Thread on the beauty of our planet to celebrate Earth Day 🧵
1. Meteor over Mount Fuji by H. Manabe
2. Most of us only ever see a fraction of a full rainbow. Yet, from an airplane and in the perfect conditions, we can witness its true form—a complete circle.
3. Cliffs of Moher, Ireland by Max Malloy
4. A stunning "firefall" created by the setting sun illuminating Horsetail Fall in Yosemite National Park.
5. Heart Lake, Ontario, Canada
6. Freezing bubble
7. Mammatus clouds in Oklahoma
8. A reindeer beneath the Northern Lights
9. Amazon River from space
10. Geiranger, Norway
11. Socotra Island, Yemen
The Dragon Blood Tree (Dracaena cinnabari) is an iconic symbol of Socotra. This otherworldly tree, with its unique umbrella-shaped canopy, can live for more than 1,000 years.
12. Bioluminescence in the rain
13. Monarch butterfly migration
14. Square waves in Whangamata, New Zealand
15. Salar de Uyuni mirror effect after rain
16. In Colombia, there's a gorgeous river named Caño Cristales, "the crystal channel." Its waters are so clear that you can see the plants growing on the river bed.
17. Salt Mountains, Iran
18. Zhangjiajie National Park, China
19. Mother Nature’s color palette. Broome, Western Australia.
20. Vinicunca, the rainbow mountain in Peru
21. The Marble Caves of Patagonia
22. Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone
The colors of the largest hot spring in the United States match most of those seen in the rainbow dispersion of white light by an optical prism: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue.
23. Breathtaking morning view in Himachal Pradesh, India
24. "It is almost impossible to watch a sunset and not dream."
25. Rainbow Waterfall
"Very high winds at the perfect time of day and unusual heavy water for November, these special circumstances created a previously undocumented 2,400 foot rainbow waterfall" -Photographer Greg Harlow
26. Sequoia National Park, California
27. Angel Falls, Venezuela
It is the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall, with a height of 979 metres (3,212 ft), and a plunge of 807 m (2,648 ft).
28. Love beach, Islas Marietas, Mexico
29. Lake Braies, Italy
Also known as the "Pearl of the Alps" due to its popularity among tourists, this natural lake originated from a landslide that blocked the river Braies, at the foot of the rock wall of Croda del Becco (2,810 meters).
30. Machu Picchu by Vincent Lim
In the Quechua language, machu means "old" or "old person," while picchu means "pyramid," "pointed, multi-sided solid," or "cone." For this reason, the site's name is often interpreted as "ancient mountain."
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2. Napoleon Bonaparte studying at the military academy.
Notice how this lithograph by Jacques de Bréville depicts the young French emperor devouring books, while the shadow of his future self looms over Europe, blending seamlessly with the city's silhouette outside the window.
3. This is one of the most extraordinary details in art history.
The mirror in Van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait is just 5.5 centimeters wide, yet still manages to reflect the entire room: the couple, seen from behind, and two other figures, one of whom may be the painter himself.
The coolest movie posters of all time - a thread 🧵
1. Star Wars: Episode I (1999)
2. Jaws (1975)
To create this iconic image, Roger Kastel used a combination of photography and illustration, resulting in the artwork that was used for both the cover of Peter Benchley's book and Steven Spielberg's film.
3. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
The death's-head hawkmoth is the central focus of this chilling poster, with the skull on its back made up of nude female forms—a design inspired by Salvador Dalí's In Voluptas Mors.
2. Pablo Picasso began drawing and painting at three. When he was eight years old, inspired by a bullfight he attended with his father, he created a small oil painting of a Picador.
"At eight, I was Raphael", he used to say. "It took me a whole lifetime to paint like a child."
3. Though it may seem hard to believe, this is believed to be the Michelangelo's first known painting—completed when he was just twelve or thirteen years old.
Michelangelo's version of The Torment of Saint Anthony (1487) was based on a 15th-century engraving by Martin Schongauer, but included slight alterations: demons with glistening scales inspired by a fish market visit and the Italian Arno River in the background.
Some still dispute Michelangelo's authorship of this painting, as it was previously attributed to the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, under whom Buonarroti had served his apprenticeship.
Nevertheless, Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists—the ideological foundation of all art-historical writing—noted that Michelangelo had painted St. Anthony after a print by Schongauer, and Ascanio Condivi recorded that Michelangelo had gone to a market to draw fish scales.
Thread of historical photos you've (probably) never seen before 🧵
1. "A few seconds before happiness"
2. The Kiss of Life
Randall Champion accidentally touched a high-voltage line, electrifying himself & stopping his heart. A fellow linemen J.D. Thompson performed CPR until paramedics arrived. Champion survived and lived until 2002. The photo won the Pulitzer Prize in 1968.
3. Princess Diana in Portofino, Italy, a week before her death. August 1997.