Pierre Fouché. 1994.77 or Lebenslänglichen Explosionsglück, 2020.

Rayon chords from a World War II parachute.

PBY Blister Gunner, Rescue at Rabaul, 1944, photo by Horace Bristol

oh my god he did a bobbin lace. out of parachute cords, both military and protective in nature. of the guy who saved someone from the water and then ran to fire his gun with his fine ass out. This is so gorgeous and so gay

Okay not really. The thing about animals with eyes on the side of their head: they DO in fact look directly at things and they CAN use binocular vision. I am going to use horse examples because horses are what I know best.

A horse uses binocular vision when it is trying to see something better - monocular vision gives a wider field of view but no depth perception and is not very clear.

When alert, the horse will look directly at something, facing it, using binocular vision to determine what it is and whether it is a threat.

A general rule of thumb with horses is that whatever their ears are pointed at is what they are looking at.

In the first image, the horse is looking at me. In the second, she is not.

In this set of images, she is investigating that blanket. You can clearly see her head pointed at the object and she examines with her binocular vision and nose.

Now, in this case, the horse is looking at me without his head facing me. You can tell he's looking at me with his monocular vision by how he has one ear facing me.

In most of the professionally done horse reference pics you see, the horses are going to have their ears pricked up and alert and be using their binocular vision. Why? Because it just looks better. How? Either the horse is investigating/curious about the camera or person holding the camera OR someone standing where they want the horse to look has just snapped their fingers or whistled or waved an umbrella or something to get the horses attention.

I just find it silly to say that the prey animals are not looking at you when facing head on, when the examples you gave do not seem to demonstrate that. To me, all of the squirrel and bird pictures look as if they are looking at the viewer - with the side view being a more 'relaxed/trusting' sort of look while the front view is a tenser investigation. The horse does not look like its looking at the view in either drawing - the first looks relaxed and looking somewhat to the side, the second looks alert and gazing directly in front of it.

I will add on for (at least some) birds.

This bird is not looking at you.

This bird is intensely looking at you

Many animals move their pupils. In both photos you can see her pupils, but they're only facing forward in the second.

Here she is intensely examining a chip in front of her face.

She is not looking at me- actually she's not really looking at anything she's listening to something she heard outside.

Peas most often look at things sideways when they need a wide field of view, too- like when they are scanning the sky for hawks, they will walk puffed up with their head tilted to the side to look up.

But when they want to actually look at something or someone, they will look head on as well. It's just that unlike animals with forward facing eyes, they don't HAVE to look at you head on.

This is partly true, they can't see the fence as they are actually jumping it! The blind spot directly in front of them is a cone about 3-4 feet long, and the ideal take-off point for a jump is around 4-6 feet in front of the obstacle, so right on the edge of that blind spot. But the exact position of that cone varies with the horse's head position, so if you look at the whole phase of a jump (approach, take off, flight, landing) they will change the height and angle of their head to put the obstacle into their field of vision at the most important points in the run up.

As they approach the fence from a distance they will raise their head so that it is clear in their binocular vision, where they can properly judge the distance and height. Then as they reach the take-off point, the obstacle disappears from view and they lower their head. While they're in the air they should have a rounded arch to their back, which both engages their core so they can raise their centre of mass to clear the jump, but also angles their head slightly further down so they can see the landing point.

Pics of me and my good chonky boy below show the difference, photo one we're cantering across the field heading towards a jump in the distance; head is raised slightly, nose forward in front of the vertical, focus point is far distant, he knows where that jump is and he's taking me to it:

Photo two he's reached a jump, he already knows where it is and how high it is because he made all those judgements well in advance, he's an overachiever so he's jumped it with an extra foot of clearance; head is lowered, back rounded, nose back on the vertical, focus point is short distance so he can see where he's landing:

My focus point on the other hand is straight ahead, looking for the next jump so that as soon as he lands I can pick his focus up and point him towards his next obstacle. Once we reach the take off point neither of us are looking at the thing we're jumping anymore, we're already thinking about what happens next.

