Cellphone photos. Caught anything interesting lately? Post em!
- Thread starter Alobar
- Start date
Dswankey
Lunatic Member
From a couple of weeks ago, picture really doesn't do it justice as to how big it was
Walking down the street when this swooped past me and landed on the step. Turns out it is/was a Polyphemus Moth of the Giant Silkmoth family.
Thing was huge about 4-6 inch wing span also notice I said was because in doing a little research it turns out they on live for a handful of days.
Walking down the street when this swooped past me and landed on the step. Turns out it is/was a Polyphemus Moth of the Giant Silkmoth family.
Thing was huge about 4-6 inch wing span also notice I said was because in doing a little research it turns out they on live for a handful of days.
I always wonder how many work-hours and how much paperwork it took to get them painted that particular color.
Unfortunately, tanks are now obsolete... we gave them to Ukraine and they found out the hard way that a $20K drone can take them out quite easily. We need to start buying all the drones we can afford and get rid of this ancient technology.
An absolute sh*t ton. In the 90’s I knew the GSA’s color number for “Desert Sand” and “Sky Blue” by heart.“The Book” is Federal Standard 595 and every color for everything Uncle Sam buys that matters to him is in the color book. I had to look it up:
Desert Camouflage Scheme
For arid environments, tanks use a solid sand or tan appearance: [1, 2]
- Sand / Tan: AMS-STD-595 / FS 33531 or FS 33446 (depending on the specific era and theater requirements)
Color and sheen inconsistencies of “sky blue” especially were causing me a lot of grief. Almost every jurisdiction that wanted the proposed cellular monopole and antennas painted asked for sky blue. What we got was all over the place and didn’t match the boards approved at the hearing. Repainting a 150 footer with 21 panel antennas, 5 whips (3 up/2 down), 21 tower mounted amplifiers, 24 VDC power cables for the amplifiers, remote electric tilt cabling and 1/2” Superflex coax jumpers to hook it all up is not a trivial thing. Career effecting after 18 months of site development, permitting, engineering and construction. Add in the equipment and there’s a few $million waiting on an electrical final and meter release not being capitalized up at corporate.
I have about 100 new AirTouch cell sites in the pipeline here in the LA market at this time. 5 huge counties with 350 jurisdictions all with their own idea of WTF these colors are. I had a site in Riverside near where the competitor put up a royal blue 150 footer near city hall that was supposed to be sky blue. You could say they were not amused. Not even a little bit. The Inland Empire’s major cellular reseller’s contract was on the line. To ensure success, I borrowed a small piece of painted hardware from the actual pole in the yard and submitted it at the hearing with the color boards at the 11th hour. There had to be better way.
Enter AMS-STD-595, the STD that saved my butt. God bless the GSA. I bought the $$$ book. We picked our colors (numbers only, no names in The Book), we revised our specs and CAD standards. I ordered 100 color chips each of sand and sky paint at $5 a chip. They were not just any color chips. They were business card sized, each in individual labeled envelopes and each with NBS Traceability to Uncle Sam’s personal color analyzer. Our vendors got them, the planning and zoning department got them, they were written into Conditions of the Conditional Use Permit.
Good ol’ FS 33446 really puts a smile on my face when I think about AirTouch’s own Desert Storm project. All discussion with the myriad federal, state and county agencies about the right tan color instantly ceased when they asked for a name. We said there’s no name, just the number and gave them the card and asked if they had ever seen an Abrams tank. Approved in spades, every time.
For a couple of years anyway. Then Upland, Ca decided they wanted a 60’ monopole that looked like a palm tree. This lead me to the San Diego Zoo. Spoiler Alert: Guess what, those trees are mostly artificial.
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