Sounds of the Cosmos – The Music of Planets and Stars (Video)

Sounds of the Cosmos - The Music of Planets and Stars (Video) | Third Monk image 2

These Sounds of Heaven are radio waves emitted by celestial objects that are then turned into sound. Science fiction and reality continue to  inch ever closer together.

Large Magellanic Cloud - Sounds of Heaven

The Voice of our Earth

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NASA Voyager Recordings – Symphonies Of The Planets 3

A fantastic recording from the space flights of Voyager I & II launched in 1977. The true ambient space sounds that come from electronic vibrations of the planets, moons and rings, electromagnetic fields of the planets and moons, planetary magnetosphere, trapped radio waves bouncing between the planet and the inner surface of it’s atmosphere, charged particle interactions of the planet, it’s moons and the solar wind, and from charged particle emissions from the rings of certain planets. All sounds are space sounds, there are no engine sounds from the space probes.

Alien Planets - Sounds of Heaven

Sounds of our Sun

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Star Sounds Made Visible with Cymatics

 Learn more about Cymatics here and here.

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The Inspiring Workspaces of Creative Giants (Photo Gallery)

The Inspiring Workspaces of Creative Giants (Photo Gallery) | Third Monk image 18

One’s creative juices can be augmented by a pleasant workspace environment.

If you’re having trouble with your creative output, taking a look at how successful creationists have traditionally set up their inspiring workspaces may help.

Although the spaces are unique to each artist, one over-arching theme is an aura of peace and solitude.

 Inspiring Workspaces of Creative Giants

Mark Twain, Author

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Georgia O’Keefe, Painter

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E.B. White, Writer

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Alexander Calder, Sculptor

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Roald Dahl, Children’s Author

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Nikki McClure, Illustrator

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Martin Amis, Novelist

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Adrian Tomine, Graphic Novelist

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Virginia Woolf, Novelist

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Willem de Kooning, Artist

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Chip Kidd, Book Cover Designer

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Amanda Hesser, Food Writer

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Ray Eames, Designer and Artist

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Nigella Lawson, Food Writer

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Susan Sontag, Writer and Filmmaker

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Pablo Picasso, Artist

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John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Songwriters and Artists

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Marc Chagall, Painter

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John Updike, Writer

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Paul Cézanne, Painter

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Colm Tóibín, Writer

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David Hockney, Painter

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William Buckley, Author and Commentator

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Yoshitomo Nara, Artist

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Will Self, Writer

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Francis Bacon, Painter

Inspiring Workspaces

Orla Kiely, Fashion Designer

Inspiring Workspaces

Rudyard Kipling, Author

Inspiring Workspaces

Jackson Pollock, Painter

Inspiring Workspaces

Ruth Reichl, Food Writer

Inspiring Workspaces

Mark Rothko, Painter

Inspiring Workspaces

> Workspaces of the Famously Creative | Buzz Feed

Pictures of Earth from Space (Photo Gallery)

Pictures of Earth from Space (Photo Gallery) | Third Monk image 4

We all necessarily have a pinpoint focus on what matters to us in the present, but sometimes it is beneficial to take a step back and marvel at things not yet understood.

It’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind and forget just how large the universe that we live in is.

Pictures of the Earth from Space give us a view into our world seen through a distant lens. Humbling us to our supposed importance, while simultaneously revealing the undeniable beauty of our Mother Earth.

Tiny Blue Dot

awe-inspiring-views-earth-saturn-ring Earth from Space

Image courtesy SSI/Caltech/NASA

On July 19, NASA’s robotic probe turned its gaze toward Saturn’s majestic rings and a tiny pale-blue dot—a planet called Earth nearly 900 million miles (1.5 billion kilometers) away.

The Cassini orbiter snapped this historic image of its distant home world while on the far side of the giant ringed planet.

No surface features are visible since Earth takes up only a scant few pixels—however, its unique blue tinge caused by sunlight reflecting off our planet’s oceans clearly shines through.

