Galaria

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Labyriathan

2007-11-29T23:37:00.000-08:00

Labryrinth still under construction.

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Minosiae

2007-11-28T23:40:00.000-08:00

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Caught in own Mousetrap

2007-11-28T19:54:00.000-08:00

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The sole contribution of intelligent [sick] design theory advocate, biochemist Michael Behe consists of the scientifically refuted notion that a multicomponent functional system could not have arisen by "Darwinian" evolution.

In essence, Behe argues that because removal of any component will render the system non-functional, such a system could not be produced by continuously improving the initial function (which continues to work by the same mechanism) by slight, successive modifications of a precursor system (p.39 of Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution).

Behe targetted several complex systems as purportedly providing support for this flawed proposal: evolution of the eye, clotting cascades and complement system, and the bacterial flagellum.

Behe's "mousetrap" sold popular pseudoscience books to the determinedly ignorant, but there are major problems with Michael Behe's contrived challenge of 'irreducible complexity'. In his latest creationist venture, Behe has been forced to retreat from his earlier refuted claims.

First, the implicit assumption that the components of currently functional system have 'always and only' performed the function that they currently display. The most obvious illustration of this flaw lies in an examination of Behe's designed-for-the-scientifically-ignorant analogy of a spring-based mouse trap. All the components of a spring-based mouse trap can be found, in modified forms, functioning in a variety of settings. It is only the assemblage of these modified forms within a mouse trap that renders each a necessary component of the trap's function. That is, already existing components have been slightly modified then assembled into a simple mechanism. This is exactly how biological evolution operates – mutations generate modifications and successful mutations are retained, so even Behe's analogy demonstrates that which he sought to refute. (Intelligent design devotees seem incapable of grasping the point that analogies are useful in explanatory descriptions, but that fallacious arguments from analogy are rapidly invalidated as arguments aimed at attacking scientific facts.)

Second, research in medical genetics has uncovered mechanisms that explain 'reducible' complexity.

Third, research has demonstrated that assembly of pre-existing modifications operate in subsequently evolved features. Science provides innumerable examples of similar adaptive employment of mutation-coded-proteins that result from pre-existing gene segments.

Behe's ridiculous make-room-for-design (aka God) was refuted before Behe even concocted it! Even if evolutionary biologists were never able to reconstruct the mutational route to specific biological features, such a failure could not be taken to demonstrate Behe's pull-a-miracle-out-of-the-hat illogical claims. Behe may be a protein biochemist, but he is clearly not a logician because his entire argument placed faulty science on a fallacy of logic – argumentum ad ignorantiam. . . more

Structures

2007-11-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

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Blossoms in the Dust

2007-11-27T01:44:00.000-08:00

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Restructured Art

2007-11-27T01:04:00.000-08:00

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Driven to Abstractions

2007-11-26T23:49:00.000-08:00

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Birds of a Feather

2007-11-25T23:52:00.000-08:00

Folks

2007-11-23T00:17:00.000-08:00

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Furrled

2007-11-20T00:32:00.000-08:00

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Spelunking

2007-11-19T00:35:00.000-08:00

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Abstracted

2007-11-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

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Abstractions

2007-11-17T00:46:00.000-08:00

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Abstract

2007-11-16T00:49:00.000-08:00

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Fuchsia Shock

2007-11-15T00:54:00.000-08:00

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Floored

2007-11-14T00:57:00.000-08:00

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Glass Blowing

2007-11-13T20:37:00.000-08:00

The Magma also Rises

2007-11-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

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Marine Turtles

2007-10-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

Green Sea Turtle

Marine turtles have traveled the seas for over 100 million years, surviving longer than most of the prehistoric animals with which they once shared the planet–they have survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and are still found in the world's oceans. Female turtles nest on tropical and subtropical beaches around the globe.

Unfortunately, three of the seven existing species are critically endangered with extinction, three are endangered and the status of the seventh species remains unknown. Threats include hunting for meat, shell and eggs; habitat destruction; fisheries bycatch; pollution; boat strikes; and introduced predators have wiped out entire turtle populations, or reduced them to mere shadows of their former numbers.

