Slashdot Mirror
Russian Town Puts Giant Smiley On Google Maps
Toramir writes "Citizens of the Russian town Chelyabinsk calculated when the satellite, QuickBird, which takes images for Google Earth and Google Maps, would cross above their city and used people to make a giant smiley face. A rock concert on the main square attracted many people and everyone got a yellow cape. It looks like someone at Google was quicker than usual to put up the new data. Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame. The article has a screenshot of Google Maps and images taken directly at the event."
In Soviet Russia, satellite smiles at you!
Anyone know the coordinates for this? The town is pretty big and it's kind of a pain to search the entire town for one smiley face on google maps.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
or the copyright owners of the smiley face will issue a DMCA take down notice.
Whether that would really happen or not, the news has become so much like the Onion that I kind of expect asshattery like that.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
I just looked at Google maps, but the smiling face is nowhere to be found. Russian cover up?
They just look ugly. Seriously.
In soviet Russia, we know when the American satellites are coming!
I don't see it on Google Maps:
http://tinyurl.com/butwhereisit
Up close and personal - the long version:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=+Chelyabinsk+&ie=UTF8&ll=55.159908,61.402202&spn=0.001906,0.005686&t=h&z=18&iwloc=addr
You can see the search used in the image. Search for for 'Tscheljabinsk, russia' and zoom in. You can see that you end up in the same square, but there is no smiley there!
Also: cars were removed from the image close to the square, but they're in the same locations further away. Light hits the image from the same angle, which means same time and date difference from equinox).
what? no red star?
can't seem to find it either. will check back again
ÐÑо? ÐÑ Ð½Ð ÐонÐмÐÐÑÐ Ðо-ÑÑfÑÑÐÐ? ÑмоÑÑÐ Ð google ÐÐÑÐÐоÐ! ÐоРWow, seriously no cyrillic on slashdot? What is this the 90's?
Compare these two:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IeJHb-2CVGM/SNUFiyTlEHI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/shQMNh5h89o/s1600-h/smiley-1000.jpg
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=tscheljabinsk+russland&ie=UTF8&oe=utf-8&client=iceweasel-a&t=h&ll=55.160037,61.403425&spn=0.004793,0.011179&z=17
The cars on all the side streets and all the shadows are exactly the same. Someone just photoshoped out the cars on the main street and put in the smily. Nothing to see here.
Notice that the satellite photo visible on google maps right now ( http://tinyurl.com/4su6t8 ) has a big empty area where the smiley should be, and it's not just a stale cache: the cars driving a block away are in the exact same position as in the smiley shot from the article.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=tscheljabinsk&ie=UTF8&ll=55.15989,61.402577&spn=0.003353,0.009656&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr No smiley to be found
It's cloudy in the photos!
Very creative. But were they going for the Alfred E. Neuman look? Probably should have put the stage below the chin. Still love it. Perhaps more with the missing tooth.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
It looks like it's consistently overcast in the photos from the event itself. I don't know for sure relative heights of clouds and imaging satellites, but my understanding is that satellites still can't see through clouds (in visible ranges).
Knowing exactly when the satellite will take the picture of that specific spot... Yeah right.
Did anybody notice the clouds during the event? satellite images wont go trough those clouds.
City on Google Maps
Screenshot from summary
Now, look at the vehicles on the street next to the smiley. On the south-west road, there are two cars next to each, same on both pictures. The cars also look the same on the north road, east of the smiley, and the road leading west. Looks like someone just cleared the street and added the smiley in.
Just to be sure, here is the link to the German Google Maps, which the screen shot appears to be coming from. I think it's a mock-up for when Google does update their images.
-rey
Do they still celebrate Lenin as a hero after the crap they endured because of him and his acolytes?
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." -- Prof. Dumbledore
I had hoped idle would stay confined to idle. This is not technology.
This ... is ... IDLE!!! </300>
this is really cute! google maps hacks ftw!
"they didn't know it was impossible, so they did it!" - Mark Twain
Simi Valley, CA has had a burnt-in smiley face since the 80's.
Bout the best part of this town, really.
Obvious Photoshop job. For punishment, I think we can all work together and put him over his bandwidth cap.
The game.
... Google searches for YOU!
Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
I think we just got Rick Rolled.
