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Satellite Easter Eggs
TheChocolatay writes "Wired has a story on hidden finds in satellite images. They range from sporting events to natural disasters to bombs and firefights in Iraq. Some very interesting and cool pictures." From the article: "Part of it is that we collect so much imagery that a lot of times no eyes have seen a lot of this stuff,...And so (we) go to an area, pop it open, and wow, we didn't intend to capture this icebreaker pushing this submarine."
Hi this is where I'm staying, please send beer. Suite 315, thanks!
That'll teach me to do the bosses daughter outside.
Beep beep.
"It was the Babylonians in 2300 B.C. that first etched the lay of the land on clay tablets. Google will be taking this to a whole new level."
Indeed, the engravers were working so fast that they hardly noticed they had captured one of Sargon's armies on the move.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
In one I saw Italy and Greece kissing when they thought we weren't looking.
Didn't that old movie "Clear and Present Danger" already demonstrated satellites watching real events, real time somewhere 1000 miles away with no lag.
All I see are pictures of dirt and fields and water & junk. Not a dammned egg in the bunch! :)
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I could only find that image that when viewed from a distance looks like the Virgin Mary with her arm around Pope John Paul II I'd be an eBay millionare (and prob. have a /. article as well).
and even a 747 landing in Tokyo, something difficult to capture given that the satellite is moving at 17,000 mph.
Yes, I am often amazed that I'm able to jump on Earth while moving at 29.77 km/s*.
*Speed of the Earth in Orbit
Catching planes on Google's Satellite Imagery. [url=http://maps.google.com/maps?q=castaic,ca&ll=3 4.517348,-118.607926&spn=0.005697,0.007027&t=k&hl= en]One of the cooler ones.[/url]
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
Where's Waldo?
The Blaster Master Fighting for Truth, Justice, and Evil Pie since 1979
In every USA satellite photo of Castro, he appears to be mooning.
Coincidence?
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
Okay, so it's not so much discovery as rediscovery, but an industrial archaeologist like myself can find all sorts of interesting railroad remains using mapper.acme.com or my interface to the same data mapview. I like to play "spot the hidden trolley" north of Canandaigua, or south of Minneto.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
that this is similar a bit to Google Sightseeing
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say
Easter Eggs are intentionally hidden objects. How do these qualify as an Easter Egg? Google did not try to hide anything in the images. They just happen to be real life things happening at the time the images were taken.
Sure, Google Maps is great if you want your route overlayed on the images, but for finding easter eggs it's nothing special.
I think the most interesting thing about the plane capture is that the plane appears double. This is probably due to the combined speed of the plane and satellite as well as how the image was taken. It seems that the plane had moved 30 feet or so in the time that the blue channel was imaged. Does that sound right?
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
...Soviet soldiers stationed at missle bases in the USSR used to carve "Fuck you USA" into the tundra and on tarmacs in huge letters with their snowplows.
Here are some google sightseeing sites- mine first, of course!
p s/
perljam.net/notes/interesting-google-satellite-ma
http://www.paulrademacher.com/housing/
www.shreddies.org/gmaps/
cryptome.org/usndc-eyeball.htm
del.icio.us/knodi/google_maps
www.returnofdesign.com/feature.php?article=12
gmaps.nicj.net/
-ted
I see my truck in the parking lot. Cool.
"A REAL computer has ONE speed and the only powersaving it permits is when you pull the power leads out of the back!"
Read more and see the image
Iran captures three CIA agents
And the really weird part is that the US military says it doesn't exist.
You have two hands and one brain, so always code twice as much as you think!
It seems that pretty much the whole world seems to be covered with the same giant, repeating letters. Is someone trying to tell us something?
my comic
Therefore, as a person with too much timne on their hands, he contrived moved the rocks, pebbles, and bolders around on the extensive flat surface. After about 6 months, he had managed to spell out a classic Anglo-Saxon Expletive Deleted viewable only from appropriate altitude in the air, which served as an appropriate warning to those arriving for duty there.
These are supposed to be fairly huge, so I wonder how long it will take for some to find them?
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Anyone else notice the U.S. Capitol building is intentionally blurred out? For "security"?
Reminds me of the California Coastline Project that got launched a few years ago. The idea behind it was to help people spot environmental crimes, building violations, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if Google's maps will soon be used for similar things - although it would help to have a more frequent update than 18 months, and to be able to browse in the past. While that information is available now (for a fee), it'll have quite a different impact once it's free.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
Terraserver was impressive in its day (circa 1998) but almost all the data is a decade or more old, in black and white, and 1p/m. Google's data is for the most part MUCH newer and in color. Same resolution though, i wont really be impressed until i can see a sat image of myself outside cutting my lawn.
In a dimly lit board room, a man sits at the end of the table with his back to the others. One of his lieutenants is giving a progress report.
"...and our satellites have just gone online."
"How did we hide this from the public?" the man asked still facing away.
"We told them that it was another beta feature being added to Google Maps" his underling replied.
"So everything's on schedule then?" asked another man at the table.
"Yes" the dark figure replied.
