On this day 544 years ago one of the most famous people in history was born.
Though you don't know her name, you definitely know her face.
Here is the story of the woman with the world's most famous smile, Lisa Gherardini, who never even saw her own portrait...
Pale Blue Dot is a photo of Earth that was taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in 1990 from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) as it was leaving our solar system. This is what Carl Sagan said about the photo:
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor, and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there โ on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.โ
This is the Queen's Stepwell in Gujarat, India, built nearly 1,000 years ago.
It is beautiful, but it isn't unique โ India is filled with hundreds of stepwells just like it.
Here is the story of the world's most extraordinary underground architecture...
I don't bring this up much because I don't want to be a bummer, but I think the entire world is actually still currently experiencing large-scale psychotic episode thanks to the pandemic that is affecting every aspect of our lives and is made worse by our inability to admit it.
Brand new episode of Shoutout Sunday on my channel in which I fawn over 5 of my fave digital creators!
Some absolute gems including:
@bookbytheWindow@avdhooooooot@thewordyhabitat@loicsuberville
Go follow & if you need more reasons, watch my vid:
https://t.co/HPcEkHQoYW
@HMRCcustomers I am unable to track my UTR number and canโt login to Personal Tax Website for Self Assessment. Tried calling multiple times without an answer. Would you be able to help figure this out? Thanks!