Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with shadow

It wasn't me!

47triple2 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:29:46 -0800

I got a T-Mobile Shadow today and I'm concerned that the battery water indicator has already been tripped. The indicator is a pink and white checker pattern but it looks really dark to the naked eye. Are they usually this dark or has it been tripped? (For reference, I have the latest Black/Burgundy T-Mobile Shadow (II) running WinMo 6.1.) Thanks!

Four of the clock it was, so I as I guesse

zvs — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:57:54 -0800

How can I estimate the time that a photo was taken? I'm working on a rephotography project (the link is my profile website, if you want an idea of what I'm dealing with). I've gotten the hang of many of the common problems I encounter when duplicating photos, but one thing still gets me -- time of day. I try to estimate based on the angle of a shadow, but that usually only gets me within a three hour window, and I hate sitting around waiting for the sun to move.

I'm a good enough geometer that I can usually figure out what the angle of a shadow is relative to true north using Photoshop, a street map, and a protractor. I have the date each photo was taken. I know NYC is about 15 minutes off of true noon for the time zone, and I know the angle varies seasonally. How can I do the math?

How to jazz up a potentially boring and dreadful interview shadow experience

vermontlife — Wed, 06 May 2009 08:13:04 -0800

Looking for interesting ideas on how to jazz up a potentially boring and dreadful interview shadow experience. I work for a large blue company which encourages the “Shadowing” of other individuals to increase understanding and collaboration within the company. Basically you follow a person around for an hour, day, or week whatever the two of you agree upon to see first hand what they do for the company. These experiences can be with organizations that have nothing to do with your organization, but they are limited to within the company itself.

Unlike most of my fellow co-workers, I work remotely and cannot do this shadowing in person. I had the idea that if I could come up with a list of interview style questions to ask the person I’m interested in shadowing, I could perform a shadow remotely.

I’m looking for ideas which might enhance this idea of an interview style shadow (for instance, I also had the idea that I could attend a conference call that the subject is hosting) and some really cool questions to ask in the interview. The questions should not be too time consuming, but mostly they should be interesting to both me and the person being interviewed. They should be questions you WANT to answer.

Assumptions you can make are that I know this person professionally, who their management is, what organization they work for, and the very basics of their job. You can also assume that they are higher up the chain than I am and have more education and experience. I also target folks where I am interested in the org that they work for and how to get in it… but I must be subtle about it.

Chiaroscuro to the extreme.

Neilopolis — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 06:55:21 -0800

What are some great examples of paintings that make dramatic use of light and shadow? I have to shoot a short film noir as a final project for my film class. In addition to researching past examples of films noir, I'd also like to turn to famous and/or obscure paintings for inspiration. I'd like to know what paintings you think use light and shadow rather effectively. Any artist will do. Thanks!

[grooming-filter] how do I beat the five o'clock shadow?

krautland — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:56:59 -0800

[grooming-filter] how do I beat the five o'clock shadow? I have an especially persistent five o'clock shadow on my cheeks.

it's the kind that appears within an hour or two after shaving, not late in the afternoon. I use a mach 3 blade, tend to shave multiple times in multiple directions and yet the unwanted look is back before I make it to work. I don't know how to shave even closer without ripping my cheeks apart. I also don't think my skin, which is already prone to irritations, could take a much more intense shaving ritual.

help me, hivemind. I don't want to look like a bloated, alcoholic don johnson past his prime. how do I get the clean look for more than an hour?

How to face one's dark side?

catherinem — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:02:20 -0800

How do I face my dark sides? Dear Hive Mind People -
At 35 and having been brought up to be untruthful to myself to function within a Catholic frame, I have spent much time to figure out who I really am and what I really want. Now that I am living through a painful breakup, I am trying again to recognize all those dark sides of mine, about which I am lying to myself, to be able to say more clearly what I want and need.

I have identified this process with C. G. Jung's term of the shadow, which refers to any unwanted qualities that we have stuffed away into a bag of oblivion, mostly as a result of our upbringing. These qualities are 'missing' in our lives if we totally suppress them, and we can recogniye them for example through our intense reactions (both positive and negative) to situations or to people who embody them.

What further ways are there to find out about one's dark sides? More importantly, how can I engage with them, and really incorporate them into my life?

Experiences, suggestions, advice all welcome. Many thanks!

How to deal with perma-stubble?

Stryke11 — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 18:15:02 -0800

I have perma-stubble and I'm sick of it. I am in my twenties and have been putting up with my perma-stubble for almost ten years now. It seems to continue getting worse. I have black hair and fair-ish skin. I typically have a five 'o clock shadow about fifteen to thirty minutes after I shave, and scratchy stubble a few hours later.

