[QUOTE=ewmayer;492785]Here is a great recent example - no number of words would ever suffice to 'say' this one:

[url]https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/00-78_christina-sautter-dalmatian-pelican_a0_6123_3_0.jpg[/url][/QUOTE]That is amazing. :tu:

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492785]Here is a great recent example - no number of words would ever suffice to 'say' this one:
[/QUOTE]
It is pretty.

But the logic argument was in the opposite direction.
No one claimed that "Rule 32-inverse: If there is a picture, it can be said with a number of words" is true.

That's a thing that make you go "Hmmmm..."

[QUOTE=retina;492786]That is amazing. :tu:[/QUOTE]

Ain't it though? And we can at least use words to capture the aerodynamic aspects of the imminent landing: At the exact moment of touchdown ... thrust reversers (wings, esp. the splayed-to-maximize-drag leading-edge 'finger' feathers) in full-on mode and landing gear down, wing angle of attack at maximum flyable, i.e. just shy of triggering a full-on stall and the attendant catastrophic loss of lift.

(Apparently pelicans typically do an ungainly faceplant immediately after a water landing, but we elect to omit that from our coverage. :)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492856]Ain't it though? And we can at least use words to capture the aerodynamic aspects of the imminent landing: At the exact moment of touchdown ... thrust reversers (wings, esp. the splayed-to-maximize-drag leading-edge 'finger' feathers) in full-on mode and landing gear down, wing angle of attack at maximum flyable, i.e. just shy of triggering a full-on stall and the attendant catastrophic loss of lift.[/QUOTE]That in no way does it justice. I think you'd need many many thousands of words for that.

[size=1]And perhaps even the only "real" way to describe it in the way it deserves would be to simply read off the colour values for each pixel. Anything else would likely lose too much information.[/size]

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492856]Ain't it though? And we can at least use words to capture the aerodynamic aspects of the imminent landing: At the exact moment of touchdown ... thrust reversers (wings, esp. the splayed-to-maximize-drag leading-edge 'finger' feathers) in full-on mode and landing gear down, wing angle of attack at maximum flyable, i.e. just shy of triggering a full-on stall and the attendant catastrophic loss of lift.

(Apparently pelicans typically do an ungainly faceplant immediately after a water landing, but we elect to omit that from our coverage. :)[/QUOTE]
I have seen footage of such landings. The first examples I found, of American White Pelicans, show them gliding in smoothly.
[YOUTUBE]7qgf-y0gj7A[/YOUTUBE]
White pelicans fish on the surface, often in groups, where they engage in fish-herding.
[YOUTUBE]ygsGaTQyNAo[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]xzTpOL9KpQA[/YOUTUBE]
Of course, brown pelicans do the face-plant, from altitude, for a living. I envy your living close to where such birds can be seen. Brown pelicans were some of my constant delights on the Texas Gulf Coast. Turn down the volume. Muzak warning.
[YOUTUBE]krrQjPZOCoY[/YOUTUBE]

[QUOTE=retina;492857]That in no way does it justice. I think you'd need many many thousands of words for that.[/QUOTE]

Alas I was limited by the design of the FAA landing incident report form. Those folks just don't seem to do 'poetry in motion'. :)

[QUOTE=ewmayer;492785]Here is a great recent example - no number of words would ever suffice to 'say' this one:

[url]https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/00-78_christina-sautter-dalmatian-pelican_a0_6123_3_0.jpg[/url][/QUOTE]

Perhaps not, but it brings to mind the following:[quote]A remarkable bird is the pelican,
His beak holds more than his belican.
He can take in his beak
Enough food for a week -
But I'm damned if I know how the helican.[/quote] -- Dixon Lanier Merritt (1879 – 1972)

Also, a notion advocated by photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, [url=http://truecenterpublishing.com/photopsy/decisive_moment.htm]The Decisive Moment[/url].

I have heard the landings of some of the larger flying birds described as being like "a controlled crash."

Thanks for the limerick and link, Kurt! Changing gears, just sent this to an Aussie pal:

Subject: Useful mnemonic for remembering Oz city names

...for us durn furriners:

SHMAP-DB

This encodes both the names of the major metropolises and their approximate geography - start with Sydney in the SE and proceed CCW round the coastline, including a brief cross-channel excursion to Tasmania, the first letters of the cities collate into the mouth-friendly and fairly memorable acronym above. Recalling Alice Springs in the middle of that spoked wheel and Canberra at 3 o'clock are bonuses.

I suspect geography-bee champs make heavy use of this sort of thing ... one other one I use to recall the major parts of the Japanese island chain is the Tolkien-meets-library-shushing-sounding ORKSHH [Okinawa, which is the largest of the Ryukyu islands, then Kyushu, Shikoku, Honshu, Hokkaido], proceeding from south to north.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;493020]SHMAP-DB

This encodes both the names of the major metropolises and their approximate geography - start with Sydney in the SE and proceed CCW round the coastline ...[/QUOTE]CCW? Are you sure? Your map must be different from mine.

Edit: Oh wait. You are viewing the world from the inside. Got it. :tu:

[QUOTE=retina;493022]CCW? Are you sure? Your map must be different from mine.

Edit: Oh wait. You are viewing the world from the inside. Got it. :tu:[/QUOTE]

It's well-known that they hang their clocks upside-down in Oz, less well-known is that they also have their clocks face the wall, like truant children. Might explain the stereotype of Aussies never being on time for anything. :)

Just a curiosity with regards to Pelicans. I lived back in 2013 near the International airport of Rio de Janeiro on the Guanabara bay, that was our elected place for a run and one day we saw thousands and thousands of pelicans cutting through the approach runway of the airport. It was so amazing! My regret was not having with me a camera to take evidence but for security reasons I couldn't have one with me.