IMAGES

I'm taking a day to relax from controversial issues and cutting-edge ideas. Instead, here are three rather mind-boggling visual experiences.

The first (see above, click to enlarge) is a stunning full- disk image of Earth, showing Hurricane Irene as it approached the U.S. east coast on August 26. The image was captured by the NASA/NOAA GOES-13 satellite. Check out the GOES website for current and archived satellite images of the weather and landforms of our planet.

The second is a stunning animated video (2:36) created by Animatrix. It features "a muscular man and an athletic woman engaged in a blindfolded swordfight in a virtual-reality dojo .... where with each slice of their swords they remove another piece of each other's clothing." The choreography is sensual and riveting, the feeling of suspense builds until .... well, you'll have to view the video to see for yourself.

The third is another Hurricane Irene image, this one of a shark (see below) swimming through the streets of a coastal Puerto Rico town, carried there by the storm surge. Here is a brief newscast of the event.