Other Resources"Secrets of the Olive Ridley"Check the progress of tagged Olive Ridley turtles in this Flash-based presentation, brought to you by WWF Australia. Hawksbills of the Caribbean(Spanish)

Marine Turtles (WWF)

Species
Ecology
Conservation Results
Featured Projects
Field Notes
Photo Gallery
Publications

Snow Leopard

2007-10-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

Snow Leopards (WWF)

The snow leopard is an endangered big cat found in dramatically diminishing numbers in the rugged and mountainous terrain of Central Asia and the Himalayan region. The remaining animals live in only 12 countries in South and Central Asia. The snow leopard is currently threatened by hunting for the illegal wildlife trade and revenge killings by herders; habitat loss; and diminished food supply. It is estimated these threats are reducing the snow leopard population to numbers approaching those of the endangered tiger. The remaining animals live in only 12 countries in South and Central Asia.

Ecology
Featured Projects
Photo Gallery
Publications

Blog Action Day endangered species environment big cats snow leopard WWF

American Pika

2007-10-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

Sadly, the American pika, Ochotona princeps, a small flower-gathering rabbit relative, may be one of the first mammals in North America known to fall victim to global warming.

American pikas are typically inhabit rocky areas, called talus, within alpine regions of the western United States and southwestern Canada. Since food is difficult to obtain in winter in the alpine environment, the pikas cut, sun-dry, and later store vegetation for winter use in characteristic 'hay piles', earning the name 'ecosystem engineers'.

According to research, global warming appears to have contributed to local extinctions of pika populations. Become part of the solution to global warming and help American pikas.

Pikas (WWF)

Pikas

Ecology
Science

Blog Action Day endangered species environment pikas WWF

Vaquita Porpoise

2007-10-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus) is a rare species of porpoise that is endemic to the northern part of the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez). It is estimated that only 100-300 individuals remain alive, and with the recent functional extinctinction of the Baiji (Yangtze River Dolphin), the vaquita is now the world's most endangered cetacean.

Porpoises are distinct from dolphins, although the word "porpoise" has been used to refer to any small dolphin. The most obvious visible difference between the two groups is that porpoises have flattened, spade-shaped teeth distinct from the conical teeth of dolphins.

Other names for the vaquita ('little cow' in Spanish) include Cochito, Gulf of California Harbor Porpoise, Gulf of California Porpoise, Gulf Porpoise, Hafenschweinswal, and Marsouin du Golfe de Californie.

Whales and Dolphins (WWF)

Species
Ecology
Conservation Results
Featured Projects
Publications
Photo Gallery
Links

Blog Action Day endangered species environment whales WWF

Saiga Antelope

2007-10-12T16:02:00.000-07:00

Saiga antelope

Saiga tatarica : Distribution: China (ex), Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Poland (ex), Russian Federation, Turkmenistan, Ukraine (ex), Uzbekistan

The rapid decline of this nomadic herding antelope featured prominently in the launch of the 2002 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in which it was listed as Critically Endangered, the highest category of threat. The saiga antelope inhabits the open dry steppe grasslands and semi-arid deserts of Central Asia and the Russian Federation, and the plight of the saiga is an indicator for the state of these fragile ecosystems. Saiga numbers have plummeted 95% from about 1 million in 1990 to less than 50,000 today. The main cause of this catastrophic decline is poaching, both for horn and meat.

Blog Action Day environment saiga antelope

Humpback Whale

2007-10-12T15:50:00.000-07:00

Humpback whale

Whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans) are air-breathing, warm-blooded mammals that bear live young and nurse them on milk. Cetaceans play an important role in the life of the ocean, serving as flagships for the health and well-being of the whole marine ecosystem.

Whales breathe through blowholes on top of their heads, which allows them to take in air without interrupting swimming. The deep-diving sperm whale is the champion at holding its breath for over an hour. These whales can descend to depths of more than a mile.

Whale populations are threatened by hunting, collisions with ships, and environmental degradation due to pollution. However, the greatest threat to whales, dolphins and porpoises is entanglement in fishing gear (bycatch). Unless current trends are reversed, several cetacean species and many populations will be lost in the next few decades.

