Image file size of the Earth

TL;DR The file size of a 72ppi PNG image of Earth's surface is 3.37 zettabytes, or 3,705,354,190,000 gigabytes.

	Assuming image resolution:
	72ppi = 5184 pixels per square inch
	Surface area of the Earth:
	510,072,000 km2 = (7.90613181 × 10 to the 17th) square inches
	Assuming (for a lossless PNG) an average storage size of:
	~7.76 bits per pixel
	7.90613181 × 10 to the 17th square inches
	* 5184 pixels per square inch
	_______________________________
	4.09853873 × 10 to the 21st pixels
	4.09853873 × 10 to the 21st pixels
	* ~7.76 bits
	_______________________________
	3.36744942 zettabytes
	((7.90613181 × 10 to the 17th) * 5184) * 7.76 bits
	3.36744942 zettabytes
	or
	3.70254979 × 10 to the 12th gigabytes
	or
	3,702,549,790,000 gigabytes
	Note:
	I realize that ppi is somewhat contentious. I only chose
	the 72ppi figure because it was convenient-ish. According
	to Wikipedia, photographs should be printed at 300 ppi to
	look decent.
	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_density
	In that case, a 300ppi image will weigh in at:
	58.5 zettabytes

view raw gistfile1.txt hosted with ❤ by GitHub

The surest sign that intelligent life exists

Reddit user dheretic nails it

In an article from Reuters, House Speaker Representative John Boehner suggested that oil subsidies "ought" to end. Reddit user dheretic indicates the reason why Boehner would swerve into such Republican contrary waters by quoting one sentence from the article. He then predicts what will most likely happen if Boehner's advice is taken seriously.

"Boehner also suggested that Obama could lose the 2012 election if gas prices do not decline."

Hi, I just explained this move with one sentence from the article.

1. Just threaten to consider cutting oil subsidies.
2. Oil companies bitch and moan and pitch a fit and the futures exchange goes insane about prices, sending PpB skyrocketing unlike anything we've seen since OPEC used the Oil Weapon in the 70s.
3. Gasoline prices in the US approach the world average.
4. Americans go nuts because they can't get their fix (oh, and incidentally, underfunded public transportation and public institutions like fire/police/municipal first responders take a big thick one up the behind, too-- unsustainable big government, right?)
5. Fox News gives it a fancy name like Obama's Oil Blunder and claim he's trying to create an underclass unable to resist his communist fascism or whatever. The rest of the idiot box crowd report on Fox News' outrageousness instead of doing any mental heavy lifting because, to be honest, they are completely unused to effort at this point.
6. GOP: Why does Obama hate industry?
7. Forbes Magazine and WSJ: Why u do this Obama?
8. Obama: "Completely reasonable response implicating GOP using facts and logic."
9. GOP & ETC: "OMG USE SOME TACT RESPECT CIVILITY YOU FUCKING HITLER CLONE FROM KENYA"
10. Obama caves in the name of bipartisanship. Oil prices stay high.
11. 2012 goes to whatever mouthbreather wins the GOP primaries this time around.
12. OIL PRICES MAGICALLY GO DOWN EVEN THOUGH AT NO POINT WERE THE SUBSIDIES CUT

Welcome to American politics. Enjoy your stay, and don't mind that full feeling you have in your colon...that's a completely natural by-product of rich people fucking you in the ass. They know what they're doing, and they like it when you clench tight with impotent rage.

Collapse

Take it with a grain of salt, of course, but...

I found Michael Ruppert's movie Collapse compelling.

He bases his superficially paranoid argument primarily on the mounting evidence supporting the Peak Oil theory from the 50s and 70s that was derided as leftist/environmentalist hysteria at the time.

He answers the questions about why it has taken so long for the predicted effects of Peak Oil to begin to become manifestly apparent in the world economies, and expounds on the implications of a world with the ostensibly diminishing instances of accessible oil reserves.