In the on-site pictures, participants are wearing raincoats, and there is diffuse shadow everywhere. Clearly an overcast day.
If a town or a street got renamed during the Soviet period, after 1992 its name was in most cases restored to the pre-revolutionary version. However, if the street was built during the Soviet period, of course it would not get renamed, since it never had a pre-Soviet name in the first place. Renaming a street just because its name is no longer politically fashionable is akin to rewriting history, no better than what the Soviets were doing.
There's about 20 "I don't see it in Google Maps" and "It was photoshopped!" posts that don't mention any of the basic reasons why this didn't work.
1. Google Maps isn't realtime, some areas have photos updated every few years. My house is a picture from over a year ago, for instance. Just because the bird goes overhead doesn't mean the content goes into Google Maps, and even if it did, it would only go in for a few days until the next pass, so... concept fail.
2. Did anyone actually LOOK at the photos taken on the ground at the event? It was OVERCAST. These are not magical Star Trek satellites with super inverse polaron field vision that sees through clouds.
Why aren't other folks touching on these VERY BASIC FLAWS with the clever premise?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smiley
Engineering is the art of compromise.
... Google searches for YOU!
There, fixed that for you.
I vaguely remember blocking idle so I wouldn't see this crap. Did I miss the memo outlining idle getting moved to tech?
correction: it's a good photoshop, because it fooled us enough to dig deeper. i think they succeeded in their prank marvelously.
Not the reputation a town wants.
Someone set something like this up with a screenshot of the town on Google Maps instead of a smiley!
I'm pretty sure that a recursive Google Maps will MORE than make up for a broken LHC.
The real google map picture is identical apart from the smiley face (same traffic, shadows etc.)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=tscheljabinsk,+russland&ie=UTF8&ll=55.160221,61.402159&spn=0.003181,0.008197&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr
The location photos show it was a very cloudy day with a very low cloud ceiling - so no satellite or plane shots either.
Crap fake.
Fooling a /. "editor" doesn't make it a good photoshop. It took me about a second to realize it was a hoax, and less than 30 more to look up the above link. I guess that was a bit too much effort for samzenpus.
I was pretty excited to see this article about my hometown! Until I read the comments. You people sure know how to rain on someone's parade :P
Had it been real it would have been a fun idea, if Google posted times when taking photos I guess more people would go outside, they should try that.
You should see how many things in the U.S. are named after Ronald Reagan!
Target Stores sometimes paint their logo on the roofs of their locations. I don't know if they do it for the sake of Google Maps, but it's quite visible. Here's one from a store in Chicago:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=target+stores+chicago&ie=UTF8&ll=42.006225,-87.886505&spn=0.012883,0.017509&t=k&z=16
Check coordinates 54.468 64.797 on Google Maps.
What you see was put there for you to see on Google Maps 38 years ago ("Lenin, 100 years")
this is soooo old , to late for the swag broham
ne gavarite pa-Russki
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself. --Billy Bragg
It was just a stupid promo action for the local Internet service provider (is74.ru). They also gathered these people to sign the petition "please introduce a $15 unlimited Internet plan". Although they did not collect enough signatures, they still introduced it.
Also, they promised to hire a plane to get rid of the clouds (which would not help anyway - google maps will never add just a 500×500 meter shot to their maps if everything else is covered by clouds. They also promised that you'll be able to see the shots on Google Maps the next day - which is also a blatant lie. This ISP already had a terrible reputation for cutting the optical cables of its competitors, and now this.
... everybody involved in Idle dies horribly at the end.
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
Someone probably felt that Chelyabinsk could use some positive publicity for a change, as they have so far only been known as the "Most Contaminated Spot on the Planet": http://www.logtv.com/films/chelyabinsk/
...which is why I'm graciously refraining from posting that link...now why do I suddenly get Boy George singing Karma Chameleon in my poor skull?
Though I doubt no one cares at this point, I took the images in the article, and the current google map images, and overlapped them. If it was a photoshop job they did a really good job with the traffic. If it was real, then the same cars just happen to park in the same places on those days. Or maybe the satellite passed by twice on the same day to take a shot at a different time. The link to my image file is here.
I see that according to good old Eastern European custom, the smiley has bad teeth. Probably too much vodka...
:)
(Disclaimer: I say this as a Hungarian with bad teeth.
