From the NASA page: ‘even though this illustration has appeared in numerous places over the past 100 years, the actual artist remains unknown. Furthermore, the work has no accepted name…The illustration, first appearing in a book by Camille Flammarion in 1888, is used frequently to show that humanity’s present concepts are susceptible to being supplanted by greater truths.’
Thanks to a post by my pal Phil, I was inspired to read about astronomer, writer and psychic researcher Camille Flammarion. Flammarion is a fascinating figure, kind of the Carl Sagan of the 19th Century.
It makes sense that was a Theosophist, which basically means he was into “open-minded inquiry into world religions, philosophy, science, and the arts in order to understand the wisdom of the ages, respect the unity of all life, and help people explore spiritual self-transformation.”
I was struck by the following quote from his 1893 book La Fin du Monde (The End of the World), a sci-fi novel about the eventual death of Planet Earth.
“This end of the world will occur without noise, without revolution, without cataclysm. Just as a tree loses leaves in the autumn wind, so the earth will see in succession the falling and perishing all its children, and in this eternal winter, which will envelop it from then on, she can no longer hope for either a new sun or a new spring. The universe is so immense that it appears immutable, and that the duration of a planet such as that of the earth is only a chapter, less than that, a phrase, less still, only a word of the universe’s history.” — Camille Flammarion, La Fin du Monde (“The End of the World”)
How can a description be so sad and yet so beautiful?
And now for the Cabal Fang Workout of the Week — WOOTW #19.
10 x 10 Pop Combo Drill. Set timer for 10 minutes. Throw 10 punch-kick combos, each one including a Shoulder Pop. Then take 10 breaths for rest. Repeat until timer beeps. Pro tip: Choose 3 or 4 of your favorite combos, insert pops, and work the hell out of ’em. Need combo ideas? Try Left Jab, Right Shoulder Pop, Right Roundhouse, or Left Jab, Right Cross, Left Shoulder Pop, Left Roundhouse. Hit your heavy bag if you have one. If you don’t, strike the air — just make sure you imagine a target in 3-dimensional space.- 10 minute Calisthenics Half Pyramid. Set timer for 10 minutes. Start with 1 rep each of Hop/Clap Push-up, Rear Lunge (per leg), and Bodybuilders. Then do 2 of each, then 3 of each, etc. taking as few 12-second breaks as you need. See how high you can climb before the timer beeps. Try to get through of 7 of each (1+2+3, etc. is a total of 28 reps per exercise).
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Robert Mitchell Jr. 