Photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand brings his amazing large format aerial photography to NYC next year. Here’s an amazing collection of his work on The Big Picture (one of my favorite weekly photo sites).

The images above is:

Mountainous countryside near Maelifellssandur, Myrdalsjökull Region, Iceland. Once the young lava fields of Iceland cool down, life begins anew little by little. Ice, wind and water flatten and carve out shapes to begin with, then, during the summer, bacteria, lichen and fungi prepare the soil for plants, in particular mosses which adapt to an environment which remains difficult. These plants colonise the most favourable sites and terrain little by little, forming a new ecosystem.

Each photo has a link to the Google satallite photo of the location. The link for the above image is here.

Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone.

“But which is the stone that supports the bridge?” Kublai Khan asks.

“The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,” Marco answers, “but by the line of the arch that they form.”

Kublai Kahn remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: “Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.”

Polo answers: “Without stones there is no arch.”

Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino, 1972. Translated from the Italian by William Weaver, 1974.

The Big Picture has an interesting article on how the US energy policy has worked to drive up the price of oil.

It turns out that for the past 3 decades, we’ve had a George Costanza Energy policy — every decision we have made as a country has worked to drive energy prices higher. Had we made the opposite decisions, Crude Oil prices would be much lower than they are today ($130.17 as I type this).

What follows is a list of energy-related policies of the United States. On many of these, I have no opinion — but I wanted to list as many as I could to demonstrate why Oil is where it is

US Policies with an impact on Energy:

1. Limited areas available for offshore drilling;

2. Stopped the rise of CAFE standards for automobiles;

3. Restricted nuclear power generation of Electrical;

4. Federal Reserve policies since 2001 led to a very weak US dollar (raising Oil prices);

5. Energy conservation policies? None

6. Iraq and Afghanistan wars contributing to Middle East tensions

7. No major United States funding for R&D on energy;

>MORE

Chris Pummer at Market Watch comments on why $8 gas might not be so bad in the long run.

Americans should be celebrating rather than shuddering over the arrival of $4-a-gallon gasoline. We lived on cheap gas too long, failed to innovate and now face the consequences of competing for a finite resource amid fast-expanding global demand.

A lot more meat in this installment… wonderful, colorful, straight-forward writing:

http://www.dailyspeculations.com/wordpress/?p=2929

Bo Keeley of http://www.dailyspeculations.com has another post about his travels.  I mentioned him before.  He’s a world traveler with amazing stories who lives in a hole in the desert of Arizona.  I can’t wait to read each of his new posts:

http://www.dailyspeculations.com/wordpress/?p=2922