Whales and Dolphins (WWF)

Adopt a Hector's Dolphin

Blue whale

Right whale
Minke whale
Gray whale
Sperm whale
Vaquita
Ganges River dolphin
Irrawaddy dolphin
Maui's dolphin

Blog Action Day endangered species environment cetaceans dolphins porpoises whales WWF

Black Rhinoceros

2007-10-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

Black rhinoceros courtesy of Operation Charm
Credit: © WWF-Canon / Roger Hooper
Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis), Kenya

Rhinos are one of the largest remaining free-roaming mammals. They play an important role in ecosystems by serving as "landscape architects" of their habitat, acting as seed dispersers. Rhinos consume plants and since it can take a rhino more than three days to digest a meal, seeds can be transported a significant distance before they are deposited in droppings. Thus, rhino dung is important to ecosystems through seed dispersal and through enhancement of soil fertility. The existence of this majestic species is increasingly threatened, due primarily to poaching and habitat loss.

Black rhinos
Southern black rhino
Southwestern black rhino
Eastern black rhino
Western black rhino
White rhinos
Northern White Rhino
Southern White Rhino

African rhinos
Asian rhinos
Greater one-horned (Indian)
Javan
Sumatran

Blog Action Day endangered species environment rhinos WWF

Orangutan

2007-10-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

Orangutan

Great apes of Africa and Asia could face extinction in the next few decades if more is not done to conserve them. Asia's only great ape, the orangutan, is losing much of its habitat to deforestation and deliberate burning to make way for agriculture and oil palm plantations.

Great Apes (WWF)

Gorillas
Other Great Apes

Blog Action Day endangered species environment great apes orangutan WWF

Tiger

2007-10-12T15:15:00.001-07:00

Tigers (Operation Charm)

Tigers (WWF)

Blog Action Day endangered species environment tigers WWF

Giant Panda

2007-10-12T15:12:00.001-07:00

Click on images to proceed to next image!
The much loved giant panda is found only in China, where it clings to survival, threatened by habitat fragmentation and poaching. Accoriding to estimates, as few as 1,600 pandas remain in the wild today.

Pandas (WWF)

Ecology
Facts
Conservation Results
Featured Projects
Adopt a Panda
Maps
Photo Gallery
Publications
Links

Blog Action Day on the Environment, October 15, 2007

Blog Action Day endangered species environment pandas WWF

Reptilian Triune

2007-08-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

You may or may not be familiar with the triune model of brain evolution : essentially the same autonomic (automatic) structures from reptiles upward; the same limbic (emotional) structures from mammals upwards; and, enlarged neocortex (cognition) in the primates. Humans have the greatest brain : body weight ratio because of their relatively much larger neocortex.

Flurry of Feathers

2007-07-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

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William of Ockham

2007-05-27T20:55:00.000-07:00

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William of Ockham (~1285–1349) was a Franciscan friar best remembered for the heuristic maxim that translates as "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity" (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem). Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) holds that one should always accept as most-likely the most economical explanation that accounts for all the facts. However, Occam's razor is not to be interpreted as suggesting that the simplest or most easily discovered mechanism is explanatory. (Semiotician Umberto Eco alludes to William of Ockham in his protagonist in "The Name of the Rose".)

For primitive man, a God of the Gaps strategy invented an oversimplified explanation of phenomena ranging from weather to illness. However, much to the chagrin of creationists, we now know that natural laws provide more accurate, though more complex, explanations for observed phenomena. In this reverse of Occam's razor–let's call it Shaving Miracles–such oversimplified, miraculous explanations for physical phenomena do not provide any explanation at all.

Spinoza

2007-05-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

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Baruch or Benedictus or Bento (de) Spinoza (1632-1677) was a Dutch rationalist philosopher with Portuguese Jewish roots. His most famous work was Ethics.

Spinoza ran afoul of the Jewish community because his monistic metaphysics identifies God with Nature. Spinoza's God is not the Jewish or Christian creator of the universe, "but Nature itself, understood as an infinite, necessary, and fully deterministic system of which humans are a part."

Leibniz

2007-05-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

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Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) was a German rationalist philosopher and polymath. (Polymaths, are those who excel in a wide variety of subjects or fields – Leonardo da Vinci, and Hildegarde of Bingen are also regarded as polymaths. Polymaths are also called Renaissance men or Homo Universalis.)

