A Round-up of Unusual Globes

"QUANTUM SHOT" #649
Link - article by Simon Rose and Avi Abrams

"Your Very Own Slartibartfast Planet Factory" - Stuart Witts

With Google Earth you can explore and visualize our planet's surface on your flat laptop screen in minute detail, but it is still only flat... No sublime roundness to touch, no curves to trace, or even admit it, if you are an Earth lover - no Earth to hug. Globes allow you to hug the Earth (not to mention providing us with the most accurate and educational info).

Recently here at Dark Roasted Blend, we took a look at the unusual maps of various parts of the globe. This time, we thought we’d examine some of the more unusual depictions of the Earth itself.

Powered by a computerized sensor and an electromagnet, this striking globe seems to actually levitate in the air with no visible means of support (below left). The massive globe in Savannah Georgia (below right) is actually a decorated natural gas tank:

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These huge globes can be purchased (for around $40,000) or rented from here:

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The Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston (more info) is a three-story glass globe turned inside out, so you can view it from the inside. It shows the world as it was in the 1930’s, including the USSR and European colonies in Africa and Asia:

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Vintage Globe Architecture

This photograph from the 1930’s shows the large globe in the Daily News building in New York City:

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Not really a globe of Planet Earth, but a spherical structure meant to symbolize the "One World of 1939", this colossal structure was built for the 1939 New York World's Fair. It also doubled as a huge planetarium:

The view inside is also quite impressive, giving a great perspective on a City of Tomorrow:

(images credit: Life Magazine)

Another impressive sphere / globe sculpture (designed by German sculptor Fritz Koenig, completed in 1971) in New York suffered a remarkable fate: it was nearly destroyed by debris from the World Trade Center in 2001, but survived and was relocated to nearby Battery Park. It is intended to return to the World Trade Center complex. Here is a similar sculpture "Sphere Within Sphere" by Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro, seen in New York:

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Globe Clocks & Decoration

This unusual globe decorated clock (below left) dates from 1885. Even older - made in 1584 - is the Augsburg mechanical globe clock (below right):

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More modern take on wall globe/clock design, from T.O.M.T.:

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Above right: the Idea Globe™ or Polar Chalk Board, from Rocket Sauce!

Decorated Globe Bar, 16th century styled, will grace your living room for only $189, info:

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More "decorating with old globes" ideas - recycle your old globe into the lights!

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or creep out your bedroom with all-seeing globe "eyeballs":

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Designed for Niche Cosmologies and Obscure Statistics

The highlighted areas on this globe by Ingo Gunther symbolize areas of tension and crisis, where political issues also have a military dimension. Fascinating stuff. Check out other globes reflecting various issues and statistics, such as TV ownership, Life Expectancy, and even the amount of Nameless Places - click here

(images credit: Ingo Gunther)

For those who believe the earth is in fact flat, how about this version of the planet?

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Or maybe you’d prefer a cubed world?

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Measure Your Ego with a Globe

Following the break up of the USSR, some globes were created that depicted just the proud population’s newly independent country, instead of the entire world, such as this globe of the Ukraine.

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There are globes available for every country, actually.

Not only countries, but even small cities and towns may entertain their visitors with a "Globe-sized" history and sights. The one below is the Globe of the City of Borovsk, Province of Kaluga, Russian Federation:

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If you truly want to know all about the earth, both inside and out, this globe reveals the planet’s crust and inner core (below left). The version shown on the right has a cross section, enabling you to study the interior of the planet:

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With this puzzle, you can put the world together yourself then take it apart again (below left). Rubik may have been famous for his cube, but he also designed other maddeningly complex puzzles, such as this one in the style of a globe (below right):