After Michael shows them his head shot with his résumé of acting experience on the back, they take it upon themselves to add the things he has left out (deer skinning, tile laying and such) and hand out the amended copies to people on the street.
The Discovery made its last flight in March and now sits in a maintenance bay, enclosed by platforms that would normally be crawling with workers inspecting and maintaining its many systems — including the thousands of thermal tiles that cover its skin — to be ready for its next liftoff.
The bulging bellies of more pregnant women protrude from its skin of ceramic tiles, along with motifs of safety pins, cassette tapes, hearts and yet more wheels.
The vehicles, which cost $2 million each, were built to take a hit from a heavy machine gun, but confidence in that capability was shaken last summer when some of the ceramic tiles that form the protective skin on the brigade's 309 Strykers were found to be faulty.
"Slippery Floor" combines the diamond pattern of mosaic tile with similar patterns on the skins of snakes, juxtaposing the floor's geometric grid with the creatures' sinuous curves.
In some places, the yellow plaster is so worn that you can see the outlines of the clay tiles beneath, like capillaries under fragile skin; in other places the plaster has flaked off altogether.
The magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology reports in its coming issue that as far back as 1988, NASA engineers worried that a gouge in the shuttle's tiles could leave it vulnerable to a turbulent flow of gases hot enough to melt the tiles and burn through the aluminum skin beneath.
Reglazing is a sprayed-on new skin of acrylic urethane that covers tubs, sinks, tile walls, even tile floors.
He fabricated two layers of translucent steel "skin" with reflective stainless-steel tiles set inside.
Mr. Cloepfil retained the form of the building, with its gently concave facade, but wrapped it in a new skin of glazed terra-cotta tiles.
