MetaFilter posts tagged with globe

The Overview Effect

Burhanistan — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:51:49 -0800

Do Our Brains Change When We Travel in Outer Space? A book of compiled accounts of astronauts and cosmonauts called The Overview Effect puts forth anecdotal evidence towards that end. The Overview Institute declares it as fact and aims to induce the change in as many people as possible. One space tourist has volunteered to be a human guinea pig in 2009.

Talking to the Taliban

Alex404 — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 22:57:00 -0800

Talking to the Taliban is a series of 42 interviews with common Taliban soldiers. Coordinated by Graeme Smith at the Globe and Mail. The interface is somewhat confusing, but it seems to be that along the top is linked a 6 part video series composed of snip-its from the interviews along with commentary. Along the bottom in the flash interface is a series of panels where you can find the unedited interviews as well as a great deal of additional information about the Taliban. There's a very large amount of information here, and it's worth exploring.

Planning for a LONG walk

rongorongo — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:34:09 -0800

Plan your trip to a far away spot on the globe. You might wish to walk in a straight line or maybe just take the shortest route (other than, perhaps, digging). Take your camera in case you pass one of these. Its all to do with great circles and rhumb lines I think. We have talked about confluences before but the project still has about 5,000 on land, to be visited so I thought they could do with another mention. I was delighted to notice that a journey due south from Edinburgh would take me to the west of Liverpool and onwards to Timbuktu.

Theoretical Geography

blahblahblah — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 19:08:36 -0800

The Map of Humanity [large .jpg] created by illustrator James Turner is an effort to describe the human condition in an incredibly detailed map containing thousands of names from history and fiction arranged in a theoretical geography that encompasses islands of Abandonment and Wisdom and regions of Abomination and Courage.

Get the facts on Mitt Romney

Mayor Curley — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 04:57:34 -0800

Get to know the real Mitt Romney. "Every man has a natural, and, in our country, a constitutional right to be a false prophet, as well as a true prophet," said Joseph Smith, and Romney is hedging his bets. Today, the Massachusetts Democratic Party launched a site to help you get better perspective on Mitt.

Oh, Inverted World

Ufez Jones — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:47:30 -0800

Oh, Inverted World. As we’ve all learned in school, 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, only 30% is solid ground. What if everything was reversed? What if every land mass was a body of water, and vice versa?

Eternal Sunset

freebird — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 08:35:00 -0800

"Eternal Sunset continuously tunes into different webcams, chasing the sunset around the globe [...] complementing the increased efficiency and productivity associated with the internet." [via WMMNA]

The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

carter — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:25:55 -0800

The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich has some excellent online collections related to maritime history and technology, including telescopes, marine chronometers, sundials, and a whole lot more. Some stuff I've been looking at: John Harrison's chronometers (described in Dava Sobel's book Longitude), polyhedral sundials, and pocket globes.

Mapgeekery

ontic — Sat, 11 Dec 2004 01:17:42 -0800

That hole in the backyard would not have gone to China. In fact, most of MeFi's readers would have ended up causing quite a leak. With so many 2d projections out there, who can blame us? There is always this introduction to map projections. You can then make your own projection or your own globe. At least it's not as hard as a 2d spacetime map of the universe (with relativity!).

World Sunlight Map. The darkness looks a little creepy.

Salmonberry — Sun, 28 Nov 2004 16:48:45 -0800

World Sunlight Map. A neat little map showing the encroaching blob of darkness as parts of the world slip in and out of nighttime.

Play picture detective!

Ufez Jones — Mon, 31 Mar 2003 08:25:32 -0800

How on Earth was this image made? Here is an opportunity for you to play image detective. How on Earth was this image made? Is it a painting, or a map? Is it a photograph? If so, was it taken from a high-flying aircraft, or from outer space? Is it a satellite image, or possibly even something else? Click to read the feature article when you’re ready to check your answer. (cheers, lagado)

lagado — Mon, 27 Nov 2000 04:43:52 -0800

The World at Night. This amazing image (warning 500K) is actually a composite of hundreds of pictures made by the orbiting DMSP satellites over regions of the world at night. You can clearly see the Nile river, Hong Kong, Hawaii and probably, if you look close enough, the town you are in right now. From Astronomy Picture of the Day