Tiny Speck

awe-inspiring-views-earth-full-rings Earth from Space

Image courtesy SSI/NASA

Swinging onto the night side of Saturn in 2006, the Cassini spacecraft snapped this stunning back-lit view of the gas giant’s rings along with Earth—a tiny speck of light nearly lost just above and to the left of the bright main rings.

This panoramic view of the Saturn system with the Earth represents only the second time our planet has been photographed from deep space.

Back in 1990 the Voyager probe heading out of the solar system snapped the first view of our water-rich world looking like a pale-blue dot from a distance of four billion miles.

Space Beacon

awe-inspiring-views-earth-stars Earth from Space

  Image courtesy SSI/Caltech/NASA

Earth shines like a bright starlike beacon at the center of this image, with the moon just underneath.

This raw snapshot taken on July 19 by Cassini spacecraft’s narrow-angle camera shows that from a distance of 898,410,414 miles (1,445,851,410 kilometers), Earth looks like nothing more than a bright stellar object floating among a backdrop of fainter stars.

Earth From Mars

awe-inspiring-views-earth-mars Earth from Space

Image courtesy Texas A&M/Cornell/NASA

Earth appears as a tiny speck caught up in a Martian sunrise in the first photo of its kind taken from the surface of another planet beyond the moon.

This historic image was captured by the Mars rover Spirit in 2004. Another rover named Mars Pathfinder tried to take a similar photo of Earth in 1997, but its view was obstructed by clouds.

Earth Rising

awe-inspiring-views-earth-apollo Earth from Space

Photograph courtesy NASA

Like a cosmic blue marble, Earth appears to hang in the space above the lunar surface in this historic portrait taken by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders in December 1968. Before this mission, no person had ever seen or photographed Earth from deep space, and this famous “Earthrise” view helped inspire an entire generation of environmentalists.

Earth in Detail

globe-news-blog-natgeonewswatch Earth from Space

  Image courtesy MODIS/USGS/NASA

This classic blue marble view of Earth represents the most detailed true-color image of our entire planet to date.

Most of the images were seamlessly stitched together to create this mosaic view—snapped by NASA’s Terra environmental satellite from 435 miles (700 kilometers) above.

Light Show

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Image courtesy NASA

What look like sparkling jewels scattered across the night side of Earth are in fact the telltale signs of the expansion of people worldwide. The light pollution from cities and towns, mostly across darkened North America and Europe, dominate this satellite image.

This global view of Earth’s night lights was acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite over 21 days in 2012, taking 312 orbits and collecting 2.5 terabytes of data to cover the entire surface of Earth.

> Stunning Pictures | National Geographic

The Human Experience in Outer Space – Chris Hadfield (Video)

The Human Experience in Outer Space - Chris Hadfield (Video) | Third Monk image 4

Living in Space

Chris Hadfield takes questions about how life in space affects the human experience.

Although living in space is in it’s early stages, the data collected by astronauts can help us learn how to survive in space with greater ease.

Living in Space – Chris Hadfield

Wet Washcloth in Space

 

Can You Cry in Space

 

How Do You Sleep In Space

 

Self Contained Environment

 

How Space Travel Affects Eyesight

 

How The Body Adapts to Weightlessness

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Chris Hadfield

Carl Sagan – Pale Blue Dot (Comic Strip)

Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot (Comic Strip) | Third Monk image 2

The Pale Blue Dot quote by Carl Sagan is given a new visual spin by Gavin Aung Than in this beautifully illustrated comic strip.

Our pale blue dot in this universe is what we all have in common, lets share in good times.

Pale Blue Dot –  Art by Gavin Aung Than

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I couldn’t think of a better quote to celebrate Zen Pencils 100th comic. I’ve been wanting to adapt it since I started the website, but I knew I needed a decent amount of time to do it justice.– Gavin Aung, Zen Pencils

Space Exploration is Infinite Fuel for Curious Minds – Jason Silva

Space Exploration is Infinite Fuel for Curious Minds - Jason Silva | Third Monk

Jason Silva highlights the human tendency to keep moving forward, out of the trees, out of the caves, and eventually out of this planet. 

