Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2019 April 2

= April 2 =

Crystal ball at summit
What's the story behind the crystal ball as seen here? (and in 2017 Riyadh summit). —107.15.157.44 (talk) 18:33, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm pretty sure it's just a piece of public art that was put on display outside of a new facility in Riyadh, the Global Center to Combat Extremism, that the attendees of the meeting were posing with. According to this, it's just a stylized globe (not that geographically accurate, I'll note) but once you notice that it's basically North America trump has his hands on (Alaska looks a bit wonky, but the artist may not have been going for accuracy) and that Australia is fairly prominent between their hands.  According to this, the leaders all touched the globe which signified the start of a short film describing the center's objectives.  The context is a LOT more obvious in that second article, where there is an additional picture showing Eurasia and Africa from a different perspective, and the video wall behind on which the film was shown.  In that picture it is obviously just a globe.  -- Jayron 32 18:44, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Ah! ... thanks. The black and white blobiness on the orb seemed like distorted images of the surroundings rather than a representation of a globe (on that photo, Australia is the only recognizable shape to me). Perhaps the inclusion of the image in the crystal ball article should be removed. —107.15.157.44 (talk) 19:02, 2 April 2019 (UTC) ✅ 19:07, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Probably. It's not a crystal ball.  It's a translucent globe with a light bulb in it.  -- Jayron 32 11:08, 3 April 2019 (UTC)