A musical celebration of the importance and inspirational qualities of space exploration (human and robotic), as well as a look at some of the amazing worlds in our solar system.
"Onward to the Edge" is the 12th installment in the Symphony of Science series.
The latest image released from Mars Express reveals a large extinct volcano that has been battered and deformed over the aeons.
By Earthly standards, Tharsis Tholus is a giant, towering 8 km above the surrounding terrain, with a base stretching over 155 x 125 km. Yet on Mars, it is just an average-sized volcano. What marks it out as unusual is its battered condition.
Shown here in images taken by the HRSC high-resolution stereo camera on ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, the volcanic edifice has been marked by dramatic events.
One of the defining documentaries of the 20th century, THE ATOMIC CAFE (1982) offers a darkly humorous glimpse into mid-century America, an era rife with paranoia, anxiety, and misapprehension. Whimsical and yet razor-sharp, this timeless classic illuminates the often comic paradoxes of life in the "Atomic Age," while also exhibiting a genuine nostalgia for an earlier and more innocent nation.
Narrated through an astonishing array of vintage clips and music--from military training films to campy advertisements, presidential speeches to pop songs--the film revolves around the threat--and thrill--of the newly minted atomic bomb. Taking aim at the propaganda and false optimism of the 1950s, the film's satire shines most vividly in the clever image splicing, such as footage of a decimated Hiroshima alongside cheerful suburban "duck-and-cover" routines. More than anything else, THE ATOMIC CAFE shows how nuclear warfare infiltrated the living rooms of America, changing the nation from the inside out.
Immensely entertaining and devilishly witty, THE ATOMIC CAFE serves up a revealing slice of American history: the legendary decade when we learned to live in a nuclear world.
The pseudepigraphic Book of Enoch 31:4, dating from the last few centuries before Christ and purporting to be by the antediluvian prophet Enoch, describes the tree of knowledge: "It was like a species of the Tamarind tree, bearing fruit which resembled grapes extremely fine; and its fragrance extended to a considerable distance. I exclaimed, How beautiful is this tree, and how delightful is its appearance!"
In the Talmud, Rabbi Meir says that the fruit was a grape, made into wine. Similarly explains the Zohar (Noach 73a). The midrash states that the fruit was grape, or squeezed grapes (perhaps again alluding to wine). Rabbi Nechemia says that the fruit was a fig, while Rabbi Yehuda proposes that the fruit was wheat.
In Western Christian art, the fruit of the tree is commonly depicted as the apple, which originated in central Asia. This depiction may have originated as a Latin pun: by eating the malum (apple), Eve contracted mālum (evil).
Proponents of the theory that the Garden of Eden was located somewhere in what is known now as the Middle East suggest that the fruit was actually a pomegranate, partly because it was native in the region. This ties in with the Greek myth of Persephone, where her consumption of four pomegranate seeds leads to her having to spend time in Hades
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"The word paradise often conjures images of a luscious beach, blue-green waves, and hammocks stretched between palm trees. However, the Czechs might offer a different opinion on the subject.
Cesky Raj, or the Bohemian Paradise, is a protected area in the North of the country, covered in majestic forests, hilltop castles and volcanic pillars. Only a day-trip away from the capital, Prague, it has become a popular tourist destination.
Among the sites in the area, the hruba skala or rock town, is the most famous. Just seven kilometers from Turnov, the rock town is punctuated with volcanic sandstone pillars shooting through the tree line. The bright white of the pillars strikingly contrasts the deep greens of the surrounding woodland. Although the hruba skala is the most notable of rock outcroppings in Cesky Raj, the rest of the protected area is dotted with similar volcanic pillars and a hike around the area is a breathtaking endeavor."