Explanation: What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend political boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, started dancing, and filmed the result. The video is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the above video without smiling.
I love the pictures that APOD shares. There is no where else that touches the sky and brings it back to us in such a free open way. THANKS MATT for turing the camera on the third rock and some of the special critters that inhabit it. We do live on the most beautiful place known to man. Sometimes we get a bit tunnel vision, but the beauty, joy and love are still there. LETS DANCE!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Harding wrote:
<<On July 22, 2008, NASA featured Harding's 3rd video on their APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) website, titled "Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth", making claim of humans worldwide sharing a common love of dance. The website states that "few people are able to watch the above video without smiling". Harding himself has joked that he is impressed with this, especially since the video has nothing to do with astronomy, nor is a picture. The video was once again featured on the APOD website on July 25, 2010.>>
A Midsummer Night's Dream Act 2, Scene 1
TITANIA: Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
. By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
. Or in the beached margent of the sea,
. To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
This has to be my least favorite APOD ever. I didn't like it two years ago, and I still don't care for it, although it certainly sparked a lively discussion.
(Astronomy) the scientific study of the individual celestial bodies (excluding the earth) and of the universe as a whole. Its various branches include astrometry, astrodynamics, cosmology, and astrophysics.... and I thought the airplane was bad.... and why am I reminded of what the NASA head honcho said recently?
I loved this the first time it appeared as an APOD, and I love it just as much this time!! Thank you!!
(I'll point out that "Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer" doesn't preclude something like this video being perfectly in tune with APOD.)
To the APOD moderator: If you can't find anything interesting to show related to astronomy, how about showing some old photos of NASA's glory days of the 50s through the 60s?
<<It's possible to estimate the current entropy of our universe by tallying up its various components – which have varying levels of entropy density. At the top of the scale are black holes [and Matt Harding's dance] – and at the bottom are luminous stars. These luminous stars appear to be locally enthalpic – where for example, the Sun heats the Earth enabling all sorts of interesting things to happen here. But it's a time-limited process and what the Sun mostly does is to radiate energy away into empty space. Egan & Lineweaver have recently re-calculated the current entropy of the observable universe – and gained a value that is an order of magnitude higher than previous estimates (albeit we are talking 1×10104 – instead of 1×10103). This is largely the result of incorporating the entropy contributed by recently recognized supermassive black holes [and Matt Harding's dance]. So this suggests our universe is a bit further down the track towards heat death than we had previously thought. Enjoy it [and Matt Harding's dance] while you can.>>
bystander wrote:This has to be my least favorite APOD ever. I didn't like it two years ago, and I still don't care for it, although it certainly sparked a lively discussion.
I don't remember my feelings the last time it went around; but now I think it is cute. I think it is good to break the monotony once in a while.
bystander wrote:This has to be my least favorite APOD ever.
I didn't like it two years ago, and I still don't care for it, although it certainly sparked a lively discussion.
I don't remember my feelings the last time it went around; but now I think it is cute.
I think it is good to break the monotony once in a while.
[list]---------------------------------------------------- "At sea, everything that breaks the monotony of the surrounding expanse attracts attention." - W. Irving.
---------------------------------------------------- "Be true to your own act and congratulate yourself if you have done something
strange and extravagant to break the monotony of a decorous age." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
---------------------------------------------------- "I walk on, once again, down these corridors, through these halls, these galleries, in this structure of another century, this enormous, luxurious, baroque, lugubrious hotel where corridors succeed endless corridors silent deserted corridors overloaded with a dim, cold ornamentation of woodwork, stucco, moldings, marble, black mirrors, dark paintings, columns, heavy hangings, sculptured doorframes, series of doorways, galleries, transverse corridors that open in turn on empty salons, rooms overloaded with an ornamentation from another century, silent halls where the sound of advancing footsteps is absorbed by carpets so thick and heavy that nothing can be heard, as if the ear of the man walking on once again, down these corridors, through these halls, these galleries, in this structure of another century, this enormous, luxurious, baroque, lugubrious hotel where corridors succeed endless corridors silent deserted corridors overloaded with a dim, cold ornamentation of woodwork, stucco, moldings, marble, black mirrors, dark paintings, columns, heavy hangings, sculptured doorframes, series of doorways, galleries, transverse corridors that open in turn on empty salons, rooms overloaded with an ornamentation from another century, silent halls where the sound of advancing footsteps is absorbed by carpets so thick and heavy that nothing can be heard - always WALLS, always corridors, always doors and on the other side, still more WALLS."
- L'Année dernière à Marienbad [Last Year at Marienbad] (1961)[/list]
Postby quietgaltalking » Sun Jul 25, 2010 12:42 pm
Thanks so much for posting this. You must realize too that nothing much will be left of this lovely planet unless we get beyond our destructive, collective rage against each other. Those of you who left racist comments, this video is for you. If you can watch this and not be moved to happiness, check into an insane asylum.
I have watched this beautifully created video many times but for some reason it brought uncontrollable tears to my eyes this time around. Blame it on the full moon or my weakness for sentimentality but I really enjoyed this experience, tears-with-whole heart-standing. Thank you Matt, wherever the "hell" [which I doubt] you are now. Peace and Chicken grease, brother.
Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth
I think it is good to break the monotony once in a while. 
