Earlier this year, Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it was shedding the fear of paper cuts and turning itself over solely to anxiety over internet access cuts. The now online-only encyclopedia of record further noted recently that they were looking to adapt a communal, almost wiki form of a community for it’s publication.
For those who grew up with one of their multi-volume sets, it marks an extraordinary end of an era. Despite the wonderment of Encarta95 and wikipedia, itself, the Encyclopedia Britannica was, at worst, one heck of a beauty on your bookshelf. My family still has our circa 1985 set at my parents home.
Nostalgia also struck one of my favorite TED speakers, the poet Rives. Below is his reaction to EB 2.0.
There’s no better way to present info to today’s ADD-riddled kids than through a colorful infographic. And why not have that infographic compare our can’t-sit-still generation to their predecessors. Click on through for an interesting look at kids today and kids 30 years ago from BED.
When I first came across this video, my reaction was much like some others: utter astonishment and a few questions as to whether or not it might have been photoshopped. Well, it wasn’t, it just is the majesty of the Earth from just beyond the thin blue line.
It’s also a stark reminder that while the Hubble may get the majority of the press for opening our eyes to both the visible and non-visible beauty of the electro-magnetic spectrum, sometimes the best images are self portraits. Last February, I posted my favorite still self portraits. After the jump, I’ve embedded a video that shares the beauty of that still imagery with the majesty of the time-lapse video.
I’m fond of the time lapse format. It has a level of detail and fineness that doesn’t come across in the most sharp of high definition videos. In the past, I’ve posted a New York City-specific time lapse by Mindrelic and one by by James Ogle.
Today, I’m posting one by Canadian Dominic Boudreault which features Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Chicago and, of course, New York. Brilliant choice of score and some fantastic shots. Really spectacular stuff.
Mother’s Day is an occasion on which we celebrate the beauty of our mothers. So here’s a time lapse featuring the beauty of our collective mother earth. The artist is Terje Sorgjerd os TSO Photography.
I haven’t done one of these in a while, so I figured I would feature the most recent lecture I’ve watched. Supported fully by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Big History Project aims to promote a passion for learning, as well as a more comprehensive, big picture look at the history of how we got here and where we are. Bill Gates talks a bit about it here.
One of their big moments was the spectacular below lecture by Gates’ co-founder David Christian. Along with Carolyn Porco’s Saturn talk, this is one of the more visually stunning lectures you’ll see. Definitely worth the next 20 minutes.
I cannot attest to the fact that this isn’t photoshopped, but it’s been around the web enough to make me think it’s legitimate. So I’m just going to stand back and say “Whoa.”
A few months ago, I posted a timelapse piece produced by Mindrelic that featured fantastic still photo compilation and City-suitable scoring. Well, that piece may have been one upped by this one.
"Blue Marble" by Apollo 17 crew. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. December 7, 1972
Sometimes after a rough week, a round night or seeing your beloved Commodores choke against the Volunteers, you need a little reminder to keep things in perspective. One easy way to do so is by revisiting the mastery of photography that reveals the wonders of the universe. While the Hubble images are often the most powerfully beautiful and the images of Jovian moons from Galileo or Saturnial satellites (particularly Enceladus) by Cassini are awe inspiring, there’s nothing quite like a few images of this world we call home to keep one grounded.
After the jump, I’ve linked three of my favorites and one which I wasn’t previously aware of, posted in chronological order. You’ll likely want to click on at least the first three images to get a bigger view, otherwise you might just miss out on spotting Earth altogether.
So, back when Randall Munroe updated his blogo/social network-sphere map a couple of months ago, I decided to delve back into my posting of amusing maps floating around on the interwebs regarding geocentric ignorance. Well, Munroe has taken on the subject himself in an appropriately XKCD manner. Click the image to be redirected to XKCD for the larger look or click here for my Part One or over here for Part Two of my looks at amusing maps.
