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Google Adds Satellite Imagery for the World
draevil writes "Google has hugely expanded the areas of the world that it covers with satellite imagery. Egypt, Iraq, mainland Europe and the UK have all now got satellite coverage to a lesser or greater degree. Slashdotters can now go see sights like Buckingham Palace or the Arc de Triomphe from the comfort of their own swivelchairs. Iraq in particular seems to have a large number of high-zoom areas. I just looked up the Baghdad Parade Grounds where Saddam used to take the salute and other towns like Fallujah are also there. Finding landmarks without the map content is a little harder, so what can the Slashdot crowd find?"
The Pyramids of Giza! Oh wait, no...
The Great Wall of China! Oh wait, no...
The Sydney Opera House! Oh wait, no...
Seriously, can we please stop shitting ourselves everytime Google makes the smallest tweak?
No wonder people are saying the Make Blog is the new Slashdot...
Why is the north side of the Conciergerie whited out?
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
http://perljam.net/notes/interesting-google-satell ite-maps/
It's a bit disconcerting to zoom out on, say, the US in satellite view, and see the whole state of New York a different color than its surroundings. This disparity is the same at all scales, presumably because of more recent satellite scans of that highly-populated and more-often-imaged area. Can they meld one region into another, without losing detail, and get rid of such effects?
I looked up my office at the corner of 6th and Congress in Austin, Texas and found that the gigantic Frost Bank building (the tallest building in downtown Austin) next door doesn't exist on the map. The Frost building has been there for over a year...So how old is this data?
To quote from the FAQ:
"Satellite images are current, but not real-time."
This seems a bit vague. Does "over a year old" really equal "current"?
I'm not criticizing, just curious. It's wicked cool even if the pictures aren't quite of the present. I just can't check for traffic jams on MoPac yet.
Nice picture. It looks like they used the post eruption photos only.
The bitter lessons of a veteran coder: http://bitterprogrammer.blogspot.com
are we going to have a new story every time Google adds a little bit more info to its crappy maps?
yes, they *are* crappy, for the UK at least.
at first all they did was sloppily overlay road maps onto postcode maps, with the result that postcodes are displaced from their true location by about 2 streets (a lot since a postcode is supposed to localise you to within half a street or so).
now they've added spotty low-res imagery on top. looking at where I live the map looks quite wrong, but then it's so low-res I can't even resolve streets so I can't say for sure.
this is very very poor. I expect more from Google, even at beta.
That's a good theory, but it doesn't work out. If it did, then the satellite images would rarely line up to the maps (except in the few places they used as references to each other).
Take my link in Manhattan, and drag the view a few screens away. Then switch to the other mode.
The center of the image still lines up, so clearly the map and satellite coordinates DO correspond to each other.
So, even if the satellite image is skewed because of its angle when taken (which is probably a lot worse than what we are seeing), why don't they simply adjust it to match for display?
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.976561,31.131907 &spn=0.007682,0.010428&t=k&hl=en
Drag n' Drop DVD Recommendations
If you search for weapons of mass destruction they're all in one place here .
For some reason, if you try zooming in all the way you will notice that they "don't have imagery at this zoom level" which seems convenient to me.
Let's hope that the US government doesn't find out about this information lea^$*H^%&E%(&%L^&P*(^&%^*!
I got to looking for the Great Wall of China, and in Beijing I think I found Tianmen Square? Anyone who has been might be able to verify. Linky Also, the Great Wall is really hard to find because the colorers didn't do a good job in China, and most of the rivers are white. So anything long and winding is white. Good luck to whoever else is looking.
UFO Number 1 UFO Number 2 UFO Number 3
UFO Number 4 UFO Number 5 UFO Number 6
UFO Number 7 UFO Number 8 UFO Number 9
UFO Number 10 UFO Number 11 UFO Number 12
UFO Number 13 UFO Number 14 UFO Number 15
UFO Number 16 UFO Number 17 UFO Number 18
The truth is out there...
bort.
Free, Anonymous surfing: Pagewash.com.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=maree,+Australia&ll= -29.533997,137.466431&spn=0.036736,0.061712&t=k&hl =en
It's not just Oslo. Google has low resolution images for much of the United States as well. For example, I went clicking around for some well-known race tracks (and my local track, not so well-known). Here's what I came up with:
- Pacific Raceways. Very good data, nice resolution, can easily make out the track. Scroll the map right to see the rest of the track (turns 7, 8, and 9).
- Portland International Raceway. Also very good detail. You can easily make out the optional Festival Curves (the lighter-colored kink on the front straight, the southwestern portion of the track).
- Mazda Laguna Seca. Horrible resolution. Close the little pin bubble if it's open when you click the link, and then look at the white and blue blob near the top of the window. That's Laguna Seca. Horrible.
