Earth from space

A photo that inspired a lot. Plus, 7 other things worth your time.

In the summer of 1966, a man named Stewart Brand—a Stanford graduate, former soldier, and self-described "loafing artist"—set off on a quest. 

The Space Race was nearly a decade old, and Brand had been seized with the realization that NASA had yet to release a photograph of the whole Earth taken from space.

He started a public campaign, and hitchhiked a…