What, in your opinion, is the World Wide Web’s greatest contribution? Or the worst? Or something about it that interests you?
The Internet is likely one of the most civilization-changing inventions of all time. There are both good and bad aspects to it; While Putin was able to weaponize Twitter and Facebook to help Trump steal the 2016 U.S. presidential election, both sites were instrumental in the success of massive social justice movements, such as the Arab Spring and Black Lives Matter.
I maintain that one of the Internet’s greatest contributions to humanity is in the sharing of great animal photos with literally billions of people. Animal photos are important for several reasons — they educate us about the natural world, help us empathize, inspire us to protect the environment, give us beauty, joy, and sometimes laughter:
Do you realize how valuable the above image would have been, to, say, a 17th Century Czech engraver like Wenceslaus Hollar? The poor guy had clearly never even seen an elephant when he toiled over this drawing in the late 1600’s:
Or check out Francis Barlow’s illustration of a lion for a 1687 edition of Aesop’s fables:
Heh — looks more like Andrea Mitchell than a lion. If only Barlow had had the Internet. With the click of a button he could have found this research photo:
...or maybe watched this famous video, which has been shared, literally, hundreds of millions of times on YouTube:
So, um, yeah — the Internet is for animal pictures, at least in my book.
What About You? What Do You Want to Talk About Today?
RSVPS
1. Chrislove
2. Chrislove’s BF
3. icelus
4. Texdude50
5. scott5js
6.
MAYBEES :
|
RSVPS
1. Thinking Fella
2. Ojibwa
3. state of confusion
4. jakedog42
5. MotherMags
6. MTmofo
7. Done4nau
8. Mhosz
9. Mrs. Mhosz
10. Maudlin
11. Mr. Maudlin
12. dsb
13.
MAYBEES :
woolibaar
Boise Blue
Mrs. Boise Blue
|
RSVPS
1. Bill in Portland Maine
2. Common Sense Mainer
3. navajo
4. markm667
5. vicki
6. vicki’s recruit 1
7. vicki’s recruit 2
8. smileycreek
9. paradise50
10. Ed Tracey
11. side pocket
12. Mrs. side pocket
13. Richard Cranium
14. YellowDogInGA
15. DebtorsPrison
16. brillig
17. mik
18. thatkid
19. K2
20. LuLu
21. moodyinsavannah
22. norm
23. Egberto Willies
24. Chris Reeves
25. Susan Grigsby
26. spedwybabs
27. Dee Austin
28. Pam Miles
29. Corrie Wikoff
30. Cindi Branham
31. Susan Higgins
32. jlms qkw
33. Larisa Thomason
34. evcoren
35. shermanesq
36. doggie269
37. jpup
38. Sean Wang
39. Steve Stearns
40. loggersbrat
41.
MAYBEES :
SanDiegoDem
JustOneMoreDad
Mrs. JustOneMoreDad
JustOneMoreDad’s kid
momomia
|