Including scale in photographs is important for them to hold scientific value. When you're a geoscientist taking field-photos, humans make remarkably good scale objects. Enter palaeontologists, with their constant need to point out how much larger dinosaurs are than their research topics.

When faced with a scene in real life, it seems obvious that this is a massive landscape, or a microscopic view under extreme magnification. But when you capture that view and place it out of context, the difference between a pebble and a boulder is quickly lost.

To a first-order approximation, the universe is empty. Josh Worth gets it. He built a map titled, If the Moon Was Only 1 Pixel, where, unlike most maps of the solar system, planet-sizes and the distances between planets are kept to the same scale.

We've seen this comparison made before, albeit never as lucidly as this. Behold: major countries of the world, overlaid atop an outline of the positively giant African continent.

One thing infographics are really good for is providing a sense of scale. Certain numbers are just too big to really comprehend, and can also be made to sound bigger or smaller than they actually are depending on how they're presented. As Shark Week comes to a close, it seems apt to take shark finning as an example.

Though it seems iterative, Withings new Smart Body Analyzer WS-50 adds additional features like heart rate and air quality monitoring. Your weight, body fat and pulse are then transmitted over Wi-Fi/Bluetooth to the Withings Health Mate app (iOS, Android).

It's the oldest Hollywood trick: Take a picture of something small and make it look giant. But that doesn't mean it's any less mind-bending when a Hot Wheels toy looks like a totally drivable, $1 million F1 racer.

Apparently a guy in Salt Lake City named Valter had no takers on his original price of $150 for a 1/3 replica TIE Fighter, because he's lowered the price to a cool zero dollars. So if you're in Salt Lake City, call Valter ASAP to get something totally amazing for absolutely no money.

"Have the coolest toy in your neighborhood!" this Craigslist ad says. "This TIE Fighter looks like shit!" says Sam Biddle. "It's way better than the TIE Fighter I built," replies Brian Barrett. "Let's buy it!" I say. $150? Come on!

Here's a new weight loss tool that uses public humiliation to force you to lose weight. Available from Hammacher Schlemmer, the projection scale will display your current weight on the wall ... where everyone can see it.

A six-foot tall giraffe was born at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk and in order to get all her measurables (height, weight) the zoo hilariously had a beefy man carry the baby zoo on a scale. It seems so calm!

We're lucky, all things considered, to have as gorgeous and unobtrusive a dance partner as the moon. But what if the other planets in the solar system were in its place, orbiting a mere 380,000km from Earth? Terrifying beauty.

What can you fit in a huge 7676 x 630-pixel image? One hundred characters created by Pixar drawn to scale by Chilean designer Juan Pablo Bravo, from Luxo Jr. to Mr. Incredible to Up! protagonist Carl Fredricksen. Zoom in.

With more tablets being announced each day, there's a lot of pressure on market entrants to stand out. A custom user interface is a great way to do that! The eviGroup Paddle's stop-the-ride-I-wanna-get-off Scale UI, less so. See for yourself:

This concept scale that doubles as a decorative rug might—might—be the thing to finally get me taking better care of myself.