How does this picture make any sense? Europe, Asia, Both America's, and Australia all fit on the other half?
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/562652dbe4b05bbfdc596...
Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
81–90 of 136 posts
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#82> Collins, who remained in orbit on the Command Module, is behind the lens. Every other human is in front of it. This caption is so powerful.
I was going to post exactly the same thing. It's such an understated way of phrasing it and a really beautiful photo. I wonder how Collins felt? There's a quote from him on the page, but it's more about the photo rather than himself. Surely that's been discussed...
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#83How does this picture make any sense? Europe, Asia, Both America's, and Australia all fit on the other half? https://static1.squarespace.com/static/562652dbe4b05bbfdc596...
The Pacific Ocean is enormous.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#84Missing is the Voyager 1 image looking back to Earth from 4 billion miles, the one referred to by Carl Sagan as "the pale blue dot, a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam". It doesn't have the resolution these images have but it's impact on our civilization is over-whelming.
Would you happen to have a link?
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#85How does this picture make any sense? Europe, Asia, Both America's, and Australia all fit on the other half? https://static1.squarespace.com/static/562652dbe4b05bbfdc596...
Yes, they do. Try orienting the globe for yourself here:
https://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/physics/solarSystem/Interac...
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the first wikipedia paragraph, I don't see anything wrong with building things so they'll look cool a) when they're maintained and in use and b) when they're badly maintained and crumbling. I'll take 'Ruinenwerttheorie' buildings over brutalist concrete piles that look disgusting the day they're built and worse as they age. The 3rd Reich had a lot of problems, but they had some good aesthetics (Huge Boss, etc).…
I think the point is that it takes a sort of hubris that's quite typical for autocratic regimes to show off to the rest of the world - and future generations - with gigantomanic architecture. IMHO a healthy society should be "above" this sort of stuff.
Brutalism was adopted by the Soviets, who were also pretty oppressive.
I'd rather live in a beautiful building than a concrete square. The idea that people should live in purely functional environments with no room for beauty or art is a purely modernist idea.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how we could get more people to experience this effect... Something like what Stewart Brand did by pushing for and publicising the first whole earth picture (in part via the Whole Earth Catalog) but more for the internet age. I was toying with an idea of a site called "Get Some Perspective" where you'd start off with a FPS view and as you scroll you gradually zoom out, eventually to the whole observable univ…
I think you're toying with the dangerous Total Perspective Vortex [0] as described by Douglas Adams: The Vortex is now used as a torture and (in effect) killing device on the planet Frogstar B. The prospective victim of the TPV is placed within a small chamber wherein is displayed a model of the entire universe - together with a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot bearing the legend "you are here." The sense of pers…
This will crush your soul if you consider you are insignificant, but let me help.
The entire universe is ENORMOUS and we are but tiny specks. But the same God who made all of that, made us, too. And that same God knows us by name and wants to have a relationship with us.
Be God's friend.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#88I always wonder what happens to you psychologically when you see something like this. As one of the astronauts I mean. Surely, once you've returned, nothing will be as it used to.
I'm sure it's hyped up to the point that if you went up there, expecting a cosmic experience, having imagined and simulated it a million times, you'd be disappointed by the reality.
I'm ready to be disappointed.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you are suffering a bit from survivorship bias here. Way less than 0.001% of Roman buildings are still standing and the ones that remain have been continuously maintained over the centuries. If humanity will keep maintaining the White House for centuries it will look just as good in 4021 as it does today.
The White House is not a modernist / postmodernist building that was designed with planned obsolescence in mind, so I'm not entirely sure why you've used it as an example. In fact, it's a perfect example of a beautiful neoclassical landmark that was intended to inspire and last through the ages. Survivorship bias is always brought up in these discussions, but I believe it to just be a cop-out. Take a look at any well…
> In fact, it's a perfect example of a beautiful neoclassical landmark that was intended to inspire and last through the ages.
I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that you've never been to the White House: it's a mildewed, creaky mess that was gutted twice (once by war[1], again to prevent it from collapsing under its own misdesign[2]). It undergoes constant, active maintenance, and is not intended by any means to "last through the ages."
But to get to the actual point: the neoclassical style is built on a historical lens. It takes classical architecture on face value, as it was in the 18th century (i.e., weather-washed and in ruins). Its appliers wanted to promote their interpretation of classical greatness, which corresponds in no particular way to the actual greatness of cultures in the classical period. The Romans would have laughed at our neoclassical use of blindingly white marble[3].
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Reconstruction
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#90How does this picture make any sense? Europe, Asia, Both America's, and Australia all fit on the other half? https://static1.squarespace.com/static/562652dbe4b05bbfdc596...
Yes, they do. Try orienting the globe for yourself here: https://www.echalk.co.uk/Science/physics/solarSystem/Interac...
You're right! But with my globe at home, and that site you listed, at the same angle I can clearly see part of India and Australia, it's weird that they don't seem to show up in this picture.