Exposing a curious mind to astronomy opens up a world of possibilities that influences progressive thinking. The desire to explore space and the infinite unknown creates a shift in values from self preservation toward universal expansion.

What the space age was seeking all along was not so much an expansion of physical space as an expansion of mind.

When we dream of space, we dream of transcendence, we dream of what we might become.

-Marina Benjamin, Poet

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Terence McKenna – Shrooms Are Organic Space Probes Sent to Earth by Aliens

Terence McKenna - Shrooms Are Organic Space Probes Sent to Earth by Aliens | Third Monk

In this awesome lecture, Terence Mckenna adds some psychedelic flavor to Panspermia, the theory that life in the universe is distributed by meteors and asteroids. Mckenna believed that mushroom spores were able to survive space travel to become the catalyst of human evolution.

Shrooms Are the Most Unique Lifeform on Earth

First argument – entirely a physical argument. Psilocybin is O-phosphoryl-4-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine. What this means is that there is a phosphorous group substituted at the 4 position of the molecule. Now here’s the headline folks: This is the ONLY 4-phosphorylated indole on this planet! On this planet.

Now, if you were searching for extraterrestrial thumbprints on the biology of Earth, you would look for molecules that are unique – that don’t have near relatives spread through other lifeforms. In psilocybin we have a perfect example of this. It is the only 4-phosphorylated indole known to occur in nature! Nature doesn’t work like that folks, nature builds, always, on what has previously been accomplished. So this is a red flag saying at the molecular level this thing looks like an alien artifact – at the molecular level.

Shrooms Used as Probes to Detect Life

A single mushroom in the sporelization phase can shed up to 3 million spores a minute for up to six weeks. ONE mushroom could do this. I maintain, that a strategy for extraterrestrial contact carried on by a super technology would take the following form:

Build a probe.

Give the probe the ability to replicate itself.

Start these probes out from your home planet.

The probes replicate so the volume of the probes stays constant as the volume of space increases.

If you’re carrying out an exhaustive search of the galaxy for life, it’s very hard to imagine a civilization that could visit and monitor every star over long periods of time. A much more efficient strategy would be the “phone home” strategy. You send, essentially a calling card which says if you get this message, call the enclosed toll free number and immediately report your location, we will come at that point. That’s what I think is going on.

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Psychedelic Cosmos – Pink Floyd’s Echoes, 2001: A Space Odyssey Mash Up (Video)

Psychedelic Cosmos - Pink Floyd's Echoes, 2001: A Space Odyssey Mash Up (Video) | Third Monk

Rumors suggest that Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” synchronizes with Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, when played concurrently with the final segment (titled “Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite”).

“Echoes” was released three years after the film’s production and is 23 minutes and 31 seconds in length; similar to the “Infinite” segment.

Sound effects in the middle of the song convey the feeling of travelling through, or flying over, an alien world.

The drone vocalizations heard in the final scenes of 2001 seem to match with the discordant bass vibrations in the middle of “Echoes”, as well as the choral glissando’s of its finale.

Another notable link occurs during a change in scene at precisely the moment when guitar and keyboards crescendo as the lyrics re-enter for the final verse.

The early lyrics vaguely convey reference to planets, which seems entirely suitable for the film’s depiction of Jupiter and it’s moons.

Adrian Maben re-created this marriage of music and image using CGI in his Director’s cut of Live at Pompeii.

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Aurora Borealis Orbital Time Lapse from Space, NASA Fly Over (Video)

Aurora Borealis Orbital Time Lapse from Space, NASA Fly Over (Video) | Third Monk

This orbital time lapse, compiled by Michael König, combines “photographs taken with a special low-light 4K-camera by the crew of expedition 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011.” König says the video is the result of some post-production tweaking—it’s been “refurbished, smoothed, retimed, denoised, deflickered, cut, etc.”—but there’s no software gimmick that can match up to being slapped in the face with the Aurora Borealis in HD. I wanted to file this under “looks so good it can’t possibly be real,” but this is the real deal—all the goods come straight from NASA.

Shooting locations in order of appearance:

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night