A 1956 photograph by Joe Scherschel, taken in Texarkana, Tex., shows an almost Norman Rockwell-esque young black couple, leaning on a car hood with their schoolbooks. The horizon is a line of menacing white protesters.Photo: Joe Scherschel, via High Museum of Art.
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera would make a great backyard telescope for viewing Mars, and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets. This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on October 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
At the time the image was taken, Earth was 142 million kilometers (88 million miles) from Mars, giving the HiRISE image a scale of 142 kilometers (88 miles) per pixel, an Earth diameter of about 90 pixels and a moon diameter of 24 pixels. The phase angle is 98 degrees, which means that less than half of the disk of the Earth and the disk of the moon have direct illumination. We could image Earth and moon at full disk illumination only when they are on the opposite side of the sun from Mars, but then the range would be much greater and the image would show less detail.
I've arrived in Shanghai on business. Just got in a couple of hours ago, and decided to kill sometime by going for a walk along Nanjing Rd. -- "China's historic No. 1 shopping street. This Oxford Street of the East extends to over 5km from the Bund to Jing'an Temple including Nanjing Road East Pedestrian Street. Many shops are open till 10 p.m." I've forgotten what an entertainment the street could be. I got propositioned every few steps: "Watches, DVD, MP3, iPod, iPhone, t-shirt, sexy girl massage." It was the same thing, in the same order, from many of the street hucksters. I didn't bite, especially since they all pointed down a less than welcoming side street as the destination to finalize the deal. I did stop in the official Beijing Olympics store to make a couple of gift purchases, however. They had some cool merchandise -- probably once in a lifetime purchase.Important NoticeThose are the rules. I'm obeying them.
- Aliens who do not lodge at hotels, guesthouses or inns shall, within 24 hours (72 hours in rural areas) of entry, go through accommodation registration at local police station.
- Aliens holding visas Z, X or J-1 shall, within 30 days of entry, apply for Residence Permits to the exit-entry department of the public security bureau of the city where the applicants reside.
- Aliens shall not be employed in China without permission of the competent authorities of the Chinese Government.
- Aliens who reside or stay in China shall carry with themselves their passports or Residence Permits for possible examination.
- In case of emergency, please dial 110 to seek help from police.
I'm currently in Hong Kong on business. Spent most of my day today indoors, working. But, I had to get out around noon, since I was starving. I took a walk (see map below) from my hotel to Flower Market Street (a street just with flower shops -- I kid you not). It was a bit of a walk -- 4.4km according to Google Maps. Not bad, but I think I lost a year off with the walk. It was around 31 Celsius today, and quite sticky humid. Nathan Road was crowded with people -- and the air was stifling with smog. You couldn't really see it, but you could breathe it. It was thick, and with the humidity, it was like breathing soup -- really bad soup. The air was also filled with smells -- which I'm not going to comment on, other to say that your imagination has nothing on the reality. Along the way on Nathan, was a block guarded by giant Banyan trees. It was totally cool -- something I had never seen before. Especially to see them cropping out of sides of the roads. I also took the photo to the right of an outdoor market. I walked through it, and it definitely made for good people watching. Surprisingly, the smog and the smells were absent there.
The reDiscovery Institute ... I'll let them speak for themselves:The reDiscovery Institute is non-profit, public-policy think-tank located in Tacoma, Washington, with branches in Atlanta, Georgia and Fort Worth, Texas. The reDiscovery Institute fosters integration of science education with traditional Judeo-Christian principles of free market, limited government, property, faith, and corporal punishment.The best!
Naturally, the US tops the list of exploding hell on Planet Earth ... followed closely by the Russians. The British, French and Chinese have done their bit as well, to rattle Mother Earth's bones. [Source: Radical Cartography]
Here's a PC fit for the dead hag, Queen Victoria herself. See more at Steampunk Workshop.
The copy for this ad from tappening.com reads: Every year, 38 billion water bottles end up buried in the earth. Drink tap.
I just found this image at Development Crossing (via peacebob's post on reddit), taken by John Marie Lugemwa, in Uganda. First thought that popped into my head was cute ... second was, hope.
A close-up view of the exterior of space shuttle Endeavour's crew cabin, starboard wing and payload bay door was provided by the station's Expedition 16 crew. Before docking with the station, STS-123 commander Dominic Gorie flew the shuttle through a roll pitch maneuver, basically a backflip, to provide the station crew with a good view of Endeavour's heat shield.Image Credit: NASA
Using digital still cameras equipped with both 400 and 800 millimeter lenses, the station crew took a number of photos of the shuttle's thermal protection system and sent them to teams on the ground for analysis. A 400 millimeter lens was used for this image.
The Sombrero Galaxy (also known as M104 or NGC 4594) is an unbarred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It has a bright nucleus, an unusually large central bulge, and a prominent dust lane in its inclined disk. The dark dust lane and the bulge give this galaxy the appearance of a sombrero. The galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 9.0, making it a galaxy that can easily be seen with amateur telescopes. The large bulge, the central supermassive black hole, and the dust lane all attract the attention of professional astronomers.
I found this image at Dan Phiffer's site, where it's described as:
Left: All the water in the world (1.4087 billion cubic kilometres of it) including sea water, ice, lakes, rivers, ground water, clouds, etc. Right: All the air in the atmosphere (5140 trillion tonnes of it) gathered into a ball at sea-level density. Shown on the same scale as the Earth.Click the image to see the original.
Iraq is horrify for us far away from it ... how is it for the soldiers? Check out this post at you.presscue.
From the BBC: The female rhino survived for 35 hours after being shot twice and having her horn sawn off at Kazrianga National Park in India.
I was led to this link of a Mars photo at space.com. The caption reads:
NASA'S Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this westward view from atop a low plateau where Sprit spent the closing months of 2007. Several bloggers and other enthusiasts have pointed to a tiny structure (red circle) on the Martian surface as a human figure and thus evidence of life on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.I thought it was quite ironic, the Google Ad that was dispayed to the right of the image.
