NASA unveiled the New Blue Marble photograph of the Earth last week, which drew some criticism for setting North America front and center. Now there’s an alternate version from the opposite side.
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Comments (15)
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Criticized for putting North America front and center? What’s wrong with putting the people who paid for the picture in the middle? Anybody who criticized that needs to get busy doing something else. Anything else.
posted by Dave on 2-3-2012 at 6:29 am
I agree with Dave. Ridiculous criticism.
posted by Mac on 2-3-2012 at 6:36 am
and i agree with Dave and Mac…
I am sure if it were a photo released by the Russian Space program it would have highlighted Europe.
Lighten the heck up, people!
posted by Jen on 2-3-2012 at 8:19 am
My neighbors complained that my family was front and center in our family portraits so we took another family portrait, but pointed the camera at my neighbors house.
posted by david on 2-3-2012 at 8:31 am
I, too, was surprised at the backlash over the new blue marble. People will complain about anything, but now I have two new desktop images to rotate!
Hey, I made a pun!
posted by Miss Cellania on 2-3-2012 at 8:34 am
As a resident of Kiribati, I am offended by the second photograph’s Indian Ocean-centric perspective. We in the great Pacific Ocean always get the shaft when it comes to depictions of the Earth from space.
posted by Banuera Berina on 2-3-2012 at 10:00 am
I like that the second Blue Marble pic features Sub-Saharan Africa and the Arabian Desert, where internet usage is arguably lower than anywhere else in the world, and therefore less likely to be viewed by the inhabitants.
But maybe this will appease the Somali pirates and they’ll stop hijacking people around the Horn of Africa.
posted by Jeff on 2-3-2012 at 10:13 am
You think you have it bad, Banuera? Try being the president of the Sakha Republic in the Far Eastern Federal District of the Russian Federation. We span three time zones, but I’ve never seen any part of my homeland on a satellite image.
How much musk oxen meat does it take to get a photo of Eastern Siberia snapped from the ISS or one of your many weather (read: spy) satellites? Throw me a bone, American astronauts!
posted by Yegor Borisov on 2-3-2012 at 10:29 am
I’m usually fairly politically conservative, but that post about the safety net made me feel very unsettled.
I really don’t think it is morally right for anyone to say “I’m not concerned with [insert cultural subgroup here]” ESPECIALLY if you want to lead them.
Teachers can’t say “I’m not concerned with the super brilliant kids or the mentally challenged kids–I want to teach the 95% of kids in the middle.” We have to teach, and love, all our students. I just wish Washington worked the same way.
posted by Kerri :D on 2-3-2012 at 11:03 am
I’m very conservative … gotta say, I wouldn’t vote for Romney under any circumstance. He’s a snake oil salesman. Same goes for Ron Paul.
The whole “blue marble” thing is ridiculous. Who cares what continent is most visible in the picture? Does it really matter? Jeez Louise.
posted by army_wife on 2-3-2012 at 12:01 pm
army_wife,
Are you old enough to remember the first time Gingrich had some power?
If you are, it should be enough to make you run away from him. I say this as someone who was swept up in the conservative movement that put him in power in the 90′s. We were proven wrong then; let’s not repeat the mistake.
My reluctant support for Romney can be summed up by this W.C. Fields quote:
“Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against.”
posted by n2y2 on 2-3-2012 at 2:07 pm
American commercials are mostly all for fat people who need medicine; and we change the channel when they come on. In Canada, its like forget this show, bring on the commercials.
posted by Jov on 2-3-2012 at 2:19 pm
Just to add a little fuel to the argument, there is a bar in Milwaukee WI (the famed “Safe House”) which features a map of the world over the main bar — as seen from a North Pole projection.
-”BB”-
posted by Bicycle Bill on 2-3-2012 at 3:05 pm
Did you pick up on the writing on the side of the truck in Shortnin’ Bread? It’s hilarious!
STEBO’S EMPORIUM
Aura Adjustments Comb-Overs
Psychiatric Counseling Notary Public
Miscellanious BullShit Since 1910
posted by Ken on 2-3-2012 at 4:01 pm
I’m offended that we took a picture of the earth in the first place. It seems a little stuck up doesn’t it? We could be taking pictures of far away galaxies and instead we decided to do a self-portrait highlighting the country NASA is based in? Despicable.
posted by Endless Mike on 2-5-2012 at 11:40 am