Leibniz invented the calculus independently of Newton, and we owe present day notations within differential and integral calculus to Leibniz. and Leibniz's philosophy is best remembered for his monadology.

Links : Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz : Leibniz's Ethics : Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz : Leibniz

Berkeley

2007-05-20T21:03:00.001-07:00

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Descartes

2007-05-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

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René Descartes (1596-1650) was a French rationalist philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and physiologist who is regarded as the father of modern philosophy. Decartes is best known for positing "cogito ergo sum", for his argument for mind-body dualism, and for Cartesian geometry.

Descartes revitalized philosophy by his rejection of the Aristotelian and Scholastic traditions of the "schoolmen". . .

More on Descartes' circular argument for the existence of God.

Popper

2007-05-20T20:54:00.000-07:00

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Karl Popper was a philosopher of science who is best known for his extension of David Hume's 'problem of induction' and for his work on the demarcation of science.

Popper argued that observation is selective and theory-laden and that there can be no pure or theory-free observations. He further argued that it is possible to select amongst observable data in such a way as to support personally favoured yet invalid theories.

(So-called creation 'science' and ‘intelligent [sick] design theory’ are not science, and provide clear examples of the misinterpretation and misrepresentation of facts to fit a prior insistence on the existence of a creator. Here, I use prior to indicate that belief in a creator comes prior to the manipulation of the data to support the belief. Creation myths are the invention of humans in almost every culture and are initially invented because of a psychological need for an a posteriori explanation of the natural world. Continuation of such creation mythologies are ensured by post-invention indoctrination.)

Regarding Karl Popper on the topic of the demarcation of science from non-science:"Formally, then, Popper's theory of demarcation may be articulated as follows: where a ‘basic statement’ is to be understood as a particular observation-report, then we may say that a theory is scientific if and only if it divides the class of basic statements into the following two non-empty sub-classes: (a) the class of all those basic statements with which it is inconsistent, or which it prohibits — this is the class of its potential falsifiers (i.e., those statements which, if true, falsify the whole theory), and (b) the class of those basic statements with which it is consistent, or which it permits (i.e., those statements which, if true, corroborate it, or bear it out).

"Thornton, Stephen, "Karl Popper", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2006 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL

Piaget

2007-05-20T20:51:00.000-07:00

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Jean Piaget (1996-1980) was an enormously influential child psychologist. His structuralist philosophy held that “In all fields of life (organic, mental, social) there exist ‘totalities’ qualitatively distinct from their parts and imposing on them an organization.”

In 1919, Piaget conducted intelligence tests under the direction of Alfred Binet. Piaget became fascinated not so much with measuring IQ as with determining why children made logical errors. Piaget subsequently devoted his life's work to determining how children passed through stages of cognitive development via accommodation and assimilation to construct cognitive schemas.

Piaget conducted empirical research on "genetic epistemology" – the sequential development of logic throughout childhood. He concluded that, "the growth of knowledge is a progressive construction of logically embedded structures superseding one another by a process of inclusion of lower less powerful logical means into higher and more powerful ones up to adulthood."

Locke

2007-05-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

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John Locke (1632-1704) was a British empiricist philosopher, Oxford academic and medical researcher.

Locke is probably best known for his anti-authoritarian, humanist political philosophy, which inspired the American revolutionary ideology.

Locke's epistemology was partly a response to Descartes' insistence upon the rationalist supremacy of innate ideas. Locke countered with the concept of the tabula rasa – the mind as a blank slate that is writ upon by experience.

David Hume

2007-05-20T20:44:00.000-07:00

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David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish empiricist philosopher, economist, essayist, and historian. Hume is best remembered for "Humean skepticism". Hume considered philosophy to be the inductive, experimental science of human nature and considered himself chiefly as a moralist philosopher.

Hume built upon John Locke's epistemology and adapted the scientific method of Sir Isaac Newton as his model. He attempted to describe the operation of the mind in acquiring knowledge and concluded that there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience. Hume raised the skeptical philosophical objection that inductive reasoning might fail whenever the past cannot be taken to be a reliable guide to the future

Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence? I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before the end of his enquiries." ~ David Hume, Letters

I Kant, Can You?