I use an electric razor because I discovered in the beginning that blades would either make me look sloppy and unshaven (going with the grain) or turn my face into a bloody wasteland (going sideways or against the grain). I have sensitive skin and found that electrics gave me the closest shave with the least amount of irritation. Still, however, it's not perfect because in hot weather any kind of sweat on my face will cause the whole thing to be a most painful experience.

I have used most every kind of commercial shaving aid product, both for before and after the event, and I am religious in my maintence of my electric razor's blades. I use a back and forth electric rather than the three circles ones, because again, the shave is closer and less irritating.

I need a solution. Has anyone here had to deal with this or know anyone who has? It's really a pain because, true or not, I feel like I always look dirty and it bugs me that I can't really do anything about it. I had a crazy idea that I don't even know is feasible in which I can use laser hair removal on my beard, but only randomly on like 1/3 to 1/2 of my hairs and thereby remove the shadow by lowering the density. I don't want to remove all the hair because my goal is not be a cherub. I also don't want to have patches of hair in some places and none in others - so I would only consider this is if was done right. Are there any other solutions? I have searched the net and not found much. I figured Metafites would have an answer.

Mounting a paperback book in a shadow box frame?

de void — Thu, 25 May 2006 09:37:33 -0800

How can I mount a paperback book in a shadow box frame so that the book doesn't sag? I've got a large paperback book that I'd like to mount in a shadow box type picture frame. The shadow box is slightly bigger than the book with ~ 5/8" border between the frame inside edges and the book outside edges all the way around. The frame is deep enough that the front of the book does not touch the front of the glass if it is set on the frame back.

I don't want any matting as I'd like the spine of the book to be visible. I'd also prefer to avoid doing anything permanent to the book that would preclude removing it from the frame sometime in the future and reading it (like gluing the pages together). However, it's more important to me to have the book hanging on the wall than to preserve its readibility. It's not a rare book so the value is not a concern.

Astronomical world problem

squirrel — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:08:26 -0800

If April 6 and September 10 are the same length from sunrise to sunset, does the sun take the same path across the sky on both days? We're having a big party outdoors on 10 September, and are trying to figure out if we need to reserve tents for shade. There's a grove of all trees to the southwest of the meadow, which casts shade on most of the meadow starting at some point in the afternoon.

If we go out to the meadow on April 6, a day that aproximately has the same length as Sept 10, at 1pm, the time that the party will start, will we get an accurate indication of how much shade will be cast by the grove onto the meadow?

In short: is the sun's path the same number of degrees above the hoizon on days of equal length?

CSS tricks

masymas — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 19:27:17 -0800

CSS tricks - cross-browser drop-shadow applied around a wrapper div without using transparent pngs? CSS tricks - I'm trying to create a cross-browser, fixed-width css layout that includes a drop-shadow on the left, bottom, and right sides of the outer div and accommodates a patterned background image.

Example: sucidegirls.com viewed with firefox 1.5.
Note: the above design utilizes the transparent png approach, and does not work in IE 6. I'm trying for a cross-browser solution.

Important: as in the above example, the bottom of the page will have a margin such that the vertically-reapeating background image also shows at the bottom of the page. Thus, the drop shadow will extend from the body content to the page background.

Is there a cross-browser solution eluding my googling skills?

Shadow of a doubt

RavinDave — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 00:28:00 -0800

AtronomyFilter involving the Sun, Shadows and a *SPOILER* from "National Treasure". Okay ... one of the key scenes in the movie "National Treasure" reveals an object found when the shadow of a steeple points at a specific brick in a wall at a specific time.

Would a solar shadow ALWAYS cast such a consistent shadow all year 'round, decade after decade? Isn't there even a slight deviation? I suppose sundials wouldn't work if it did deviate ... still, it seems counterintuitive.

a weird rainbow

dhruva — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 18:16:53 -0800

On a recent flight, I saw a weird circular 'rainbow' around the shadow of the plane (on a cloud). What's the physics behind this? Sometimes I could see the 'rainbow' even before I could see the shadow, it was like a halo. The clouds were mostly irregular and white, ie non-water bearing.

Max Sedgely

gaby — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 13:29:14 -0800

MusicFilter: I really like the track "Happy" by Max Sedgely, and "You can't go home again" by DJ Shadow but I don't really know this genre of music too well. What other artists/tracks can you recommend that are in this style? It's a sort of deep funk house type thing.

Cool Candleholders Wanted

jeremias — Sat, 04 Dec 2004 16:11:54 -0800

Can anyone recommend candle holders that cast cool shadows?