Fluid Flow

Antidunes on the Toutle River, 1984

Geologists find a way to simulate the great Missoula floods: “Scientists use detailed computer simulations to get a play-by-play look at how the great floods unfolded thousands of years ago.”

(Via Oregon Local News.)

Supercritical flows seem likely across the scablands, at least until water backed up at the entrance of the Gorge. Similar conditions probably occurred at the Gorge outlet near Portland. There you had expanding flow that could have produced and preserved some very large antidunes. It all kind of depends on the sediment load of the flows.

I am trying to imagine my little beach experiments blown up a few thousand times. Impressive, to say the least.

Remembering the Frisbee inventor and his simple sports innovation / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Walter Fredrick Morrison, the Frisbee inventor, died this week. His simple sports innovation – a plastic, aerodynamic disc – has become one of the most popular toys in American history, uniting beachgoers, college kids, and competitive teams for half a century.

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

There was a time when I flung and caught the disc with some magic. So today we raise a glass to the memory of Walter Fredrick Morrison.

Thank god I downloaded the trial version and didn’t purchase the upgrade.

Aperture 3 provides over 200 improvements. Notably, Faces and Places have been called up from iPhoto. While my photography doesn’t lend itself to Faces, Places is important. It took me a little while to figure out how to use Places, but once I did, it was easy to geotag my images.

Unfortunately the location data was not included when I uploaded photos to Flickr using the new Flickr uploader.

The Flickr uploader is a treat. It forces you to place images into a set. It gives you the option of setting the size of the photos as “Web Images”, “Optimized Images” and “Actual Size Images”. It doesn’t explain what this means.

I think that I could understand this behavior in iPhoto, but this is Apple’s Pro-level photo software. Don’t you think the user might have a better idea of how they want to present their images online than Apple?

All Apple had to do was purchase the exceptionally fine FlickrExport plugin and add its capabilities. But no, Aperture 3 comes with its own marginally useful uploader (hopefully the plugin will still work - I haven’t tried that).

The new brushes are helpful. I also like the full screen browser (and the fact that full screen mode doesn’t black out your extra monitor).

But I am left wondering if this upgrade is worth it. Does it really provide enough enhancements to cover the upgrade costs?

I am not sure, I am going to have to play with it a bit more. But my initial reaction isn’t good. I don’t see that the upgrade is that much better than what I have with Aperture 2 and plugins. I would have thought that Apple should have come up with something superior.