The Small, Beautiful Earth

Seeing the Earth from space is one of the most humbling reminders of the smallness and fragility of our planet, and of the insignificance of humanity. In the words of Carl Sagan, “The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner.”

The following images are not actual photographs from space, though many people on the internet have mistaken them for real photos from NASA. They were actually created by graphic artist Anton Balazh (Антон Балаж) from St. Petersburg, Russia. The images achieve their beautiful realism by compounding and altering real satellite images from NASA’s Visible Earth catalogs, and using GIS data to depict bathymetry and topography. The height of mountain ranges, which would normally look flat from space, are exaggerated in a style called raised-relief. The images were then altered to make them appear variously at night, day, and twilight. The effect is incredible, showing our planet as a tapestry of glowing city lights without political borders or labels.

Iberia, Southwestern Europe, and Northwestern Africa from Space at Night

Artist's Site

Comments

Basic Fuckanomics

You're born with a ton of fucks to give. So you spend them like a kid with a credit card. You give a fuck about your friends, about your grades, about your fashion sense, about strangers opinions ..... you give away too many fucks about way too many things. You have so many. then, as you get older you have maybe ten fucks per month.... so you learn to budget them. You allocate fucks to your family and career, but there aren't enough fucks left to give the newest shit. So someone at work has something they need my help with that's outside my job title? I'll do my best to allocate some fucks, but this month is pretty tight. Then you get even older, so you're down to one or two fucks a month.... and those fucks are damn precious. You give them to your family, your hobbies, your job... and that's kind of it. It's not your fault fucks expire too quickly. I would have liked to save my fucks when I was younger, but I can't. Then you hit fuck insolve

Radiant Tank Top Heaters

I had a Mozart "for concentration and study" vid running in the background on YouTube, when an advert for Radiant Tank Top Heaters by Global Industrial came on. Definitely not the kind of thing I normally expect, but I got curious, and once I saw the images of "propane tanks with laser dishes" my mind went running all over the place. These things seem really dangerous, but also very practical. I can see every dude-bro's garage workshop with at least one of these, and if I was out in that shop on a freezing-ass cold day, I'd be parked next to this thing, because I'm tough, but still smart enough to stay warm. My first random thought was the Star Wars laser dish cannons . I loved Empire Strikes Back , and always thought these things were cool in a totally impractical kind of way. I love that Lucas and his people always seemed to let their imaginations run wild. I mean, just because WE think it might be impractical doesn't mean some ot

Nerdforge - uber nerd girl shows how to make awesome stuff

So, this is sort of a follow-up to my earlier post on Fantasy RPG Armor for women . This is about Martina at Nerdforge , and all the awesome shit she makes. Specifically, here are her videos where she makes her own armor and then she makes a shield. She also has videos where she makes tomes, wizard staffs, and all kinds of awesome shit. Frankly, I get a kick out of trying to picture her workshop. She's got some serious and expensive power tools :-) Here are more links about them We're the Nerdforge couple Martina & Hansi! instagram & twitter: @thenerdforge discord: discord.io/nerdforge https://www.patreon.com/nerdforge

I Tell You. You Decide If You Care.

Search This Blog