2007-05-20T20:38:00.000-07:00

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Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was an enormously influential German, Enlightenment philosopher.

Female

2007-05-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

Brave of the Dance

2007-05-10T15:06:00.001-07:00

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Dance seems to be a universal phenomenon. This puts me in mind of an exchange in Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" that goes something like this (affable Sir William Lucas approaches prideful Mr. Darcy at a ball):

Sir William : Dancing is the mark of every polished society.

Mr. Darcy : And every unpolished society.

Sir William : Sir?

Mr. Darcy : Every savage can dance!

Here's another on the topic of dance versus marriage.

Bertrand Russell

2007-05-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

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Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 – 1970), was a British analytic philosopher, logician, mathematician and advocate for social reform.

“Logical errors are, I think, of greater practical importance than many people believe; they enable their perpetrators to hold the comfortable position on every subject in turn. Any logically coherent body of doctrine is sure to be in part painful and contrary to current prejudices.”
___ Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, 1945

Bertrand Russell was a famous debunker of religious nonsense and said in Is There a God?, “If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.”

Russell, as ever, makes a good point. Any fantasist can concoct any fanciful story, padded with a layer of non-falsifiable protection, and can insist that the story is accurate by virtue of the glitch that it cannot be disproven. Such a claim, of course, commits the logical error of argumentum ad ignorantiam. If the claim was first made in antiquity, it is imbued with an undeserved veneer of credibility.

Mimble Wimble: Grump tank for disgruntled atheists.

Night Lights

2007-01-29T14:12:00.001-08:00

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The most urbanized areas of the Earth show as the brightest at night, yet these are not necessarily the most populous areas. Urbanization tends to follow coastlines and transportation networks.

Earth at Night image courtesy of Marc Imhoff (NASA/GSFC) and Christopher Elvidge (NOAA/NGDC). Image by Craig Mayhew (NASA/GSFC) and Robert Simmon (NASA/GSFC).

Bubble Bath

2007-01-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

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"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."

Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist, & poet (1854 - 1900)

The Declaration against Ignorance

When in the Course of human thought it becomes necessary for one group to deny any facts which could connect them to truth and to assume among the fantasies of religiosity, the separate and lesser cognition to which Religious Dogma and Claims of a God drive them, disrespect for the knowledge attained by mankind requires that they should deny the evidence which impels them to prevaricate.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all humans make errors, that they are endowed by evolution with certain unalienable propensities, that among these are Lies, Taking Liberties with Facts, and the creation of Mythologies.

...... with apologies to the Founding Fathers and to that sensible Englishman whose political philosophy they appropriated.

å Ad Hoc Pseudoexplanations
å affirmation of the consequent
å Argumentum ad antiquitatem
å Argumentum ad nauseam
å Argumentum ad numerum
å Argumentum ad hominem
å Argumentum ad novitatem
å Appeals to Emotion
å Appeal to False Authority
å Argument from Ignorance
å Circular Argument
å cum hoc ergo propter hoc
å Denial
å denial of the consequent
å Doublespeak
å Fallacies of Association
å false cause fallacy
å False Dichotomy
å Fallacy Fallacy
å Genetic fallacy
å God of the Gaps
å Irrelevance
å Misleading Quotes
å non causa pro causa
å post hoc ergo propter hoc
å Red Herring
å Shifting the Burden of Proof
å Shifting Etymons
å Slippery Slope
å Straw Man Fallacy
å Sweeping Generalization
å Sweeping Generalization
å Trickery
å Tu Quoque Fallacy

Opalized

2006-10-03T16:14:00.000-07:00

Opals are gems, yet are not crystals. Instead, opals are composed of amorphous quartz.

The New York Times has run an interesting book review entitled, 'In God, Distrust'. The reviewer takes a mostly positive position on Christopher Hitchens, author of 'God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything' (307 pp. Twelve/Warner Books.) I think that the book's title is a little over the top.

