I can't stand SPA's.
I can't link anyone to any specific photo because the URL doesn't update when the view does.
Beautiful photos though
Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
101–110 of 136 posts
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I might be a minority opinion but I think brutalist architecture can be beautiful. My local library (https://www.yelp.com/biz/port-washington-public-library-port...) is quite brutalist but is also one of my favorite libraries. Its reading room alone (the library sits up on a hill and the reading room has one wall of all-glass-and-concrete which looks out onto Manhasset Bay) is amazing.
Actually, it seems that it crept back into vogue while I wasn't paying attention!: https://www.gq.com/story/9-brutalist-wonders-of-the-architec...
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#103Ugh, cannot zoom in or save on iOS (easily, but I better not mention how in case they disable that workaround too)
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#104As a kid, I really wanted to be an astronaut. I didn't make it, although I did go to Space Camp. It's mostly something I don't think about anymore, until I see pictures like this - looking at the entire planet just floating there in space does something to my brain. I hope space tourism will become accessible to non-billionaires in my lifetime!
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I might be a minority opinion but I think brutalist architecture can be beautiful. My local library ( https://www.yelp.com/biz/port-washington-public-library-port... ) is quite brutalist but is also one of my favorite libraries. Its reading room alone (the library sits up on a hill and the reading room has one wall of all-glass-and-concrete which looks out onto Manhasset Bay) is amazing. Actually, it seems that it cr…
Taste is individual, but I just don't understand how you could find a heap of concrete slabs to be beautiful. To me, beauty is life-affirming, and brutalism is the physical embodiment of a philosophy that denies life in favour of rigid functional structure. It's the physical representation of kafkaesque bureaucracy.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#106Amazing article and incredible pictures, but this one line has me scratching my head: "Only 24 people have journeyed far enough to see the whole Earth against the black of space " The Apollo missions from 8 through 17, with the exception of Apollo 9 (LM test in Earth orbit), all reached lunar orbit, even if 8, 10, and 13 didn't actually land. Each carried 3 crew members. Doesn't that make 27 people?
Three crew members went twice.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
If you get closer and widen the lens, you will see an arbitrarily small portion of the earth as you approach it.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
AFAIK the Russians were mainly concerned about the ability of the Space Shuttle to quickly change its orbital plane, combined with the planned high frequency of flights (which never happened though) and high cargo capacity. Put a few nukes on the Shuttle, and you can drop them anywhere in the world with much less warning time than intercontinental ballistic missiles. At least that's what I read about the reasoning of…
Changing orbital plane requires delta V, and the Shuttle had barely enough to make it to LEO (the highest it ever went was servicing the Hubble). Cargo capacity... Not that much really, since you're carrying yourself a whole lot of orbiter already. It had a large volume in the cargo bay, and the mentioned ability to retrieve things in that cargo bay. But yes, DoD/military influenced the design of the Shuttle. It just…
From some distant memory the dimensions of the Space Shuttle cargo bay was specifically matched to accommodate the launch and servicing of the Hubble Space telescope. I'm not sure which design drove which.
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
I might be a minority opinion but I think brutalist architecture can be beautiful. My local library ( https://www.yelp.com/biz/port-washington-public-library-port... ) is quite brutalist but is also one of my favorite libraries. Its reading room alone (the library sits up on a hill and the reading room has one wall of all-glass-and-concrete which looks out onto Manhasset Bay) is amazing. Actually, it seems that it cr…
Taste is individual, but I just don't understand how you could find a heap of concrete slabs to be beautiful. To me, beauty is life-affirming, and brutalism is the physical embodiment of a philosophy that denies life in favour of rigid functional structure. It's the physical representation of kafkaesque bureaucracy.
I’m glad you’re respecting taste, especially when you’re throwing such anthropomorphological argument against it ;)
I’m not sure why there is such a significant aesthetic difference between cutting stones and stacking them (masonry architecture) and filling the exact same form with concrete, especially when the latter is usually far more robust and thus, safer (read: actually life-affirming, by being neither flammable nor easily collapsible, if designed right) and also permitting structural forms that are simply not possible using any other medium
Re: Earth Restored – 50 restored images of earth released
#110> 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...
Collins wrote a book about his experiences - more of an autobiography up to 1974. He talks about this.