Author Archives: Chompsky

Behold: the Zhurong rover – deployed on Mars last month by China’s Tianwen-1 mission. But who’s taking the picture? It’s all staged! Wake up sheeple! Calm down. To wit:

As Mars means Planet of Fire in Chinese, the Zhurong rover’s name means, roughly, God of Fire in Chinese mythology. Zhurong landed in northern Utopia Planitia, the largest known impact basin in the Solar System, and an area reported to have much underground ice. Among many other scientific instruments, Zhurong carries ground-penetrating radar that can detect ice buried even 100-meters deep. Car-sized Zhurong is pictured here next to its landing base. The image was snapped by a remote camera deployed by the rolling rover. Zhurong‘s planned 90-day mission includes studying the geology, soil, and atmosphere of Mars in Utopia Planitia.

(Image: China National Space Administration)

apod

Behold: Ganymede – the largest moon in the solar system. To wit:

Jupiter‘s moon Ganymede, larger than even Mercury and Pluto, has an icy surface speckled with bright young craters overlying a mixture of older, darker, more cratered terrain laced with grooves and ridges. The cause of the grooved terrain remains a topic of research, with a leading hypothesis relating it to shifting ice plates. Ganymede is thought to have an ocean layer that contains more water than Earth — and might contain life. Like Earth’s Moon, Ganymede keeps the same face towards its central planet, in this case Jupiter. The featured image was captured last week by NASA’s robotic Juno spacecraft as it passed only about 1000 kilometers above the immense moon. The close pass reduced Juno’s orbital period around Jupiter from 53 days to 43 days. Juno continues to study the giant planet‘s high gravity, unusual magnetic field, and complex cloud structures.

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS; Processing & License: Kevin M. Gill)

apod

Behold: the Geely Auto Vision Starburst – a ‘vision of the future’ from one of China’s most technologically advanced automakers (and the owner of Volvo) Geely.

Supposedly inspired by ‘stellar rays’, the all-electric Starburst has a uniquely twisted profile enhanced with colourful LED lighting inside and out, scissor-style suicide doors, illuminated wheel arches, ‘borderless’ instrumentation and ambient sound and lighting that change depending on the car’s motion, direction and charging status.

It make never make it to production in this exact configuration but then again, it might, which would be no harm.

hiconsumption

An interesting stop motion short by animator Corrie Franis Parks – a mesmeric shifting landscape of banknotes and miniscule stones. To wit:  

Between the dazzling layers of currency and sand lie connections that can be mined in infinite ways. Each person who views this film will unearth different associations filtered through their worldly experience and national background.

Make of it what you will.

colossal