Earth at Night

NASA has released some awesome high-resolution photos of the earth at night.

More here.

 

Earth

A Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over:

 

Vatican Spokesman Welcomes ‘Baby 7 Billion’

Via Catholic Culture:

In his weekly editorial, the director of the Holy See Press Office welcomed “Baby 7 Billion” into the world.

“We want to tell you that you are unique and special, that you are a wonderful gift, that you are a miracle, that your spirit will live for ever, and so you are welcome,” said Father Federico Lombardi. “We hope that when you smile someone will respond to your smile, and when you cry someone will caress you. We hope you can go to school and that you won’t go hungry … We pray that you can understand that your life will find its fullest meaning not in this world but in the next.”

“Because this is what you were born for,” he added. “Your Creator and Father made you for this. We will do our part to make this possible; but you will have to do your part, too, because your future will also depend on you and the choices you make–and it will be up to you to welcome baby eight billion.”

Vatican Radio has more on the above here.

 

Because Steve Jobs was Afraid of Dying: No On-Off Switches On of Apple’s Devices

“Ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about (God) more. And I find myself believing a bit more. Maybe it’s because I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear,” Isaacson quoted Jobs as saying.

“Then he paused for a second and he said ‘yeah, but sometimes I think it’s just like an on-off switch. Click and you’re gone,” Isaacson said of Jobs. “He paused again, and he said: And that’s why I don’t like putting on-off switches on Apple devices.”

(HT)

The Telegraph also has the report:

Steve Jobs’s hope that there might be an afterlife led him to avoid putting simple “on/off” switches on Apple’s best-known devices, his   biographer has disclosed.

The late Apple chief executive said that despite being only “50/50″ about the existence of God, he found himself “believing a bit more” in life after death after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

In the past, Mr Jobs told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, “I saw my life as an arc and that it would end and compared to that, nothing mattered.

“You’re born alone, you’re going to die alone,” he said. “And does anything else really matter? I mean what is it exactly is it that you have to lose Steve? You know? There’s nothing.”

However Mr Jobs’s views softened after he became ill, Mr Isaacson told a CBS 60 Minutes programme marking the release of the book ‘Steve Jobs’ on Monday.

“Maybe it’s ‘cos I want to believe in an afterlife,” he recalled Mr Jobs saying. “That when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated. Somehow it lives on.

But sometimes I think it’s just like an on-off switch. Click and you’re gone.

“And that’s why I don’t like putting on-off switches on Apple devices.”

Many Apple products, such as the iPhone and the MacBook, were designed to be put on standby or “to sleep” when not in use, some feature a pulsating light to signal that they can quickly be revived…

Well Mr Jobs, there is an afterlife and you’re experiencing it as I type these words. Hopefully you discovered this Truth and the Source of that life, before you left this temporary earthly existence.

 

Flying Over Planet Earth

What an awesome video from the Space Station:

HT

Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster

In the USA that is:

Weather disasters and quakes: who’s most at risk? The analysis below, by Sperling’s Best Places, a publisher of city rankings, is an attempt to assess a combination of those risks in 379 American metro areas. Risks for twisters and hurricanes (including storms from hurricane remnants) are based on historical data showing where storms occurred. Earthquake risks are based on United States Geological Survey assessments and take into account the relative infrequency of quakes, compared with weather events and floods. Additional hazards included in this analysis: flooding, drought, hail and other extreme weather.

 

The above was in the New York Times.

Corvalles? All rather pointless though… Move to one of those ‘safe’ spots and get hit by a bus, or have a heart-attack, or fall foul of a myriad of other possible ‘disaster’s', be they natural, or not.

Stunning Images of Earth

Taken from the International Space Station. 

This one is of the Dead Sea in Israel: 

The above and more are here. 

Check them out. The magnificence of creation. A great way to start the day.

Seven Years of Drought in Israel

Via Bible Places.com:

The rainy season in Israel is over and the results are not good.  This marks the seventh consecutive year of drought.  From the Jerusalem Post:

This year, the North received much more water than the center and the south, reaching a bit more than 90 percent of Israel’s average rainfall, according to Schor, but he cautioned that this is not worthy of celebration.

[…]

To be 100% average, Schor explained, is not sufficient, particularly because this is the seventh consecutive year in which we are “taking more water than we get.”

Overall, including the South and Center, the country achieved an accumulation of only 70% of average, he said.

Meanwhile, despite heavy rains in the past few months that have brought water levels in the Kinneret [Sea of Galilee] above the red line, Schor warned that “we are missing almost four meters of water” from the reservoir.

The full story is here.

Supermoon Via Blackberry

Just took this with my Blackberry and posting it with the device at the same time. Let’s see how it comes out…

Supermoon

Everyone is talking about it and tonight, this being a hot (38 °C) balmy day here in Cape Town, we should have a fantastic view of the Supermoon:

Tonight the moon will be closer to the earth than it has been for 18 years – a spectacular sight awaits us…

This weekend a new word rises over the horizon of the English language. The full Moon tonight has been designated a “supermoon” as it will be the nearest approach of the Moon to Earth for the past 18 years, bringing it some 30,000 miles closer than usual. If we have clear skies, this lunar event will be weighted with a special sense of expectation – perhaps, for some people, even dread.

The astrologer who named it a “supermoon” predicted that its arrival would coincide with chaos on Earth, and points to the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan as evidence. The Moon’s closeness this weekend means that its usual gravitational pull on our tides will be intensified; we can expect high tides in two days. The oceans are not the only things that respond to the Moon’s approach; the Earth’s crust is not solid, but expands and contracts to a small degree in response to the Moon’s attraction, a phenomenon known as “earth tide”; a small increase in such tectonic shifts might be expected.

Those planning to watch it should be in position as the Moon rises above the horizon, at between 6.15 and 6.45pm, depending on your location; this is when the Moon looks largest, owing to the well-known “moon illusion”. (This is often thought to be caused by the fact that on the horizon, the Moon is close to objects with which we can compare it, making it seem very large, while when it is overhead it is in isolation, so that the brain reads it as smaller.) Even though the fact that the Moon is closer than usual will not make it seem any bigger, the illusion will guarantee that its ascent is suitably dramatic…

More here.