Space video

[satchmo]

This stuff blows me away.

http://vimeo.com/40234826

Tim

[Amskeptic]

This stuff blows me away.

http://vimeo.com/40234826

Tim

That is remarkable . . . I had the same reaction as when I first saw that endoscopic tour of early pregnancy, like peeping into the workroom of the Universe.
Colin

[glasseye]

Now that kinda puts a whole new perspective on things, eh?
It's difficult enough to imagine close-up photography of distant worlds, but time-lapse, too? And all this with technology many years old.


Here's some more time-lapse from LEO. Google search term "ISS cupola" to see where they get to sit when they shoot this stuff.

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Videos/CrewEart ... onsVideos/



also: a good article by a Shuttle Commander on space photography.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/locat ... pace.shtml

[whc03grady]

How incredibly lonely that video makes me feel.

This whole thing really is just a big, pointless machine. A big clock counting time between nothing and oblivion.

Tick tock tick tock....

[satchmo]

How incredibly lonely that video makes me feel.

This whole thing really is just a big, pointless machine. A big clock counting time between nothing and oblivion.

Tick tock tick tock....

Exactly. So what are you and I doing here?

[whc03grady]

So what are you and I doing here?

Just another couple parts of the clock.

[Hippie]

You guys are depressing. I think it's a cool video and a rockin' good God-made clock.
So there.

[whc03grady]

You guys are depressing. I think it's a cool video and a rockin' good God-made clock.
So there.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's an ultra-cool video.

The thing is, there's a lot of really bad parts of the clock; none in the video, as far as I can tell--most of the bad parts seem to be walking or have walked around on this blue-green-white mechanism in the clock.

What would really depress me is if I believed the whole schmeer was made by a clockmaker who could've done a much better job of making of it; specifically, a better job of making some of these parts that walk around on this blue-green-white mechanism.

That would be depressing: believing that the clockmaker could have made it so much better, at least on this blue-green-white mechanism, but chose not to.

[Amskeptic]

You guys are depressing. I think it's a cool video and a rockin' good God-made clock.
So there.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's an ultra-cool video.

The thing is, there's a lot of really bad parts of the clock; none in the video, as far as I can tell--most of the bad parts seem to be walking or have walked around on this blue-green-white mechanism in the clock.

What would really depress me is if I believed the whole schmeer was made by a clockmaker who could've done a much better job of making of it; specifically, a better job of making some of these parts that walk around on this blue-green-white mechanism.

That would be depressing: believing that the clockmaker could have made it so much better, at least on this blue-green-white mechanism, but chose not to.

As someone who enjoys fixing things, it would be a fate worse than death to wake up and have everything just plain ol' working smoothly. That's the gift of nature, this program of constant improvement that could not evolve if everything was just working well. So, yes, it is very nice to see planets spinning around steadily for a few billion years, while we try to inch our way to understanding why we are here and why that miracle of living stardust John Boehner can't give it a rest already.
Colin

[Hippie]

Don't get me wrong, I think it's an ultra-cool video.

The thing is, there's a lot of really bad parts of the clock; none in the video, as far as I can tell--most of the bad parts seem to be walking or have walked around on this blue-green-white mechanism in the clock.

What would really depress me is if I believed the whole schmeer was made by a clockmaker who could've done a much better job of making of it; specifically, a better job of making some of these parts that walk around on this blue-green-white mechanism.

That would be depressing: believing that the clockmaker could have made it so much better, at least on this blue-green-white mechanism, but chose not to.

Everybody who rejects the idea of God has that same point of view. They are pissed off they aren't in some sort of Heaven and instead find themselves surrounded be flaws and dirt bags.
We made the flaws and we are the dirtbags. I believe this blink of the eye that we are in called life is merely a character building exercise. We don't deserve Heaven, but we'll get it as a gift, if we believe, and try not to be a dirt bag. (both things....not just the not being a dirtbag part).

