Earth Water Air (No Fire)

From the blog of Dan Phiffer, a self-described "new media hacker," this image of the earth. (He did not create it, but found it on a bulletin board and posted it to his blog, where it got picked up by BoingBoing, seen by millions every day.)

What's going on in the picture? On the left, the bright blue sphere represents the volume of all the water in the world. On the right, the light blue sphere represents the volume of the atmosphere. Both are, of course, compared to the scale of the earth.

Phiffer's blog explains the math involved for verification that this is not just "tree-hugger shock media."