They should have made them wear sombreros or, even better, giant yellow graduation hats. This smiley looks washed-out. As for being captured by the satellite's camera, here's a couple of alternatives to photoshopping:
Read the discussion in the link after the images taken on the event.
This was a real attempt, but it was acknowledged (by people who were there) as failed, probably beccause of the overcast.
It was a ploy event for a local IPS (which according to the commenter happens to have bad reputation anyway).
Case closed?
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=tetraeder+oberhausen&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=51.526837,6.959416&spn=0.000582,0.00132&z=20
This is in Bottrop, Germany on a hill that was created from a mining dump. Apparently, there's a guy who manually (with just a bag and a bicycle) sorts stones by colors all day.
If you zoom out, a few meters northeast is a steel construction, the so-called Tetraeder. This is a ~50m high viewing platform.
If you zoom out further, a bit southeast is a green ? shaped hall. This is an indoor ski slope. :)
More pictures, the google maps photos are a bit older, when I visited that place a couple of months ago, they had aliens.
http://www.ruhrgebiet-fuer-lau.de/aliens-am-tetraeder/
I hope you can all stop laughing at the Russians 'shooping a map for a moment to take the time to check out the following:
go to http://www.flashearth.com/ and select the Microsoft VE (with labels) radio button.
in the 'search' field type in
Godi, Italy
and then gradually scroll out. Look! It's-a da magical NATO run-a-way, and she is a covered in trees so nobody bomb-a her!
C/- http://cryptome.org/ - there were heaps of them.
By the time you finish reading this sentence will end.
Maybe Google likes the idea of an entire town working hard to get its 15 minutes of fame
goddamn everything doesnt need to be negative, you know. maybe someone thought it was something fuckin' nice to happen, and people to see ?
i like our culture, but this 'sarcastic pessimistic know-it-all zit' thing sometimes fails badly. gets tiring.
Read radical news here
Toilet paper knows when you are coming! Oh, wait a minute...
Not photoshopped - just that one area was updated temporarily by some overzealous gooogle employee.
I'm more impressed that they made their park a union jack, I guess that was put up a 100+ years ago, so maybe they just have a history of sucking up to the powers that be..
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
That screenshot from "blogger" contains, in the bottom-right corner a small "P", that comes from an online game called "PMOG" ( http://pmog.com/ ).
I don't know exactly the rules of this game, but I remember that about an year ago I played it.
To get/steal points in this game, you have to trick users (who are also players of PMOG) to enter on a web-page where you left "mines".
So my theory is that he got the news, photoshopped the current screenshot (to get e-press* attention) and released it on the internet, and waited to propagate around, so he will get an advantage in the game.
So the article is half true (the concert and the people), and half false (they don't have the photo this way).
Epic hoax ! Great played !
* - update your buzzwords list
It just shows that these people like to have a little fun too once in a while like the rest of us.
All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
... but they even kept most of the cars in the precise same spots as the present image!! What a production!
i love google earth and i have a blog about it . so nice picture :-)
As the name GIMP is not a trademark, it is perfectly allowable to use it as a verb, noun, adjective, and in all the other ways Adobe won't let you use the name Photoshop. Just expect to get a lot of strange looks if you do!
(Disclaimer: this post does not detract from any or all other ways GIMP might be, objectively or subjectively, superior to Adobe Photoshop. Your mileage may vary. Offer void where prohibited. Posting and reading Slashdot may shorten your real life. This is not legal or medical advice, consult trained professionals if necessary.)
Some joke by somebody.
You can do the search now, and nothing's there.
Looks like the UK got there first by designing the park at the bottom of the screen to look lie the Union Flag.
In the not too distant future, next Sunday A.D.
*Whoooosh*
Non-photoshopped Bart Simpson, mowed into a farmer's field near some property that used to be in the family...
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=15&X=1711&Y=22050&W=2&qs=%7CSt.+Joseph%7CMO%7C/
http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php#mvt=s&lat=55.872849&lon=37.661707&mag=1&zoom=18&trf=0
http://englishrussia.com/?p=2064#more-2064 http://maps.yahoo.com/index.php#mvt=s&lat=55.872849&lon=37.661707&mag=1&zoom=18&trf=0
Hum, I think we have a suspect ...