And to prove it's not me putting his head in that position, here he is a few years later free jumping, same body shape and head position:

Also anyone saying horses don't look straight ahead, look at this absolute muppet and tell me he's not looking at me

ALT

ALT

The first gerbil is looking at you. The second is looking in your general direction, but not directly at you. (First gerbil was Simeon and the second was Bernard. I lost them both this year and it sucked)

You can tell partly where they're looking by their ear positions (pointed towards the camera) and nose position.

Gerbils can accurately measure where to jump pretty long distances, and they aren't looking to the sides to do so. They do turn their heads side to side, but when they're focusing on their jumping spot, they will be exactly focused on that spot.

Criminal law is so bonkers disconnected from the reality of everyday life that things are crimes that people just Do.

Have you ever had on your person a prescription drug for someone else? Held for them, brought to them, picked up for them? If it was on the controlled substance list, you opened yourself up to a felony.

Ever pulled your sibling’s hair? Gave them a nougie? Hit them, tripped them, grabbed something out of their hands? You could have been charged with domestic battery.

Did you play with fire as a kid? Most people do, at least a little. Hope it wasn’t in a place with grass, because burning grasses is a felony here.

Your parents leave you in the car while they went into the store? Felony child neglect, these days.

Ever had a pet die from something that made them lose a lot of weight? I had a client convicted of felony animal abuse resulting in death even though the only veterinarian witness testified he didn’t know what caused the animal’s death and did not do a necropsy.

Ever thrown something at a car? Empty soda bottle, snowball, water balloon? Felony missile at occupied vehicle.

People can be convicted of brandishing a firearm for having it in a holster. For concealed carry of a firearm if it’s on the other side of their body from an officer observing (and therefore “hidden”). Got a knife in your pocket or a brass knuckle keyring self defense device? That’s a concealed weapon.

Did you know that child protective services safety plans are sometimes taken out as protective orders? My client didn’t, when she went to try to buy a firearm to defend herself against an abusive ex. She was under a CPS protective order to not have the ex around her children. Charged with felony fraud in firearm affidavit: attempting to buy a gun while under a protective order.

Had a kid convicted of arson for burning some variant of nerf darts in his room and not even trying to set anything else on fire.

I have seen convictions and charges for everything on this list.

And always remember, almost half (45%) of people are in prison for probation or parole violations, huge swathes of that number for doing things that would be legal and fine for you and me but are not fine because they’re on probation.

This is why overpolicing matters: because normal shit gets regularly criminalized for certain populations.

Forgot a big one! Have you ever shared painkillers or anti-anxiety meds or other controlled substances (obtained with a prescription) with other family members?

That is in fact drug dealing. The defense to it is “accommodation” — as in, I was accommodating someone, not dealing for profit — and accommodation, uh, slightly reduces how bad of a felony it is and does nothing else.

The person who is accommodated also has committed felony possession of controlled substance.

This is why people with Adderall prescriptions only use the original pill bottle. Because they could get charged with a felony at any point if they don’t, just because an officer thinks it’s not theirs.

I work with kids who are on probation and a big one for then is about 'affiliating with known gang members.' Which is difficult to manage when you've been placed in a school for expelled students - many of whom are on probation for gang-related charges. Or...hey...not sure how a kid can avoid associating with gang members when their neighbors and uncles and siblings and parents whom they live with are also gang members. What precisely is a teen supposed to do when their mom is the one driving them around town at night to do shit?

I had a student get arrested and incarcerated for months because his probation officer found a bag of thc candy in his room. We're in California; he shares a room with an older brother. Everyone in that house uses marijuana. And now this kid is shouldering all the blame and guilt for that.

I had a student get arrested for talking back and being 'disrespectful' to his probation officer. An angry, traumatized teenager shouted at his P.O. and the result was him getting hauled away from school in cuffs.

Two students at my school got into a mutual fight - no one was injured. One was on probation and one wasn't. The one not on probation was suspended for a couple of days, and when he returned he's enrolled in our anger managment group. The one on probation was hauled away in cuffs and now he will spend Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas in juvenile hall.

I dont know what I'm concluding with all this except, yeah...so many people get labeled as 'criminals' as kids and it is damn near impossible to shake off that label once it's been assigned. The system we have is horrifyingly unjust.