view from space.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

i realize that many people find it difficult to justify spending very large amounts of money on space exploration, especially as it seems to pose no real benefit to most of our daily lives. this article notes that the $196 billion dollars spent on space missions (spread out over 40 years) is only slightly more than the $182 billion dollar bailout of the single financial giant, AIG. this article posits that U.S. citizens spend more money on pizza every year than they do on space exploration.
regardless of your view this video is pretty awesome; the lightening and aurora seen from above is amazing!
(for the record, i would rather spend billions of dollars on science and learning than war. i can't find any personal justification for the latter.)