The snipers look like they are miles away because of the perspective. It's really only a couple hundred yards at most to the top of the Rayburn House Office Building, where they are posted.
@8: If I had known a photograph like this would have been taken, I would have dressed up in a red and white striped outfit with glasses and a cane just to make it happen.
I just spent ten minutes zooming around this thing lookin' at everyone, and I have to hand it to Michelle Obama. Other people are swaddled head to toe in polartec fleece so you there's nothing to indicate that they are animate objects and not just people-shaped outerwear...and Michelle is in nylons. Nylons! No socks, no hat, no scarf - and she looks totally comfortable. I fucking love her.
What I want to see is the full-res version of the top-down satellite picture of the Mall. Because, I'm curious just how tight those images from space can be (which I'm sure is classified).
Recognize faces? Read license plates? Watch what number someone is dialing on their cell phone?
Who is the guy covered in vines? Enquiring minds want to know! They should have one of those DC Comics number-in-silhouette deals to tell us who some of these people are and how the heck they got there. Lotsa cowboy hats. Supwitdat?
Everybody may be looking in the wrong place for Tom Hanks. I'm looking back at archives, and Christopher Frizzelle posted the pic from the far-right-third-row perspective, so presumably the picture above is of him, not Eli Sanders, who had Tom Hanks behind him. (Eli's only description of his position is the "folding chairs section of the Orange Zone, several seats in from the aisle.")
That said, I can't find Tom Hanks anywhere else, and since I don't know what Eli looks like, I can't find him for a point of reference either. We should be able to spot P. Diddy about ten rows behind Christopher, though.
I agree with @30 - Cheney looks EXACTLY like Mr. Potter in It's a Wonderful Life. And he's turned the entire U.S.A. into Pottersville. George Bailey, come back!
@26 - Satellites can't read license plates, and might recognize your face if you're looking straight up into the sky, but not likely otherwise. Satellites take pictures straight down. If they were to take them at an angle good enough to read a license plate or see a face, the cameras would have to be thousands of times better resolution, since they'd have to be much farther away and look through a lot more atmosphere.
Who decided who gets the bling bling cushy throne-like chairs and who got the folding ones? If you look around the balcony, there are variations of seating quality.
Starting with the 'coworkers,' look a few rows back and down for a woman in a pink hooded parka, apparently coughing. there is a man, bareheaded, turned partway around, face partially obscured. He is seated next to another bareheaded gent who appears to be of subcontinental Indian ancestry.
and you can't possibly miss Diddy when you look for him.
It wasn't him. But I bet the guy in front of Christophe with the gray beany is the one he referred to in his post that had its poofy-ness adjusted by Tom Hanks
no, I'm serious, I didn't even look at the "is this Diddy" post until just now (and was astounded by the idiocy, I mean really astounded). Dude I'm talking about is standing in the aisle with a diamond in his ear the size of your first child's fist. On looking at your link, there's no doubt it's him. In fact, the white dot is what drew my eye in the first place.
Here's how to find him:
find my pink-parka coughing lady. sight down her row until you see the guy pictured in the "is this Diddy" post. now look up the aisle, to the right of the frame, until you see the four standing people. Dude with the blue knit cap is Denzel. right behind him, looking well-tailored indeed as one might expect, Mr. Diddy, diamond stud a-flash.
haw, i got props! no harm done, CF. I actually thought the comments on your "is this Diddy" post were pretty interesting. I remain amazed that you had no apparent idea of the appearance and personal style of this omnipresent media visage. Diddy has little overlap with the Belle and Sebastian demo, true enough. However, he is most definitely a man with a knowledge and appreciation of fine men's clothing.
Another question, which I also wondered while watching the event on TV: Why was Robert Gibbs stationed up with the string quartet? I noticed him there when it was broadcasting live, and he's up there during the speech in this photo.
I should have scoped out the latitude and longitude of my aisle seat in the Orange section - I am wearing a red watch cap and a red scarf and bundled up like a Muscovite - but otherwise indistinguishable from the rest of the lumpen proletariat. With great thanks to Cong. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) for my ticket - my kindly Republican benefactor.
The close-up with the Stranger writer looks like a collection of homeless winos, though. The facial hair, the knit caps, the cheap coats, etc.
Recognize faces? Read license plates? Watch what number someone is dialing on their cell phone?
That said, I can't find Tom Hanks anywhere else, and since I don't know what Eli looks like, I can't find him for a point of reference either. We should be able to spot P. Diddy about ten rows behind Christopher, though.
Kudos to you Mr. Hecht. I am genuinely ASTOUNDED!
Where does this technology come from? And how come no body told me about it?
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2009/44.…
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01…
Police Cars are doing it
http://www.seattle.gov/police/programs/t…
He's sitting 2 rows behind Michelle here
http://i39.tinypic.com/1zel5ck.jpg
Starting with the 'coworkers,' look a few rows back and down for a woman in a pink hooded parka, apparently coughing. there is a man, bareheaded, turned partway around, face partially obscured. He is seated next to another bareheaded gent who appears to be of subcontinental Indian ancestry.
and you can't possibly miss Diddy when you look for him.
http://www.scandalist.com/nggallery/post…
It wasn't him. But I bet the guy in front of Christophe with the gray beany is the one he referred to in his post that had its poofy-ness adjusted by Tom Hanks
Here's how to find him:
find my pink-parka coughing lady. sight down her row until you see the guy pictured in the "is this Diddy" post. now look up the aisle, to the right of the frame, until you see the four standing people. Dude with the blue knit cap is Denzel. right behind him, looking well-tailored indeed as one might expect, Mr. Diddy, diamond stud a-flash.
Anyone?