Pale Blue Dot [no music] Edward Crinion 2015-04-04 | Carl Sagan's beautiful eulogy to Earth and humankind, extracted from the audiobook for Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.This is the original, with no music added.Audio: copyright Carl Sagan (1994)Image: copyright NASA (1990)“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
Fata Morgana on Brittany Ferries Mont St Michel Edward Crinion 2018-12-02 | A superior mirage (I think a mild form of Fata Morgana) appears to stretch the hull of Brittany Ferries' Mont St Michel.The ferry was sailing across the Solent from Portsmouth to Caen (Ouistreham) on 19 June 2013.I took this video from West Wittering. On calm days you often get mirages over the Solent, but this one was especially interesting.
Ibrahim the Mad and his Sugar Cube Edward Crinion 2017-06-29 | The Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim was a demented, fetishistic, erotomaniac priapist, who was obsessed with amber scent, furs, and gigantic women. He scoured the empire for larger and larger women, and brought the largest back to Istanbul where he named her Sugar Cube.From Simon Sebag Montefiore's excellent Byzantium, on BBC Four
President Kennedy: We Shall Pay Any Price Edward Crinion 2016-01-10 | We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of liberty
Swallow in Chichester Harbour, near Itchenor Edward Crinion 2015-10-10 | Solent Swallow sailing up to moor at Itchenor Sailing Club (ISC) opposite Bosham Hoe in Chichester Harbour. A sunny Saturday afternoon in October 2015.
Bill Clinton nodding off Edward Crinion 2013-12-24 | Former President Clinton dozing during an enthralling speech, Monday, 21 January 2008. From the New York Post.
Slo-mo Chal-Res Edward Crinion 2013-06-25 | Mr Charles demonstrates his impressive slow motion abilities.Music: The Planets, Op. 32/ IV. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra
Good morning, bird Edward Crinion 2013-06-02 | Horrendously cheery for this hour of the day.I think it's a House Sparrow.Taken in Exeter, Devon, UK.
Troodon: Dinosaur Genius [Full video] [Paleoworld] Edward Crinion 2013-05-13 | Some believe that Troodons developed fire, pizza, stock markets and nuclear weaponry, before vaporizing themselves in the Cretaceous Missile Crisis [citation needed].But anyway, this is a fun documentary about the world's smartest dinosaur, courtesy of Discovery's Paleoworld
Capitalism, as seen by Marx Edward Crinion 2012-10-02 | From the BBC programme "Masters of Money: Marx"Anyone know the music starting at 00:00?
Normandy Tree Matrix Edward Crinion 2011-05-11 | 360-degree spin around a tree in Manche, Normandy, France. Taken on a beautiful evening in April 2011.
Mad Men all these guys are dead Edward Crinion 2011-03-06 | Clip from Mad Men 03x10 "The Color Blue".Bertram Cooper: 1923. We were giddy. We didn't know the soup was going to hit the fan, but we made it through.Roger Sterling: All these guys are dead. Except you, of course. And Doug Thomson. But I wish he were. He let me eat a whole roll of Bolls Laxatives. I thought they were candies. I want him to show up and keel over.Bertram Cooper: Damn it, I don't want to go to another funeral.Roger Sterling: I'm not really going to kill him, I just would like to, that's all.
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