The chair slowly turned until it was facing them. His face is barely visible in the shadows.
He smiles as he pets the cat in his lap.
"Our plans for world domination are proceeding nicely."
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
Not exactly satellite photos...
The first mapping company I worked for flew aerial photos flights for counties. For the type of mapping we did (cadastral, planimetric, and topographic), we generally took the photos in late Fall (after the leaves were pretty much off the trees and before the snow fell) or early Spring (after the snow and before the leaves appeared). For a particular job, we unfortunately caught a major civil war re-enactment where they were shooting off a lot of cannons. Needless to say, the counties requirements for ground visibility required us to refly a portion of the county to retake the photos.
Not quite an easter egg, but still pretty cool. Here's the CIA. See you guys in guantanamo. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=mclean,va&ll=38.9519 08349990845,-77.14489102363586&spn=0.0068557262420 6543,0.005804300308227539&t=k&hl=en
Tristan Yates
For those of us not willing to simply imagine the images mentioned in the Wired story, try the mirrored story over at Mirrordot.
For more sights to see...
Interesting Google Satellite Maps (virtual sightseeing)
highlights:
- Bill Gates' house
- White House- with "erased" rooftops
Google Sightseeing (blog; new sites often)highlights:
What you think you're seeing is just an artifact of the imaging system. Nothing is really there.
Under the USA PATRIOT act, you are hereby ordered to the nearest Federal Reporting Station for re-education.
--- Asking inconvenient questions for over 30 years...
He also explained that because of things like fog and clouds, specific regional satellite images can be a composite of several stitched-together pictures.
To illustrate the point of stitching the images together, this link presents an interesting example of that: DC Buildings (Google.com). Notice at that the four buildings show a different side and shadow as though the vantage point were different for each of them.
Interesting enough, if you pan to the East and slightly to the South, you'll see a portion of the image is intentionally distorted. For those who would prefer to go directly to the area, click here.
Nice! The entire site is down!
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=CA+93524&ll=34.95342 135429382,-117.88429856300354&spn=0.00561118125915 52734,0.009237527847290039&t=k&hl=en/
8 296775818,-117.89728045463562&spn=0.00561118125915 52734,0.009237527847290039&t=k&hl=en/
And the USAF Thunderbirds (F-16s)
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=CA+93524&ll=34.9145
Now I hope and pray that I will But today I am still, just a bill
Unfortuanately, the satellite image isn't of a high enough resolution to see it in google maps. If anyone from Google is reading this, please upload high resolution pictures of a place called Vegerville, Alberta, Canada so you can have a true and authentic Easter Egg in Google maps.
Giant Easter Egg
Another pic
more info
The google map isn't detailed enough, but Vegreville Alberta has a giant Easter Egg statue. If you can find a detailed enough satellite pic of Vegreville, you will see a huge black, yellow, and other coloured Easter Egg there.
Frylock: "We should have cloned twenties, Jackson wouldn't have given a fuck."
Right there under that plume of smoke.
Here an A12 Blackbird, circled by a few other relicts: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=minneapolis,mn&ll=44 .89333391189575,-93.2040274143219&spn=0.0078105926 513671875,0.008529424667358398&t=k&hl=en/
The adjacent buildings are colored so as not to reveal the location of the snipers. Yes, there are snipers on various buildings surrounding both the White House and the Capitol building. I've seen em with my own eyes during a rooftop party across the street from the Eisenhower building. They'll occasionally stand up to stretch and look around, sometimes they'll wave back to you.
USA fucks YOU!
Join Tor today!
While I don't know whether this is a before or after picture, I can tell you that it was taken Aug 18th, 2003 18:36:19. I'll leave the rest of the exercise to the reader. :)
Cheers,
Twilight1
After seeing the Capital buildings blurred link I did a little surfing and found this
6 72,0.033817&t=k&hl=en
8 78,-115.308166&spn=0.063343,0.067635&t=k&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rachel,NV&spn=0.031
Rachel, NV is the town near Area 51.
This is the most you can zoom in on it
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Rachel,NV&ll=37.325
Winnar!
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
Nope
TerraServer is way better than google satellite imagery.
Playboy Mansion
I think it's before for a bunch of reasons: not all the JOTSs are there yet, there's a bunch of stuff around the temple (way more than there would be for clean up) and most importantly only the roads have been broken up, after the burn I'd expect the surface color between the roads to be lighter as it gets broken up.
BTW for the record this is where we launch rockets. The large horizontal line along the bottom is where we park/camp and the smaller horizontal ones are where the launch pads go - the vertical line is from driving during setup and walking to the pads. This photo is probably a few weeks after a launch
I think you've stumbled on to something. Obviously that particular map was pieced together from images taken before the 4th Avenue Plaza was completed in 1969. Looks like you've just discovered the double secret Google U2 feed. Congrats.
aren't yet in the u.s. ...
Grammar nazi with a sense of of humor...
gosh, I'm doomed 8)
It takes 40+ muscles to frown, but only four to extend your arm and bitchslap the motherfucker
If you go far enough southwest, it looks like you get a view of all four seasons in one shot. See here.
---John Holmes...