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Google Earth Incorporates Crowdsourced Balloon Images

garymortimer writes with this excerpt from sUAS News: "The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science announced today that community-generated open source maps — captured from kites and balloons — have been added to Google Earth. The 45 plus maps are the first aerial maps produced by citizens to be featured on the site, and are highlighted on the Google Lat Long Blog. The Public Laboratory is an expansion of the Grassroots Mapping community. During an initial project mapping the BP oil spill, local residents used helium-filled balloons and digital cameras to generate high-resolution D.I.Y 'satellite' maps documenting the extent of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — at a time when there was little public information available. Expanding the toolkit beyond aerial mapping, Public Laboratory has been growing into a diverse community, both online and offline, experimenting with new ways to produce information about our surroundings. The lab's DIY kits cost less than $100 to assemble."

2 of 20 comments (clear)

  1. Balloon Images? by Higgins_Boson · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Sorry, but if I want to look at balloons I will either stare at the wife's chest for awhile, or I will go out and buy some balloons. I don't need no stinkin' "Google Earth" for that.

  2. Global Warming-why do the facts always contradict? by PortHaven · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    "common theories of stellar evolution predict that the sun was only 70 percent of its current brightness when it first lit its fusion engine 4.5 billion years ago. The sun has been steadily growing brighter since then and will continue so into the future, eventually evaporating away Earth's oceans."

    So the conclusion of scientists is that the earth is continually getting warmer. Okay, go that...

    "In some simulations, methane and carbon dioxide combine to make a photochemical smog that would have chilled Earth even further."

    Wait, I thought CO2 was that all-warming all covering gas. You know, the one that is less of a green house gas than water. But is hyped as the big difference.

    http://news.discovery.com/space/was-earth-a-migratory-planet-120418.html

    Granted, I would like to see what affect a few super volcanoes might have in blanketing an ice-covered earth with ash. I'd wager that would also resolve the issue more simply.

    Must also add this is the first time I've heard Immanuel Velikovsky's in a print article in years.

    That said, I tend toward leaning toward a catalysmic world model. I think the fact that we see such a record of impacts on the moon, and other planetoids while at the same time not seeing many in this day and age point to a more dynamic past. Combined with the fact that there is a bunch of debris instead of a planet between Mars & Jupiter.