Sheepview360
July 14, 2016 12:59 AM Subscribe
Tired of the fact that the Faroe Islands don't exist on Google Street View, Durita Dahl Andreassen took matters into her own hands, and strapped a 360˚ camera on the back of a sheep (SLYT).
From the YouTube description: "I gently placed a 360˚ camera, powered by a solar panel, on the back of a sheep that would take photographs as the animal freely grazed the open hillsides of the Faroe Islands. Photos are then transmitted back to my mobile phone so that I can upload them to Google Street View myself, finally putting the Faroes on the map in a very unique way!"
More on Durita Dahl Andreassen's blog at www.sheepview360.com.
From the YouTube description: "I gently placed a 360˚ camera, powered by a solar panel, on the back of a sheep that would take photographs as the animal freely grazed the open hillsides of the Faroe Islands. Photos are then transmitted back to my mobile phone so that I can upload them to Google Street View myself, finally putting the Faroes on the map in a very unique way!"
More on Durita Dahl Andreassen's blog at www.sheepview360.com.
Noting that this video was uploaded by the tourist organisation "Visit Faroe Islands", I observe that someone there is earning their keep. That's the second time today that the name of the country and the tourist organisation have landed before my eyes during my usual morning web browsing activities; the first time was on Spiegel Online, with an article about a music festival written by a freelance journalist whose trip was sponsored by "Visit Faroe Islands".
Well done those guys I say, I feel myself thoroughly targetted in a media-consumption sense and not even cynical or resentful about it. I might even go there, just watch me.
posted by illongruci at 1:37 AM on July 14, 2016 [8 favorites]
Well done those guys I say, I feel myself thoroughly targetted in a media-consumption sense and not even cynical or resentful about it. I might even go there, just watch me.
posted by illongruci at 1:37 AM on July 14, 2016 [8 favorites]
So happy to see the "sheep" tag reappearing on MeFi!
In other sheep news, recently published with Reaktion Books, Sheep, by Philip Armstrong, Co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies:
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:19 AM on July 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
In other sheep news, recently published with Reaktion Books, Sheep, by Philip Armstrong, Co-Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human-Animal Studies:
As Armstrong shows, humans have treated sheep with awe, cruelty or disdain for many thousands of years. Our exploitation of them for milk, meat, and wool—but also for artistic and cultural purposes—has shaped both our history and theirs. Despite all that we owe them we have often dismissed sheep as the least witted and least interesting of mammals: to be accused of “sheepishness” or behaving “like a flock of sheep” is to be denigrated for lack of courage, individuality, or will. Yet, as this book demonstrates, sheep actually possess highly sophisticated social skills and emotional intelligence. Above all, Sheep demonstrates that sometimes the most mundane animals turn out to be the most surprising.Philip Armstrong, Sheep (London: Reaktion Books, 2016).
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:19 AM on July 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
Although I was expecting more other sheep...
You don't see many other sheep because the native Faroe Island sheep don't have a flocking behavior - they haven't had natural predators on the islands for 1000 years, and they've long ago lost the genetic urge to gather together for defence. Where there were wolves, sheep will flock; this is really handy for shepherds, who can then use dogs to drive sheep. If you try to use a dog to herd island sheep like Faroes, Shetlands or Soays, they'll either scatter or turn around and kick the dog's arse.
The exception to this behaviour is the lambs, who'll run to the ewes when they're frightened - they're little mother-flockers.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 4:41 AM on July 14, 2016 [51 favorites]
You don't see many other sheep because the native Faroe Island sheep don't have a flocking behavior - they haven't had natural predators on the islands for 1000 years, and they've long ago lost the genetic urge to gather together for defence. Where there were wolves, sheep will flock; this is really handy for shepherds, who can then use dogs to drive sheep. If you try to use a dog to herd island sheep like Faroes, Shetlands or Soays, they'll either scatter or turn around and kick the dog's arse.
The exception to this behaviour is the lambs, who'll run to the ewes when they're frightened - they're little mother-flockers.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 4:41 AM on July 14, 2016 [51 favorites]
Oh. Weird.
My surveillance drone had a dream about this last night.
posted by schmod at 4:56 AM on July 14, 2016 [8 favorites]
My surveillance drone had a dream about this last night.
posted by schmod at 4:56 AM on July 14, 2016 [8 favorites]
Ewetube.
posted by Devonian at 5:08 AM on July 14, 2016 [31 favorites]
posted by Devonian at 5:08 AM on July 14, 2016 [31 favorites]
This thread has me obsessed, I can't even pun about it.
posted by infini at 5:59 AM on July 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by infini at 5:59 AM on July 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
The picture is a little fuzzy.
posted by AndrewInDC at 6:09 AM on July 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by AndrewInDC at 6:09 AM on July 14, 2016 [1 favorite]
I was honestly unrelatedly googling about the Faeroe Islands at work yesterday. Coooooool.
posted by Kitteh at 6:28 AM on July 14, 2016
posted by Kitteh at 6:28 AM on July 14, 2016
I have been to the Faroe Islands! To Klaksvik specifically. (When in Klaksvik, be sure to stop at Roykstovan for a damn good burger and a pint of the local beer. which is excellent with all sorts of food – including sweet and sour)
A sheep would indeed be a better way to map the area than a car. (Though they do have a couple tunnels connecting Borðoy to nearby islands and you can reach, I think like eight or so of the various islands by car now.) But when we hiked the back country (and that's most of it) we walked from stone cairn to stone cairn over very steep hills.
