Creating a 3D Globe in Photoshop CS4 Extended

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Note: This technique creates not merely a 3D-like globe, but an actual stereoscopic image when viewed with 3D red and blue glasses.

Using surface textures from NASA and a bump map from another online source, I created a fully rotatable, 3D globe of the Earth in Photoshop CS4 Extended. It can be viewed or lighted from any direction. There is also a separate cloud layer I can turn on, edit, and move around. My master file is a very large image (6000 × 6000 pixels), more than ample to fill a full spread at 300 ppi.

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Scholarly Legends: Did Medieval Christians Think the World Was Flat?

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Back in January 2003, I read this intriguing article in World magazine, ”Scholarly legends” by Gene Edward Veith (access requires payment for non-subscribers), in which the author compares a few common errors about history to contemporary so-called “urban legends.”

I had the good sense to clip it from the magazine and file it, and just recently found it again. It deals with three specific legends that have circulated in the scholarly world and washed over into popular culture: Continue reading →

OS X: Create a Command to View UNIX “man” Pages as PDFs

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A website tipped me off to a Terminal command that lets OS X users (the geekier ones) view UNIX “man” pages* as PDFs.

However, since the command is long, it would be hard to remember and difficult to type. I wanted to make an alias (a custom UNIX command) that would be shorter, but Bash (the default terminal in OS X) does not allow aliases to accept arguments (variables), which is critical to making this work.

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Download: Disaster Supplies Kit Checklist

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I recently put together this checklist of disaster supplies to have on hand in case of emergency (medical emergency, power failure, fire, flood, earthquake, blizzard, etc.). The list was compiled from a number of sources, and in my opinion it is quite comprehensive. (Prominent sources include recommendations from FEMA and Red Cross.)

PDF: Disaster Supplies Kit Checklist

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