Metamorphic Series

2006-10-03T15:37:00.000-07:00

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Metamorphism is the process where rocks – igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic –are altered by temperature and/or pressure or infiltration by chemical solutions into different rock types, such as banded gneisses. The nature of the resulting metamorphic rock is dependent upon the parent rock and the extent to which it has been recrystallized. The degree of change is reflected in a metamorphic series in which different minerals arise as the result of greater and greater degrees of metamorphic change.

Confernation

2006-10-02T23:46:00.000-07:00

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Do Americans hate Canadians?

Do Canadians hate Americans?

Feathers

2006-10-02T23:45:00.000-07:00

Crystal Ware

2006-10-02T23:42:00.000-07:00

Attissue

2006-10-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

Blue Biera

2006-10-02T23:24:00.000-07:00

Blue Pollock

2006-10-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

Brain Swirl

2006-10-02T23:10:00.000-07:00

Biggles

2006-10-02T23:06:00.000-07:00

Auto Da Fe

2006-10-02T23:03:00.000-07:00

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The image has nothing whatsoever to do with the term 'auto da fe' or 'auto da fé', which is Portuguese for 'act of faith'. The Spanish phrase 'auto de fe' refers to a ritual of public penance performed by condemned heretics and apostates. These religious acts took place after trial and conviction by the Spanish or Portuguese Inquisitions.

Diversions

2006-10-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

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Ganges Delta

2006-09-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

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The Ganges River forms a large delta as it enters the Bay of Bengal. The delta is mostly covered the Sunderbans, a swamp forest that is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger. (original)

Kimberly

2006-09-30T23:31:00.000-07:00

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Australia's Kimberly Plateau lies north of the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia in this LandSat 7 image. The elongated body of water in the north of this image is the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf, a backwater of the Timor Sea. The Durack, Chamberlain, and Ord Rivers wind their way northward to this gulf.

Some of the oldest rocks on Earth, together with the oldest mineral discovered, are located in Western Australia, which is also home to the Shark Bay stromatolites and the oldest microfossil stromatolites.

. . . Earth as Art . . .

Delta Baja

2006-09-30T23:28:00.000-07:00

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This false color ASTER image is more aesthetic than the true colors of the delta formed as the Colorado River empties into the Gulf of California. The delta is suffering erosion because the Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams are preventing sediment from the upper reaches of the Colorado River from passing downstream of the dams. A similar problem affects the Nile River downriver of the Aswan Dams.

Andes Chile

2006-09-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

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Cerro Luxsar in Pampa Luxsar lava complex and Olca and Paruma stratovolcanoes along the Chile-Bolivia border.

image : NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Also : image of dormant volcanoes on the border between Chile and the Catamarca province of Argentina. These volcanoes have laid down a variably colored crust of solidified magma roughly 2 miles (3.2 km) thick.

World Mosaic

2006-09-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

Landsat 7 World Mosaic, Dec 31,2000, gallery. Click each image to proceed to the next. Roll-over image links for previews.

Aleutian Clouds

2006-09-13T15:17:00.000-07:00

Aleutian clouds exhibit color variations that are probably due to differences in temperature and in the size of water droplets. Original image.

Also for cloud gazers : Karman Vortices in the lee of the Alexander Selkirk Island in the southern Pacific Ocean. Here are more Karman Vortices that have formed over part of the Kuril Island chain found between Russia"s Kamchatka Peninsula and Japan.

Earth as Art thumbnails.

Jerusalem's Old City

2006-09-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

An Aster* image of Jerusalem, or Yerushaláyim, or Yerushalaim. The old city, which has four quarters, is the lighter blue area in the right center of the image, and is surrounded by a 400-year-old wall built by the Ottoman Turks. Speaking of the Ottoman Turks, here are Earth Observatory images of Istanbul and of Gallipoli and the Dardanelles Strait.

image NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

*ASTER = Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer.

Virtual Tour of Jerusalem : high-resolution view from Mt. Olives : high-resolution view of Wailing Wall and Dome of the Rock :

Lena Delta, Russia

2006-09-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

The Lena River is one of the largest rivers in the world, and is 4,500km long. The Lena Delta Reserve is the most extensive protected wilderness area in Russia. It is an important refuge and breeding grounds for many species of Siberian wildlife. Original image here.

The Parana River Delta is northeast of Buenos Aires, Argentina and as a forested marshland is one of the world"s greatest bird-watching destinations.

