Easter Island - Te Pito O Te Henua - "Navel of the World":
For seven centuries, they worked the compressed volcanic ash of Rano Raraku crater. Seven centuries of shaping stone in their... More > father's images. Seven centuries of separating tuff from caldera, tree from root, present from past. Seven centuries of muscling moai from stoney wombs to earthen altars among the high cliffs and low island coastlines. Seven centuries of ever larger and more massive tributes to a pattern laid down by long-dead ancestors.
Seven centuries of the Ritual of Stone...
How did it end?
Why did it ever begin?
What can it teach us today?
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The Astro.Geekjoy Deepsky Atlas features over 500 of the finest and brightest galaxies, clusters and nebulae visible from the northern hemisphere. Each is carefully indexed to allow observers to log... More > observation data. Entries include a reference to the smallest telescope providing a satisfying view through clear, dark skies.
Author Jeff Barbour (of Astro.Geekjoy.Com) has also included several insightful articles covering all aspects of observing the deep heavens - from telescope selection to a retrospective on the Messier, Herschel and Dreyer catalogs amateurs turn to most today.
If you're serious about observing the many luminous denizens of the night sky that even a small telescope can reveal, Astro.Geekjoy's Deep Sky Atlas is the complete starter kit for blazing your own trail across the heavens.
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Easter Island:
Our world is changing fast - and not necessarily for the better. By the time the children of the WWII generation have left their mark behind, their own children will either be blessed... More > - or cursed - by their legacy. The soccer mom who buys an SUV to protect her toddler in event of an accident, may actually be destroying her child's future. That same toddler's father - struggling to provide a home while working for an advanced bio-technology corporation - may actually be taking food out of future mouths to feed his own.
How are such things possible?
Today, we are making the same kinds of choices made by a society found on an island of long ago and far away. Those choices made good sense right up until the very end. The world as we know it will soon be over.
The burning question is: "What will take its place?"
The answer is in the "End of the World as we knew it" and the new kinds of choices we can start making right now.
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Easter Island is considered one of the most isolated places on the planet. There, in
the midst of the South Pacific Ocean, on sixty-four square miles of rolling volcanic
terrain, forty generations... More > of human beings lived, loved, struggled and left behind a
testament in massive stone statuary. In the process, islanders completely deforested a once
burgeoning arboreal ecosystem and left behind a legacy of desolation for future generations
to ponder.
Are today's skyscrapers yesterday's Easter Island stone statues?
The answer is in Blue Planet & Beyond.
From anthropology to exobiology, Blue Planet & Beyond explores the connection
between Easter Island's past and Earth Island's future. From ecological sustainability to
colonial starships, this book probes the fundamental choices we must all make -- one way
or another...
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Blue Planet & Beyond speaks for itself:
“That human hands have not always served nature well is the lesson of Easter Island and other lands throughout the planet.”
“Our... More > Earth, like the island of Te Pito O Te Henua, can only stretch so thin before rents and tears damage its natural systems irrevocably.”
“The ultimate answer to all environmental issues is to find ways to emulate nature’s own mechanisms for self-regulation – rather than continue jury-rigging technological solutions.”
“With knowledge and discipline, we can build a new future on the foundation of the natural world. In failing to do so, that foundation will simply erode away beneath our feet.”
“… we humans have a destiny with the stars. But to fulfill that destiny, we must first get right with our homeworld – the Blue Planet.”
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James slowly confided, “There was something, or someone, with us on that hilltop. Someone we couldn’t see, but could sense. And later, a little before dawn, I saw stars, not up in the... More > sky, but right in front of me on the Earth.”
“You sure you weren’t hallucinating?”
“No sweetheart, unlikely. That earthly constellation also had a faint semi-transparent shape with a hazy glow looking exactly like…”
“Like, what? Come on Dad, you’re turning into some kind of drama king!”
“…Like a starry, translucent woman.”
“A woman! What was she doing?”
“Smiling, just smiling.”< Less
James slowly confided, “There was something, or someone, with us on that hilltop. Someone we couldn’t see, but could sense. And later, a little before dawn, I saw stars, not up in the... More > sky, but right in front of me on the Earth.”
“You sure you weren’t hallucinating?”
“No sweetheart, unlikely. That earthly constellation also had a faint semi-transparent shape with a hazy glow looking exactly like…”
“Like, what? Come on Dad, you’re turning into some kind of drama king!”
“…Like a starry, translucent woman.”
“A woman! What was she doing?”
“Smiling, just smiling.”< Less
Easter Island is considered one of the most isolated places on the planet. There, in
the midst of the South Pacific Ocean, on sixty-four square miles of rolling volcanic
terrain, forty generations... More > of human beings lived, loved, struggled and left behind a
testament in massive stone statuary. In the process, islanders completely deforested a once
burgeoning arboreal ecosystem and left behind a legacy of desolation for future generations
to ponder.
Are today's skyscrapers yesterday's Easter Island stone statues?
The answer is in Blue Planet & Beyond.
From anthropology to exobiology, Blue Planet & Beyond explores the connection
between Easter Island's past and Earth Island's future. From ecological sustainability to
colonial starships, this book probes the fundamental choices we must all make -- one way
or another...< Less
Easter Island - Te Pito O Te Henua - "Navel of the World":
For seven centuries, they worked the compressed volcanic ash of Rano Raraku crater. Seven centuries of shaping stone in their... More > father's images. Seven centuries of separating tuff from caldera, tree from root, present from past. Seven centuries of muscling moai from stoney wombs to earthen altars among the high cliffs and low island coastlines. Seven centuries of ever larger and more massive tributes to a pattern laid down by long-dead ancestors.
Seven centuries of the Ritual of Stone...
How did it end?
Why did it ever begin?
What can it teach us today?< Less
Blue Planet & Beyond speaks for itself:
“That human hands have not always served nature well is the lesson of Easter Island and other lands throughout the planet.”
“Our Earth,... More > like the island of Te Pito O Te Henua, can only stretch so thin before rents and tears damage its natural systems irrevocably.”
“The ultimate answer to all environmental issues is to find ways to emulate nature’s own mechanisms for self-regulation – rather than continue jury-rigging technological solutions.”
“With knowledge and discipline, we can build a new future on the foundation of the natural world. In failing to do so, that foundation will simply erode away beneath our feet.”
“… we humans have a destiny with the stars. But to fulfill that destiny, we must first get right with our homeworld – the Blue Planet.”< Less
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