With 10 patterns, U.S. military branches out on camouflage front || The Washington Post
In 2002, the U.S. military had just two kinds of camouflage uniforms. One was green, for the woods. The other was brown, for the desert.
Then things got strange….In just 11 years, two kinds of camouflage have turned into 10. And a simple aspect of the U.S. government has emerged as a complicated and expensive case study in federal duplication.
Duplication is one of Washington’s most expensive traditions: Multiple agencies do the same job at the same time, and taxpayers pay billions for the government to repeat itself.
The habit remains stubbornly hard to break, even in an era of austerity. There are, for instance, at least 209 federal programs to improve science and math skills. There are 16 programs that teach personal finance.
At the Pentagon, the story of the multiplying uniforms has provided a step-by-step illustration of how duplication blooms in government — and why it’s usually not good….
[My favorite part:] The Navy spent more than $435,000 on three new designs. One was a blue-and-gray pattern, to be worn aboard ships. Pattern No. 8.
Sailors worried that it would hide them at the one time they would want to be found.
“You fall in the damn water and you’re wearing water-colored camouflage. What the hell is that?” said one active-duty petty officer. He asked that his name be withheld because he was criticizing a decision by the brass. “It’s not logical. It’s not logical at all to have water-colored uniforms.”
Paris, 1936 (by Maynard Owen Williams; via National Geographic)
Skating Girl, Hamilton King (via BibliOdyssey)
Peony Lim (via All the Pretty Birds)
Paris photographed by Richard Avedon, 1957
(via atompunk)
from the Sartorialist
Julie Andrews by Cecil Beaton
(via errour)
Individually, these pieces are not to my taste, but this lady is so fierce that all I can do is admire and marvel (The Sartorialist)
“Oppenheimer’s dress shop,” Washington, D.C., circa 1919.
The family has one that looks very similar to the central machine. Ah, antiques. (National Photo Company glass negative; via Shorpy)
New York circa 1915. “Society Girls.” (Bain News Service; via Shorpy)
L’Odyssée de Cartier (via io9)
Panther, gemstones, adventure — what more could a girl want?
(via misswallflower)
Like How Your Hair Hangs? Praise the Laws of Physics || New York Times
Raymond E. Goldstein, a professor of complex physical systems at the University of Cambridge in England, does not have a ponytail, but he has been pondering the physics of the hairstyle for a couple of years.
He and two other physicists have been trying to determine whether the shape of a ponytail can be deduced from the properties of a single hair. After all, a head with 100,000 strands is a complex physical system, as anyone with a copious coiffure can attest.
And it turns out that there is a simple theory. The crucial characteristics are elasticity, density and curliness, which essentially tell how springy a piece of hair is, plus the length of the ponytail. The researchers came up with a simple formula that describes the ponytail shape when the hair is bundled together.
They called it the Rapunzel number. “We couldn’t resist,” Dr. Goldstein said.
Louis Vuitton men’s shoemaking in Fiesso d’Artico
To which I say: no wonder a pair costs around $1000.
Washington, D.C., 1920. “Lanza Motors Co. — Greenwich Village Girls — Metz Master Six.” (via Shorpy)
