Post cards from Mars

At Huffpo, Jim Bell, a professor of astronomy at Cornell, has offered a collection of Martian landscapes. Consider this amazing fact: "NASA's amazing Spirit and Opportunity rovers have survived (and generally thrived) on Mars for more than 25 times their expected lifetimes."

Postcards from Mars is a partly scientific, partly artistic, partly abstract, partly realistic photographic story about what has been a very human exploration adventure on another world-just experienced remotely through robotic eyes.
I have two poster-sized photos of Mars, similar to several of these photos, hanging in my law office. I often admire the technology that enabled humans to land robots on Mars and to take such beautiful photos. Had I been living 100 years ago, these photos would have been inconceivable and priceless. That's pretty much has I still think of them, even though they are now easily available on the Internet.

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Natalie grows up

I've seen these sorts of videos before, but this one is especially good. The parents of "Natalie" took her photo almost every day for ten years to create this video. She ages a year every 9 seconds, a bit less than on month per second. I'm fascinated by the many hostile comments under this video at YouTube. Why is this video so disturbing to so many people? The great dedication of Natalie's parents to this video has enabled us to see something that can't otherwise see day-to-day. Are so many people hostile because that watching this photo montage reminds them that they are mortal, that we are human animals? Or is it the result of decades of put-down humor pumped into Americans by sitcoms? Or something else?

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Project Noah

Check out Project Noah: According to Jill Priluck's article in Slate, it is "a database of spottings, a field guide, and a repository for ecology surveys." You could spend all day viewing the massive collections.

Project NOAH has found the sweet spot between professional scientists and casual naturalists. It began as an app for people to share their nature sightings but has evolved into a scientific and culturally relevant tool for both the masses and the experts. Project NOAH functions as a kind of Foursquare for flora and fauna, a way for amateur nature spotters to record the bugs, leaves, and birds they've found. Those data, in turn, have become a valuable tool for professional researchers.
The good news? "The platform is about to go global with a cross-media blitz, in hopes of turning wildlife spotting into a cultural sport."

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