- Road America. No better than Laguna Seca. Possibly worse, since you can't easily make out where the track is. If you look at the map, there's a highway (67) to the right of the two lakes. It heads south-southeast, makes a sharp kink to south-east, and has a smooth curve to south. If you look closely under the kink, that's Road America.
The sad thing is that this data is actually available from TerraServer, though it's mostly in black and white and is relatively old (Road America is 1992 and Laguna Seca is 1998). Also, TerraServer is not all AJAXy (I hate that name), so navigating the maps is more painful. That said, the data is there, and good.And I didn't even look for other maps until I'd found what looked like a containment building. Sure enough, a quick image search confirms that to be the plant.
Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!
I was not surprised at all to find the rooftops of the White House and nearby buildings masked.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
Interestingly enough google finds the WMD itself:
Search google maps for weapons of mass destruction
I shit you not Kansas is 3v1l!!!!!!!oneone
The remains of Krakatoa
This is a pretty good view of the little volcanic archipelago in the Sunda Strait between West Java and Sumatra, remaining from the 1883 explosive eruption of Krakatoa. The Indonesians refer to it as Anak Krakatau, which means child of Krakatoa.
There are anti aircraft missiles stationed up there, and the non-censored pic would show how many, perhaps they could even be identified.
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
strange... that link's pointing somewhere else... hope this link will be ok... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=48.494425,17.6830 96&spn=0.021501,0.031672&t=k&hl=en
I am not sure what airbase that is on the above website but it is not area 51. the shape does not match any previous pictures. Here is area 51. It is just west of the Little a Le Inn in alamo nevada next to the white circular area. that is the groom lake dry lake bed. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=i-375+Alamo,+NV+8900 1&ll=37.361494,-115.491461&spn=0.477905,0.677032&t =k&hl=en
Just had to dig that out, since I've been quite interested in it for a long time now..
3 &spn=0.062485,0.095615&t=k&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=51.383400,30.11481
-Jope
This rich and colourful image of Hawaii shows the volanoes on the island! Fantastic!
Welp, it looks like I get 1000 points.
9 4&spn=0.007639,0.007725&t=k&hl=en
7 5&spn=0.007639,0.007725&t=k&hl=en
But first, here's a Saturn-V rocket at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. I grew up exactly 2.5 miles from this rocket. Next to the Saturn V are two upright rockets: a Mercury and a mumble-mumble 3000 (I forget).
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.554017,-95.0940
Now, about that plane in flight. At Hobby airport, also in Houston, is this Cessna (?) on final approach (upper right).
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=29.653130,-95.2879
Another program that displayed B/W aerial photos had a picture of Hobby airport, and an airliner that is just taking off.
The Mullberry was key to the invasion of Normandy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbor
Peace,
-McD
"Given the pace of technology, I propose we leave math to the machines and go play outside." -- Calvin
I have made a list of some interesting places in Mexico City including the piramids.
http://my-musik.com/article693.html
This map of Chad shows that there is something water related there. It is just north of Koro-Toro, a ways south of Faya-Largeau (although there are similar features around that city according to the map).
I think the feature is a semi-permanent lake, one that may fill up in some seasons, and then possibly evaporate almost completely away (like the lake in Death Valley). Lake Chad was once huge (the Pale-Chadian Sea) and some of those semi-permanent lakes might be all that is left of the sea in the north. This link suggests a cause:
Lake Chad, located in the southwestern part of the basin at an altitude of 282 meters, surprisingly does not mark the basin's lowest point; instead, this is found in the Bodele and Djourab regions in the north-central and northeastern parts of the country, respectively. This oddity arises because the great stationary dunes (ergs) of the Kanem region create a dam, preventing lake waters from flowing to the basin's lowest point.
Djourab is in about the right place to be near these features.
Looked up lake Baikal (a very large lake in Siberia, 445m above sea-level) after remembering I had a poster on my wall for years showing the surface temperature of the lake from ATSR satellite imagery.. wondered what it looked like in more realistic colour.. but what is this huge line that crosses it?
If you zoom in and look carefully, you will see that it is likely cloth tape on the photograph. Probably put there for a reason (torn image, seam, etc.), prior to scanning.
What I can't explain is why it looks like it disappears into the lake at several points, but I'm guessing they touched up areas where there was no detail to worry about, such as the wide blue splotches of water. Maybe they had data for specific areas that they could blend in.
Either that, or the Russians have engineering technology that makes it unlikely that they would have lost the cold war... That object, if on the surface of the earth, would be fscking huge.
"Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives" should be a convenience store, not a government agency.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?ll=36.005974,-5.4770 28&spn=0.006555,0.008647&t=k&hl=en
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=-14.725971,-75.1421 93&spn=0.108318,0.168743&t=k&hl=en
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazca_lines