I was on my way to the Society for Information Display show and the weather was threatening something unpleasant. I was on the way to the airport from my apartment on Roosevelt Island and opted to walk along the shore to the subway station instead of taking the bus. I was glad I decided to stretch my legs before the flight because as I rounded the corner of the building I was confronted by the sight of a beautiful rainbow over the city. I stopped so often to look and take pictures I wound up missing my flight and having to take the next.
At times it became a double rainbow. As I was on the way to see my girlfriend as well as attend my favorite show, I thought it was a great omen for the week (and it was). Besides, rainbows are an optical phenomena and therefore of tangental value to the topic of display. (Once I get my pictures sorted you’ll see my report from the show.)
One of the reasons I felt positive karma that day was that I wound up sitting next to Kevin McCarthy, the star of the classic film Invasion of the Body Snatchers. We had a ball talking about everything from Kurt Vonnegut to his new work with Anthony Hopkins. For someone over 90 the guy is still spry and quick-witted.
I had a blast showing him some of the samples of tech I carry around. I believe that if it wasn’t for sci-fi we wouldn’t have as much technology innovation, and intelligent, thought-provoking works like his were positive influences to budding scientific minds.
Alix, if it wasn’t for sci-fi we wouldn’t have as much technology innovation, and intelligent, thought-provoking works like his were positive influences to budding scientific minds.
Absolutely. What I can’t fathom is, in one fabulous day, you get a double rainbow, a conversation with a great actor like McCarthy, you’re on your way to “get even more lucky” and you forgot to buy that winning lottery ticket?? Good Grief, man !! 🙂
Always nice to see we not only share reading choices; but, “priorities”, too.
Huh?
Nice pictures, great locale–pointless blog.
Movies/Films are a directors medium. Not actors known in the trade as Meatpuppets for good reason.
SciFi and tech progress are both products of human invention, maybe some mutual cause and effect but mostly concomitant
Nice shot Alex… I would have stopped too.
I don’t know what bobbo is talking about — there are many points that can be derived from a picture like that, or your choice to miss your plane to “get it”.
Somewheeeeere over the rainbow…
I mean really, how often do you see a rainbow over Manhattan?
3,
The sun rises in the northeast this time of year, and the sky was full of moisture due to the coming rainstorm. Light refracting through the moisture in the air under just the right circumstances provides an opportunity to view a rainbow in the opposite direction. (In this case, southwest looking from the short of Rooesevelt Island to Manhattan and the Queensboro (59th St) bridge.)
The effect enables the viewer to see the full spectrum of light from violet to red. If you’re really lucky you can see the spectral fall-off in both directions from the plane of refraction.
This is directly related to image display technologies, especially the ones relying on natural effects like the iridescent display technology from Qualcomm (formerly Iridigm) or the virtual screen technology used by the FogScreen or the Heloidisplay free-air projection systems.
Did that satisfactorily answer your question?
Smartalix – – great post. I was going to go in that direction and decided why should I do the author’s work for him? I thought “nice pic” covered the point of what was actually posted? I would assume that Manhattan gets as many rainbows as any other place with moisture in the air?? (Same with my drier climate, double rainbows always a thrill!)
I suppose I got knocked off track more by credit being given to the actors rather than the directors/writers of any film, especially for such a symbollic/political film–Mr McCarthy’s work as an actor was very good, but he should not be given any other credit for the film. I also envy him for keeping so fit, his regimen would have made a valuable post as well.
#6, Alix, here’s a superb site for atmospheric optics, perhaps the best on the ‘net, with many excellent photographs. The physics behind a double rainbow are the result of refraction from the very bottom of the water droplet as well as the middle.
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I loved Kevin McCarthy in Twilight Zone: The Movie. He’s done an incredible body of work.
#8, Whoa, what happened to my link, here, I’ll try again:
Atmospheric optics: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/
#9, Hop, he was also great as Gordon Fitzpatrick in the game “The Pandora Directive.” That was a great one.
WOW Bubba! That is one cool site.
That pic was kewl.
It’s a gay thing!
#12, #14, the designer of the site, Les Cowley, once helped me out when I saw a complete refracted and double sized image of Mars in the sky and in the scope, where Mars could not have been. Great guy.