flickering pictures

I’m not usually this philosophical in the morning, but watching this video I kept thinking about how incredibly neat it is that humans have created a new circulatory system for the Earth, with ebbs and flows regulated by the planet’s rotation. There’s something beautiful about this.

It’s also instructive to see that Africa, with its billion people, looks to have about as much air traffic as Hawaii. India, with a billion people of its own, is roughly on par with Australia, with its 20 million. Central Russians must be tired by now of all those noisy jets flying overhead on their way from Europe to East Asia and back, without ever stopping for passengers in Russia.

And man, Americans fly a lot. Five of the world’s ten busiest airports — and 16 of the top 30 — are in the U.S. No other country except Japan and Germany has two airports on that list, and the entire European Union only has seven. So far this year, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport has seen nearly 44.5 million passengers come and go — which is about the same as the populations of Texas, New York and Nevada put together. Or Spain.

Thanks, Theo!

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