Yesterday over at "The Vane," which is a blog run by the Gawker network, author Dennis Mersereau posted a beautiful gif of Earth as seen from a Japanese weather satellite that takes a picture every eight minutes. It captured the birth of fraternal twins in the Pacific Ocean, Typhoon Goni and Typhoon Atsani, and Atsani is already a super typhoon with 165 mph winds. There's something about the power of these storms that fascinates me: how the winds organize around an area of extremely low barometric pressure and relative calm (called "the Eye") and how they draw their strength from sunlight heating the ocean. The Typhoon Twins are especially serene to look at from space in this gif...they almost make a face: two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Maybe it's the visage of the Hindu Goddess Shiva who is both creator and destroyer. I leave you with this .gif from The Vane. May you stare at it as much as me.
