back to article NASA stitches 3.2 gigapixel 'Global Selfie' mosaic

NASA has released a 3.2 gigapixel "Global Selfie", comprising 36,422 individual images stitched into a mosaic representation of the Earth. NASA's Global Selfie The agency explains: "On Earth Day this year (22 April), NASA asked people all around the world a simple question – 'Where are you on Earth Right Now?'" We asked …

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  1. MrWibble

    Shame that NASA doesn't have any real work to do.

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      America

      The only country in history to throw away the ability to go to the Moon, and now to even go into space at all.

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  3. frank ly

    The location of the selfies ...

    ... on the globe doesn't correspond to where they were taken (according to the location placards). I was a bit disappointed.

    1. John Brookes

      Re: The location of the selfies ...

      I hope I'm mistaken, but I could only find Yanks on my brief perusal. That would be even more disappointing....

      1. Richard Barnes

        Re: The location of the selfies

        I spotted HM The Queen amongst the pictures - I'm pretty sure she's not a Yank.

    2. VeganVegan
      Holmes

      Re: The location of the selfies ...

      That would be way more cool if the photos were placed by their actual locations.

      Also, just 36422 photos used?!

      That works out to be 1 photo for 5406 square MILES of Earth's surface.

      At 5 megapixel per photo, each pixel represents 3350 square yards, roughly 39% of a soccer field per pixel.

      Shirley someone can do better?

      Maybe we need to start a project to convert Google map to geo-tagged selfies?

      1. VinceH

        Re: The location of the selfies ...

        "That would be way more cool if the photos were placed by their actual locations."

        The problem is that if you insist on the photos being used in the mosaic based on where they were taken, and you want a higher resolution, you're going to have a little trouble getting enough pictures for some areas - the poles, deserts and oceans spring to mind.

        1. Don Jefe

          Re: The location of the selfies ...

          It won't be any trouble at all. Once the insurance companies have fitted everyone with 'Rate Rewards' devices and shared that info with Google you'll be able to pull up where you were, as well as what you last ate, where you shat and most importantly, what you bought shortly after.

        2. VeganVegan
          Happy

          Re: The location of the selfies ...

          But that's the beauty of it:

          The easy places will be filled up in no time.

          The tough places, middle of the Southern Indian Ocean, deep in Siberia, etc. etc., will be the haunt of a new breed of adventurers, to fill in the all these empty parts of the World map.

          It is the dawn of a new age of exploration!

      2. KjetilS

        Re: The location of the selfies ...

        Miles? Yards? How much is that in square furlongs?

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: The location of the selfies ...

      ...and from my quick perusal, many of them didn't appear to be "selfies" anyway, as in a "selfie" is where the photographer and the subject are one and the same.

  4. Psmo

    Technology-enabled narcissism...in spaaaaaaace!

    Nearly makes it cool. Nearly.

    1. TitterYeNot

      Re: Technology-enabled narcissism...in spaaaaaaace!

      If these selfies were to be printed onto the fins of the next NASA human-rated orbital launch vehicle (like the names that will be on Bloodhound SSC's fin), that would be cool.

      I'm afraid this is merely rather tepid.

    2. lambda_beta
      Linux

      Re: Technology-enabled narcissism...in spaaaaaaace!

      Replace cool with stupid!

  5. Stevie

    Bah!

    In other NASA news, still no rocket to replace the Space Shuttle.

  6. Mike Flugennock
    Mushroom

    I was sick of these long ago

    The first couple of times I saw these large mosaics made of thousands of small images, I thought they were pretty cool. Now, the goddamn' things are everywhere, and I'm sick to death of them -- like time-lapse clips. Everybody and their cat is doing those now, and they just aren't interesting anymore.

    What bugs me even more is that some of the images in the mosaic are those annoying-assed fotos of people holding up little signs scrawled with a Sharpie. Those were cool for about five minutes, tops. Now, they're just banal and annoying. God, I want to smack the shit out of those people -- just line 'em up, like the Three Stooges, and slap 'em all at once.

    1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Re: I was sick of these long ago

      In summary, then, you're not impressed?

      1. Mike Flugennock

        Re: I was sick of these long ago

        "In summary, then, you're not impressed?"

        In so many words...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Coat

      Re: I was sick of these long ago

      I've seen some really cool ones done with skin-toned selfies.

  7. Scroticus Canis
    Facepalm

    Well that explains the budget cuts

    If they have time and resources to waste doing stuff like this it's little wonder Congress cut their funding.

    Bet a few managers and PR types will be rethinking their careers soon.

    1. Anomalous Cowshed

      Re: Well that explains the budget cuts

      Oh Bollocks of dog! You see this in completely the wrong way.

      Like Britain entering the post-industrial age, NASA is entering the 'post-rocketry' age.

      Now that so many countries can fire rockets into space, it's no longer cool or interesting to try to do so any more. Nobody really cares, and there's a lot of Engineering involved, which is expensive and...mostly boring. Management, PR, social networking, outreach, are more the in-thing nowadays, and NASA's genius lies in how it is able to combine 'space' which, let's face it, is only of interest to a minority [of mostly weirdos], and cool PR / social networking, which has a far broader appeal. No other space agency comes close to NASA now in terms of media and PR, except perhaps the British Space Agency, which has always been the one to follow in this respect.

      The benefit is lower costs, so everyone's a winner.

    2. Don Jefe
      Stop

      Re: Well that explains the budget cuts

      I bet a few managers and PR types will get promotions after this. One of the most common errors I see people make in business is not understanding where the money in a company or organization actually comes from.

      In all but the smallest commercial business people think customers provide the money, that's wrong. Banks and investors provide the money, customers just give you money to pay the banks and investors back with.

      In a State sponsored organization like NASA the same misunderstanding abounds. People often think NASA gets their money from Congress, but that's wrong. NASA gets it's money from the taxpayers, Congress just gives NASA the money to meet taxpayer demands.

      So if NASA wants money, who should they target in order to get the funds? They should target the voting taxpayer and that's exactly what they've done here. They got (x) number of people to engage in an activity which required the participants to perform several physical acts to qualify, and they'll tell their friends as well as check back to try and find themselves or friends in the image.

      Younger people and young adults will tell their family and friends and some of the really young participants will form lifelong bonds with NASA. Voters write their Congresspeople letting them know how much NASA means to them and next year everybody gets more money. It's cool like that.

      What's especially great about that, is that so few voters actually write their Representatives to begin with and if they do it's to bitch and moan. So when somebody writes them with something positive that isn't politically charged dogmatic idiocy they tend to act on that to keep the voter happy. It's a nice system, you should try. Fortunately, because messages from the idiots all get ignored anyway the fact a few naysayers don't get it is 100% irrelevant.

  8. Smiles
    Pint

    Not amazing, but:

    Did anyone else spot Ron Burgandy in the centre of India?

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