Prologis does this on some of their warehouses. If you have a warehouse or other large flat-roof building in a flight path, you could probably rent the space as a billboard. (GIS for "Prologis" for pics.)
Isn't anyone else reminded of the PS3 game "The Last Guy"? http://ps3.ign.com/dor/objects/14265437/the-last-guy/images/the-last-guy-20080820102941083.html I couldn't find a quick screenshot of it, but on some levels the people you're trying to save spell out "Help me" and such (in the language of the city you're trying to save too... cool).
Actually, the purpose of news (at least TV news) seems to be exactly the opposite of what you claim. Look at Fox News, with their constant assertions that anybody to the left of Genghis Khan is an atheist traitor of dubious intelligence. Does that mean that Rupert Murdoch is out to change America into a right-wing theocracy? Not at all. The dude is actually pretty moderate in his opinions, and is good friends with Hilary Clinton. All he cares about is eyeballs. And the way he attracts eyeballs in the U.S. is by telling right-wing dittoheads what they already know. In the U.K., it's by adding soft core porn to a regular newspaper. On The Simpsons, it's by making fun of the very institutions that made him rich, and even of himself.
The "eco" stuff on CNN is more of the same for a different audience. Nobody is going to jump on the "save the planet" bandwagon because somebody on TV told them to. What those pieces do is make pro-ecology middle class Americans feel less guilty about their huge carbon footprints.
why didn't I think of that?
No, but it is Perl so it might as well be.
...hadn't the blogger tagged his own article as "hoax"!
The interesting point here is if you look at the last picture http://englishrussia.com/?p=2047 with the animated version of what they tried to achieve, it's a zoomed in snap shot of what's on google.
The Uber
http://www.tulg.org/
http://devurandom.livejournal.com/
See also: "Palm Pilot" used to refer to all PDA-like devices, "Jeep" used to refer to any small 4x4.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
sadly, it's the lameness filter. hop over to slashdot.jp sometime, full utf-8 support. apparently the japanese don't have problems with lameness filters.
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
You can see the goole map image here: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Russia,+oblast+Tscheljabinsk,+Tscheljabinsk&ie=UTF8&cd=1&ll=55.160251,61.403317&spn=0.003561,0.007381&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr Notice that its the same picture as there are cars in the same places with a few vehicles removed near the smiley face as well to help wit the blending. Cars parked in rows near the bottom of the screenshot are all identical to the current map image.
You sound surprised. Slashdot doesn't support UTF-8... yet... and ISO-8859-1 (aka Latin-1) is not the same as ISO-8859-5.
"It would be wrong to refuse to face the fact that everything is fundamentally sick and sad."
ne govorite po-russki
didn't really want to be a grammar nazi...
"It would be wrong to refuse to face the fact that everything is fundamentally sick and sad."
google photoshoped them out!
Jesus, if you are going to fake a picture like this, don't make it something that can be disproven in 15 seconds. Also, don't set this fake image at the exact location Google zooms to when you search for that city. I didn't even have to search for that exact location! Google pointed right to it!
BTW, Google Earth/Maps doesn't offer aerial views like that, only Live Maps and Virtual Earth.
Holy MOLEY, Batman! Not enough "caped" crusaders...
Yeh, and Slash lacks Asian fonts, too, at least last time i tried.
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
DIGITAL wipeout coming...
What would be funny is if the next time the Gbird overflies wall street, about 25,000 people form letters:
"THE NUKES ARE HERE"
Give Langley and that huge, off-colored hill-top building outside of Baltimore something (else/additional) to do...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
You can see actual people gathering here (http://russianfun.net/russian-fun/giant-smiley-face-from-russia/)
From the 'one the ground' photos, it looks like there is a fair chance the google shot was done on a different day, as it's cloudy on the day of the event, which presumably prevents the satelite from taking pictures of the ground beneath the clouds.
I'd suggest this is a more likely story:
Dance party promoter makes up story which will attract punters to event, using the story of the smiley, widely associated with the use of the party drug Ecstacy.
"A smiley big enough to be seen from Space!"
Punters know it's going to be their sort of event, because they love to take party drugs.
Profit!
meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"
(removed the less/greater-than signs as it wasn't displaying)
anytime something cool like this happens everyone says its photoshop.