The Flag on the moon. This. I think this is the most beautiful example of the human spirit. Not just one mans testament of greatness, but the combined effort of many. I think the moon flag stands as an example that there is no barrier we will not strive to over come. With all the pettiness and bullshit that humanity is capable of for some reason I can look at a picture of this, and find faith and pride in our self destructive species.
In 1947 a russian named Mikhail Kalashnikov ,after a few years of designing, came up with an automatic weapon that in the last 60 years has been used in just about every conflict on the globe- the AK-47. The beauty of this gun is that it is reliable, is in expensive to manufacture,requires very little maintenance, has interchangeable parts and it is effective up to 300 plus meters. This gun has killed millions of people, it is used by everyone from Bin Laden to the guys who were involved in the North Hollywood Shootout in 1997. Nice work Mikhail, you left your imprint on humans.
I know this is off focus, but every time I read the title to this thread all I can think about is this.http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/carrot-attacks.html
This is always held up as the amazing thing that Einstein did, but after the Michelson Morley experiments and all that jazz it was only a matter of time before special relativity came about. Einsteins real triumph was General Relativity. Now that is not only a fantastic piece of thinking, but it is way out of where people wouldn't of looked for many years to come.
This video always makes me feel better. This thread has some stuff about space in it, but this video truly gives me the sense of scale of existence while at the same time makes it almost incomprehensible. Worth your time to watch:
x 100. I don't think I ever truely appreciated Van Gogh until I saw some of his work up close at Musee d'Orsay. Never before has art left me as stunned as it did then. Renoir's "Dance in the City" was also one of the most amazing/beautiful paintings I think I've seen up close. It brought the person I was with close to tears. Spoiler