Posted by shaun Link: NASA Releases Flip Side of High-Res Earth Image
on 2/6/2012, 6:01 am
Message modified by user shaun 2/6/2012, 8:14 am
Easy to forget we live on a blue marble
"It’s so easy to forget we live on a planet,
a blue marble in space. We go about fixated
on what’s in front of us, the latest task, usually
something that makes us look down, instead of up.
We forget we’re on a giant ball (giant
relative to us) spinning through space,
in a solar system, in a galaxy, in a
universe of galaxies and other matter…
From time to time we get solar flares that
cause electronic disruptions (not too disruptive,
this latest one, but the effect was felt),
and that should remind us, at least.
But any contemplation of the stars is a reminder.
Pictures like the one linked here should
remind us, too. Astronauts often comment
that looking at the Earth from space reminds them
of the forgotten unity of the world…spaceship Earth…
Our place in the *scale* of things…
It’s easy to forget we live on a planet;
almost magical,in its effect
on consciousness, to remember it." - John Shirley
name: Shaun
comment:
- Gazing upon both the western and eastern-hemisphere images of our blue marble,
I am struck by the smallness of our planet. Particularly how our fifty continental
United States largely takes up on hemisphere, while Africa dominates the other.
Suddenly lending a sense of miniaturization, a sort of disorienting zoom-in to our shores,
which bend around the curves of the earth to slope quickly to the other side, a tiny
ball rolling in the geomagnetic currents of space.
"Paranoia is a skill"
~...
http://freezineoffantasyandsciencefiction.blogspot.com
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