Apparently the idea was that, even when it fogged up - and it did while we were there, very suddenly and very totally - from one cairn you could still see the next one, and that's how you walked from village to village. If you were just hiking the countryside off the cairn-marked trails, however, it was assumed you were stealing sheep, because what the hell else would you be doing out there, and would be locked up or worse.
(I still have a tuft of wool I plucked off a bush while there, so in at least some sense, they were right. I was hiking the backcountry and I stole sheep.)
posted by Naberius at 6:35 AM on July 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
A sheep would indeed be a better way to map the area than a car. (Though they do have a couple tunnels connecting Borðoy to nearby islands and you can reach, I think like eight or so of the various islands by car now.) But when we hiked the back country (and that's most of it) we walked from stone cairn to stone cairn over very steep hills.
Apparently the idea was that, even when it fogged up - and it did while we were there, very suddenly and very totally - from one cairn you could still see the next one, and that's how you walked from village to village. If you were just hiking the countryside off the cairn-marked trails, however, it was assumed you were stealing sheep, because what the hell else would you be doing out there, and would be locked up or worse.
(I still have a tuft of wool I plucked off a bush while there, so in at least some sense, they were right. I was hiking the backcountry and I stole sheep.)
posted by Naberius at 6:35 AM on July 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
Ewetube.
posted by Devonian at 8:08 AM on July 14
This just in: Devonian wins the Internet.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:15 AM on July 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Devonian at 8:08 AM on July 14
This just in: Devonian wins the Internet.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 7:15 AM on July 14, 2016 [4 favorites]
Google Street Ewe
posted by nathan_teske at 8:04 AM on July 14, 2016
posted by nathan_teske at 8:04 AM on July 14, 2016
Oh man. Cannot wait to see this pop up on Scandinavia and the World ...
posted by aperturescientist at 8:25 AM on July 14, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by aperturescientist at 8:25 AM on July 14, 2016 [5 favorites]
I can't tell if Mary Ellen Carter is imparting real sheep behavior trivia to us or trolling us. Bravo.
posted by yhbc at 8:38 AM on July 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by yhbc at 8:38 AM on July 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yet, as this book demonstrates, sheep actually possess highly sophisticated social skills and emotional intelligence.
I don't know. I've run into a few flocks of sheep over the years, and they did not impress me as super bright creatures.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:53 AM on July 14, 2016
I don't know. I've run into a few flocks of sheep over the years, and they did not impress me as super bright creatures.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:53 AM on July 14, 2016
Metafilter: I was expecting more other sheep
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:42 AM on July 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:42 AM on July 14, 2016 [2 favorites]
I love this.
Although, if I put a 360 camera on the sheep I look after, you'd see an awful lot of the inside of a gorse bush because that's what I seem to spend my time removing them from. The thought process seems to be 'oh no, I am slightly hooked on this gorse bush that I got into for ~reasons~. I shall just give up on life now.' until me or one of the other volunteer shepherds arrive for our checks and haul them out. At which point they shamble off happily.
Hrm, actually maybe we should and then I could remotely view it and see if I need to check the gorse bushes first. Hrrrrm!
posted by halcyonday at 12:24 PM on July 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
Although, if I put a 360 camera on the sheep I look after, you'd see an awful lot of the inside of a gorse bush because that's what I seem to spend my time removing them from. The thought process seems to be 'oh no, I am slightly hooked on this gorse bush that I got into for ~reasons~. I shall just give up on life now.' until me or one of the other volunteer shepherds arrive for our checks and haul them out. At which point they shamble off happily.
Hrm, actually maybe we should and then I could remotely view it and see if I need to check the gorse bushes first. Hrrrrm!
posted by halcyonday at 12:24 PM on July 14, 2016 [3 favorites]
Having just returned from a trip there (and no, I didn't see any sheep with cameras) I'm a bit surprised that they haven't actually streetviewed the island yet. There just aren't a lot of roads in the Faroes (they have an excessively simply road network, it's near impossible to get lost).
And @Naberius: I went to Roykstovan, but only for beer, nice place. Next time I'll try a burger
posted by kaszeta at 12:43 PM on August 5, 2016
And @Naberius: I went to Roykstovan, but only for beer, nice place. Next time I'll try a burger
posted by kaszeta at 12:43 PM on August 5, 2016
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Although I was expecting more other sheep...
posted by sour cream at 1:27 AM on July 14, 2016 [2 favorites]