APOD: Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth (2012 Jul 10)

[orin stepanek]

OMG If only people would praise APOD as much when a great Astronomy picture was the picture of the day as they carp about a change of pace! When is the last time there were 4 or 5 pages of raves about a great picture of a nebula or a nova etc.

[abellg]

Fabulous! Given that this video is posted in the context of a great many more conventional astronomy pictures and videos that not only meet our expectations but often exceed them, I'm for it. It's a matter of perspective, isn't it... Would we object to APOD posting a video of rhythmically moving alien life forms? Would this video only be justified as a post on an alien "Astronomy Picture of the Day" website? Lighten up, friends - and clear skies.

[new man]

Re: APOD: Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth (2012 Jul 10) I love this video because it shows how we can come together by just enjoying ourselves and not taking ourselves too seriously, just dancing and laughing is all it takes. Too bad the world leaders can't enjoy this simple pleasure and pass it on to others.
I hope this video stays on APOD for a few days so the entire net can enjoy its simple beauty!

[flybill59]

lovely. (good chance i wouldn't've seen it otherwise so thanks very much for posting it.) tears are rolling my cheeks. really does show our comnmon humanity and makes one wonder how come we all can't get along.

[neufer]

I love this video because it shows how we can come together by just enjoying ourselves and not taking ourselves too seriously, just dancing and laughing is all it takes. Too bad the world leaders can't enjoy this simple pleasure and pass it on to others.

Dance-Floor Diplomacy, 1976
By Alexandra Silver Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011

<<Two hundred years after the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain, the American President danced with the Queen of England. In town for the U.S. bicentennial, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip were the guests of President and Mrs. Gerald Ford in July 1976. First Lady Betty Ford wrote in her memoir that "the Queen was easy to deal with" and "If I hadn't kept mixing up Your Highness and Your Majesty (he's His Highness, she's Her Majesty) I'd give myself four stars for the way that visit went off." As for the dancing, there don't appear to be any reports of President Ford falling or stepping on the Queen's feet. Of course, the U.S. Marine band probably shouldn't have started playing "The Lady Is a Tramp," though it's a great song, with the Queen on the dance floor.>>

[owlice]

OMG If only people would praise APOD as much when a great Astronomy picture was the picture of the day as they carp about a change of pace! When is the last time there were 4 or 5 pages of raves about a great picture of a nebula or a nova etc.

This.

Kudos and thanks, Orin!

And FloridaMike, exactly; thanks for that, too!

[Moonlady]

Hey owlice, I put it here so I hope it is ok with you:

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=28732

content: Astronomy: Galaxy Disc expressed by dance

so the "gap" between astronomy and social act dance ist now much smaller

Human do not need to see far distance for astronomy.
we are living on a planet in a galaxy turning in the universe,
we are astronomy in each APOD!

I saw Matt's earlier clip and was astounded how people were open to him,
news make it fast black and white as reality is.

[MosselKots]

Ok...
After having replied so much on this thread while brand new to this forum (albeit being a daily follower of APOD for many, many years), I do feel a bit of a troll...
Sorry for that.
Truely.
Did not mean to be negative, love the pods.

So here's an uplifting astronomic dance video for you all to enjoy! (Well, it made me smile... Love the moon.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3cs_Aa600g

Cheers,
mK

[Michael-Hercules]

It's true that this is a nice video. I did enjoy it. But, yes, sorry there's a but, it's not terribly relevant to the science of astronomy.
The name of this site is Astronomy picture of the day. Even though I liked the pleasant dancing video I would prefer if you all would stick with Astronomical subjects. Or at least until dancing websites start posting astronomical related pictures.
Thank-you for the many lovely images I have appreciated over the many years of APOD.

[IleneK]

I fail to see what dancing has to do with APOD, unless it's just another socialist angle

Have not you heard of the Dance of the Cosmos?

[saturno2]

This video is very beautiful
Hapiness and peace in Planet Earth.
The peace is the most valuable in Planet Earth and the Universe

[Skytours]

You ran out of interesting deep space objects or are you just on vacation?

[TNT]

This is a very beautiful video! I could not help but smile through the whole thing and laugh at some of the costumes (especially the monkey costume in the lower left corner of Bratislavia, Slovakia) and the dancing seal as well!

For all of you who are complaining that this is not an astronomy picture, why don't you take time to watch the video and think about why it was made and also why it was chosen as an APOD. I think many of you may be missing the point; for all we know, this could be the first step to world peace! Just think of the possibilities when it comes to dancing and being happy.

OMG If only people would praise APOD as much when a great Astronomy picture was the picture of the day as they carp about a change of pace! When is the last time there were 4 or 5 pages of raves about a great picture of a nebula or a nova etc.

This.

How about this?

[DougSpace]

In the next installment, he needs to be dancing upside down on a Zero-G trip.

[owlice]

In the next installment, he needs to be dancing upside down on a Zero-G trip.

Done in one of the previous Matt Dancing videos.

[dkp]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love Matt and his videos and the thousands of people from everywhere who show us they love life. This is good to the core.

[TheHermit]

I can't wait for tomorrow's APOD: A video of kittens playing with a paper bag!

