacing documentary work.

More than any other OBR, Yann is out there in the action. He puts the camera in the right spot, getting close to the sailors as they’re doing their jobs. For their part they seem used to it; they just ignore him and go on with what they’re doing. Which works great for someone like me who cares more about what’s actually happening than about jokey things like how much the OBR’s boots smell.

It’s not all action shots, though. Yann also does a wonderful job capturing the human stories on the boat, as he does in this video about Dongfeng’s newest, youngest crewmember, Black (Liu Xue).

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theparisreview:

“Let us never forget, dear friends, how close all round lies Limbo, the Kingdom of Might-have-been.”

The Victorian ghost stories of Vernon Lee.

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shipwreckedcomedy:

inkwellsandpeacockquills:

the bird situation is out of control

Yes I’m watching A Tell Tale Vlog.

No I won’t stop talking about Yulin Kuang.

Go watch this and everything else she’s made.

This is phenomenal!

Such an awesome Sean!Poe.

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Leg 2, Days 4-6

The gif above shows the VOR fleet’s relative positions over the last three days. ADOR headed north first, though as Ian Walker explained in the onboard videos that was actually a mistake; they saw a few of their competitors on a northerly gybe and went north to cover, only to discover 6 hours later that the other boats had gybed back. But by that point they were committed.

They actually made out pretty well. Their western separation gave them better wind while heading north across the ridge of high pressure, and they ended up well north of the fleet (and closer to Abu Dhabi).

Unfortunately for them, the wind they now need to get to is to the east, and it looks like Mapfre, having won a really intense close-quarters battle with Dongfeng and Brunel over the last few days, has reached it first.

SCA continues to trail. Opportunities to gain have been limited, and they’ve sailed into a few bad spots. They’re still in touch with the fleet, though, and there may be chances for them to move up later.

The next big question is how the boats position themselves with respect to that tropical cyclone currently about 1300 miles northeast of them. If they play it right it could give them a fast trip north — but it could also be too much of a good thing, with wind and waves strong enough to be a problem.

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valscrapbook:

untitled by hannah * honey & jam on Flickr.

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huariqueje:

Olive Trees in Bordigher – Claude Monet 1884

Impressionism

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libutron:

Clustered Toughshank – Collybia confluens

Collybia confluens (Marasmiaceae) is a decomposer of both hardwood and conifer litter, recognized by its crowded gills, quickly fading cap, tendency to grow in loose clusters, and its distinctive stem, which is covered with a fine whitish fuzz and is quite long in proportion to the width of the cap.

This mushroom is recorded as ‘edible but worthless’ in many field guides, the cap flesh is so thin and insubstantial and the stems so tough that they are not worth considering as a culinary collectible.

This species occurs in most temperate countries on Europe,Asia, and in many parts of North America.

Synonym: Gymnopus confluens

References: [1] – [2]

Photo credit: ©Claude-Alain Berdoz | Locality: not indicated

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gandalf1202:

John Singer Sargent – Mosquito Nets [1908] on Flickr.

After 1900, no longer bound to his London portrait studio, Sargent (American, 1856–1925) travelled extensively, usually in the company of family members and friends. In September 1908 he made his second visit to Majorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands off the eastern coast of Spain, a place not yet touched by tourism. There, in the dim interior of their rented apartment in a villa in Valldemosa, he portrayed his older sister Emily sitting in a cushioned wooden chair and their friend Eliza Wedgwood reclining on a sofa. Absorbed in their reading, both women are further sheltered by contraptions that Sargent labelled garde mangers – mosquito nets that Emily had contrived from large hoops and black netting. In spirit as well as structure, such an enigmatic, intimate, informally constructed scene is a world apart from declamatory mid-century depictions of men reading in pursuit of information.

[Detroit Institute of Arts – Oil on canvas, 57.2 x 71.8 cm]

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thegetty:

“I do not like crooked, twisted, blasted trees. I admire them much more if they are tall, straight, and flourishing. I do not like ruined, tattered cottages. I am not fond of nettles or thistles, or heath blossoms. I have more pleasure in a snug farm-house than a watch-tower—and a troop of tidy, happy villages please me better than the finest banditti in the world.”

Marianne looked with amazement at Edward, with compassion at her sister. Elinor only laughed.

—Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, published on October 30, 1811

Wooded Landscape by Paulus Lieder and Landscape with a Bare Tree and a Ploughman by Leon Bonvin, The J. Paul Getty Museum; Fantastic Oak Tree in the Woods, Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder, The Getty Research Institute

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ughbarnes:

sherlockwho13:

trencly:

mypride-hisprejudice:

snowblowerz:

theguff:

wickedlovelyperfectlyimperfect:

This is a picture from the Curiosity Rover on Mars showing Earth from the Perspective of Mars. You are literally looking at your home from the Perspective of another planet. Epic times indeed

group photo everyone

everyone

hey i look really good in this one

shit I think I blinked

ugh thats my bad side

Fake, and frequently debunked. Here, for example.

Sorry. But the real solar system is awesome enough without making shit up with planetarium software and trying to pass it off as real.

Four hundred thousand “fuck yeah!”s. One “nope”. My work here is done.

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gandalf1202:

Florent Willems – The Important Response on Flickr.

A lady in early 17th-century attire is seated at a table pondering a letter she is writing. In the background is a high Japanese screen. The artist has lavished great care in the rendering of the contrasting surfaces of his subject’s satin dress and of the rug covering the table. In its intimacy and in its oriental note, this work approximates the painting of Alfred Stevens.

[Walters Art Museum – Oil on panel, 45.7 x 38.1 cm]

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thegetty:

A new face is now on view!

Manet’s Spring (Jeanne Demarsy) joins the wall of portraits of women in our Impressionist gallery.

Ahhh!!! So much have to go see this!

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