Shoemaker Impact, Australia

2006-09-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

The Shoemaker impact structure, named for the late Eugene Shoemaker, was previously called Teague Ring. The meteor that created this structure is estimated to have impacted the Australian Shield between 1000 and 600 million years ago.

image NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Landsat 7 image of same area for comparison. Landsat 7 image of Manicougan impact crater dated at 214 million years on the Canadian Shield. GloVis is the Global Visualization Viewer from the USGS.

Kalahari

2006-09-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

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The Kalahari of Africa: on the edge of the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, sand dunes are encroaching onto once-fertile lands in the north. Original image on Earth as Art site.

Coachella & Salton, California

2006-09-13T14:47:00.000-07:00

Land use in the Coachella valley, a major fruit growing region northwest of the Salton sea in California.

original image NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Another land-use image on "Earth as Art" shows dramatic deforestation in the Amazon Basin of Bolivia. Healthy vegetation appears bright red in the Bolivian image, demonstrating that the lands on which sit the Amazonian rainforest do not sustain agriculture well.

Polders, the Netherlands

2006-09-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

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Compare this ASTER image to a real color image of the same area.

Bahamian Offshore Sand

2006-09-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

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Water rippled sand offshore in the Bahamas.

Sulfur fire, Iraq

2006-09-13T14:14:00.000-07:00

Fire at an industrial sulfur plant in Iraq south of Mosul is producing a noxious cloud of sulfur-containing gases that present a significant environmental and health hazard.

image NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Ugab River, Namibia

2006-09-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

Namibia’s ephemeral Ugab River flows above ground for only a few days each year. Here, the ecologically important river passes through nearly vertical layers of thinly bedded limestone, sandstone, and siltstone.

image NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Also imaged in Namibia : The Brandberg Massif is dome-shaped granite intrusion covers an area of 650 square kilmeters (250 square miles) and rises 2,573 meters (1.6 miles), and is the dominant geographic feature of the central Namib desert. Landsat Interactive Map.

Coastal winds create the tallest sand dunes in the world in Namib-Naukluft National Park, which is an ecological preserve in Namibia's vast Namib Desert.

Still in Africa, Mt Kilimanjaro is an extinct stratovolcano (with three peaks) in Kenya.

Another dry riverbed crossing an arid landscape is revealed as the Ghadamis River crosses in the Tinrhert Hamada Mountains near Ghadamis, Libya.

Gosse Bluff Impact Crater

2006-09-13T13:49:00.000-07:00

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The Gosse Bluff impact crater lies in the arid Missionary Plains adjacent to the MacDonnell Ranges in Australia’s Northern Territory. The crater is an eroded structure that is believed to have been made by the impact of a large comet or meteorite, about 143 million years ago. A large meteor penetrated about 600 metres into the ground before vapourizing. The impact tossed several hundred square kilometres of rock into the atmosphere, creating a crater 22 kilometres across and throwing up a mushroom cloud that towered 20 kilometres into the upper atmosphere. Erosion has exposed the 5 km wide core of the crater, leaving the ''shatter cone'' rim that rises 50-100 metres above the surrounding plain.

image : NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Landsat view of Gosse's Bluff (roll-over for preview)

Anti Atlas

2006-09-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

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The Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco formed as a result of the collision of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates about 80 million years ago and were subsequently were folded and crumpled to create the Atlas and Anti-Atlas Mountains. Also Atlas Mountains and image.

image NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS,and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team

Grand Canyon

2006-09-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

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. . . side-scanning from space . . . and some down-to-earth images of the Grand Canyon.

Also from ASTER are 3D views of Death Valley and Monument Valley.

Inner Sanctum

2006-08-31T23:59:00.001-07:00

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The picture is a modified image of the library of Trinity College, Dublin (Coláiste na Tríonóide)

Rights of Passage

2006-08-31T23:59:00.000-07:00

Castellated

2006-08-31T23:50:00.000-07:00

. . . this image began life as the Alhambra in Granada, Spain . . .

Rouen

2006-08-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

. . . adapted from one of a series of images of Rouen Cathedral painted by Claude Monet in 1894 . . .