[neufer]

I can't wait for tomorrow's APOD: A video of kittens playing with a paper bag!

A Morning Line of Stars and Planets

Jupiter and Venus will continue to dazzle pre-dawn strollers all over planet Earth for the rest of the month, although even now the morning planets are seen projected away from the line connecting their distant stellar sky mates.

---

Aww!

[DavidLeodis]

I don't know if it was done by my ISP or not but there has been a different advertisement embedded on the video the two times I have watched it. I hope they were not done with the permission of the APOD editors as that would be very wrong, as it will not be long before we start to see APOD's sponsored by commercial companies and with adverts.

[geckzilla]

Come on now, David. The sky is not falling. The adverts are an accident. Regulations prevent the display of adverts on .gov websites. Personally, I did not see any adverts when I watched the video. It's gotta be something YouTube did.

https://www.dotgov.gov/portal/web/dotgo ... guidelines

No non-Government Advertisements: A Gov Internet domain may not be used to advertise for private individuals, firms, or corporations, or imply in any manner that the government endorses or favors any specific commercial product, commodity, or service.

[Elisabetta]

Absolutely grand - thanks SO much for giving us this happy moment in a day that has held so few...

[bystander]

Come on now, David. The sky is not falling. The adverts are an accident. Regulations prevent the display of adverts on .gov websites. Personally, I did not see any adverts when I watched the video. It's gotta be something YouTube did.

My guess are the adverts are intentional and probably something done by Matt. He probably needs more money to waste on another stupid video. I'm glad I have an ad blocker on my browser so I don't have to see them.

[DavidLeodis]

From getting adverts that nobody else seemed to get (eg geckzilla) I now cannot see the video, as when I click on the arrow I get a "This video is currently unavailable" message.

Edit moments after posting. I did not see bystander's post, which came in while I was composing my post.

Edit added about 20:35 British Summer Time. I can now access the video again! I'm but still ing.

[neufer]

The sky is not falling. The adverts are an accident. Regulations prevent the display of adverts on .gov websites. Personally, I did not see any adverts when I watched the video. It's gotta be something YouTube did.

My guess are the adverts are intentional and probably something done by Matt. He probably needs more money to waste on another stupid video. I'm glad I have an ad blocker on my browser so I don't have to see them.

<<Matthew "Matt" Harding (born September 27, 1976), is an American traveler, video game designer, and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations. Harding has since received widespread coverage of his travel exploits in major print and broadcast media outlets, and was hired by Visa to star in their Travel Happy campaign.

Harding was known by his friends for a particular dance, and while video recording each other in Vietnam in May 2003, his travel companion suggested he add the dance. The videos were uploaded to his website for friends and family to enjoy. After completing a second journey to Africa in 2004, Harding edited together 15 dance scenes, all with him center frame, with the background music "Sweet Lullaby" by "Deep Forest". The original Song uses samples from a dying Solomon Islands language which was recorded in 1971 by a French ethnomusicologist at the Solomon Islands near Papua New Guinea. The song, "Rorogwela" was sung by a young woman named Afunakwa. According to the video "Where the Hell is Afunakwa" by Matt Harding, Afunakwa died in 1998.

The video was passed around by e-mail and eventually became viral, with his server getting 20,000 or more hits a day as it was discovered, generally country by country due to language barriers, before the launch of major video upload sites.

Harding created a second version of the video in 2006, with additional dancing scenes from subsequent travels, called "Dancing 2006". At the request of Stride, a gum brand, he accepted sponsorship of this video, since he usually travels on a limited budget.

Harding released his third dancing video on June 20, 2008. The video is the product of 14 months of traveling in 42 countries. The background music/song of this video is known as "Praan" composed by Garry Schyman and sung by Palbasha Siddique, with lyrics adapted from the poem "Stream of Life," a part of the Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore.

As of August 2008, Harding is represented by Creative Artists Agency. His videos are viewable on YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo and his own site wherethehellismatt.com. His "Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)" video has been watched over 40,900,000 times on YouTube since 2011 and Harding's YouTube channel is ranked "#83 - Most Subscribed (All Time) - Directors" as of December 22, 2010.

On June 20, 2012, 4 years after his third video, Harding released "Where the Hell is Matt? 2012". The video features Matt and many others dancing in 71 locations, comprising 55 countries and 11 US states. The video uses the song "Trip the Light", composed by Garry Schyman and sung by Alicia Lemke. The song was made available on iTunes, along with "Praan" and the song, titled "Dance Outtakes", used in an as of yet unreleased video featuring outtakes as well as locations which did not make the final video.>>

[Pearlmam]

I don't like complaining but I really don't see any connection with astronomy. At all.

I would also suggest that most dances have more to do with social conformity and genuine feelings are irrelevant. What if you are at a dance and the magical feelings just aren't there? You just pretend or you are a party pooper.

And why does the music have to be crap? You could have some culture from other places instead of programmed drumbeats and people who look exactly like fat Americans shaking their love handles and wearing American clothes.

You are a party pooper. "What if you are at a dance and the magical feelings just aren't there? You just pretend or you are a party pooper." And the answer is to this is yes, pretend, because its amazing how pretending to be happy actually makes one happy. Your post is all negative. Is there anything that you do like?