Look, I grew up in a violent alchoholic home, early divorce, bounced between parents, dad brew his head off in the kitchen when I was 12, my grandma took us in, but the shock of all this killed her in three days from a stroke. It was a double funeral. My mom came back from Colorado and took us in. She remarried to a guy I hated, and I moved out at 17. My best friend killed himself...my fist wife died after a plrolonged and exhausting illness. I have health issues....whine whine whine on and on....so if I can see some positive in the fact that we are not just given this perfect little Garden of Eden for the 70 or so years we live here to spoil us forever, then no one's got shit to say about how God made things.

Meant in the most positive, loving, and friendly way...truly.
Rob

[hambone]

And in the end, none of this matters. Who cares about Brooklyn when an asteroid obliterates the Earth?
It's all perfect. You can't have SOME parts perfect, that's impossible. It's all perfect. It's a miracle, each breath...and then the fact that we can smile, and love each other. It's pretty powerful. What have we done to deserve this gift?
All this flesh comes and goes, apple to the seed. T'a hell wid' it. But who is this witness that sees through my eyes? What is this ancient love, the carbon-atom of our very selves? It is a place of incredible calm and strength, the power of the moment, each movie frame suspended in gratitude, the drop as waterfall, a fractal - the backbone of our universe.
"God" is a way for us to say "thank you".

[whc03grady]

Everybody who rejects the idea of God has that same point of view. They are pissed off they aren't in some sort of Heaven and instead find themselves surrounded be flaws and dirt bags.

Whatever. I suppose we atheists are one of the last groups that people think it's fine to lump together and make sweeping generalizations about. Personally, I'm not at all pissed off that I'm not living in some sort of Heaven, FWIW. I'm as pissed off at God for not creating a perfect world as I am pissed off at leprechauns for not leaving me a pot of gold at the rainbow's end.

I suppose if we wanted to debate the Problem of Evil, we'd need to move this to Free Speech. As it's an open and shut case, you can do so without me (if you're inclined to question your beliefs at all, which I doubt (also said in the most positive, loving, and friendly way)).

[Hippie]

You're right that was an unfair statement. I should have said the "impression I get...all those I know"...or something like that.
But you are the one that mentioned the imperfections.

[glasseye]

The fact that, on reviewing that imagery, the discussion immediately veered into the realm of the spiritual is to say the least interesting and to say the most, encouraging.

For more on this subject, if you have the best part of an hour to spare, watch this video of Neil deGrasse Tyson's Keynote Speech to the 28th National Space Symposium. If you're not pounding the table and high-five'ing the screen, you're ... well, just watch it.

If you're pressed for time, he really gets into it at about 13:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... LzKjxglNyE

[Amskeptic]

Don't get me wrong, I think it's an ultra-cool video.

The thing is, there's a lot of really bad parts of the clock; none in the video, as far as I can tell--most of the bad parts seem to be walking or have walked around on this blue-green-white mechanism in the clock.

What would really depress me is if I believed the whole schmeer was made by a clockmaker who could've done a much better job of making of it; specifically, a better job of making some of these parts that walk around on this blue-green-white mechanism.

That would be depressing: believing that the clockmaker could have made it so much better, at least on this blue-green-white mechanism, but chose not to.

Everybody who rejects the idea of God has that same point of view. They are pissed off they aren't in some sort of Heaven and instead find themselves surrounded be flaws and dirt bags.
We made the flaws and we are the dirtbags. I believe this blink of the eye that we are in called life is merely a character building exercise. We don't deserve Heaven, but we'll get it as a gift, if we believe, and try not to be a dirt bag. (both things....not just the not being a dirtbag part).

Look, I grew up in a violent alchoholic home, early divorce, bounced between parents, dad brew his head off in the kitchen when I was 12, my grandma took us in, but the shock of all this killed her in three days from a stroke. It was a double funeral. My mom came back from Colorado and took us in. She remarried to a guy I hated, and I moved out at 17. My best friend killed himself...my fist wife died after a plrolonged and exhausting illness. I have health issues....whine whine whine on and on....so if I can see some positive in the fact that we are not just given this perfect little Garden of Eden for the 70 or so years we live here to spoil us forever, then no one's got shit to say about how God made things.

Meant in the most positive, loving, and friendly way...truly.
Rob

=D> =D>