Travelling by mouseclick

December 14, 2007 8:10 AM

The most interesting spots on Google maps.
posted by desjardins (32 comments total)

I like the Alaskan seaplanes.
posted by davidmsc at 8:17 AM on December 14, 2007

A lot of these are great, but I notice the site has kind of a boner for airports.

Thanks for the link!
posted by shakespeherian at 8:24 AM on December 14, 2007

Love these. When gmaps first came out I spent like 2 weeks (at work) sightseeing.
posted by DU at 8:24 AM on December 14, 2007

I'll be coming back to that...
I assume the 'Swindon Parking Lot' is the Honda factory.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:38 AM on December 14, 2007

Anyone else think the pyramids were in a big desert in the middle of nowhere? I think I even see a a golf course just to the north.
posted by wfc123 at 8:52 AM on December 14, 2007

I love "ship with a problem".
posted by cashman at 9:05 AM on December 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

I love the giant compass rose drawn in the dirt at Edwards.
posted by exogenous at 9:11 AM on December 14, 2007

I think the Russian subs are Delta-IVs...
posted by pax digita at 9:12 AM on December 14, 2007

I love google maps. Every day I find something that amazes me. A couple weeks ago I was shocked at the size of the Kaiser (it isn't called that any more) cement plant over the ridge from astronomically priced Cupertino real estate. I used to envy those people.

Yesterday I looked at satellite over the Sahara desert for about a half hour. I thought there was nothing there but sand dunes. They have rock outcrops, water drainage features; other than no sign of habitation it looked like perfectly normal land.
posted by bukvich at 9:17 AM on December 14, 2007

Very nice—thanks!
posted by languagehat at 9:19 AM on December 14, 2007

darn... I wanted to submit one to this dude but his email addy is bouncing...

so, for my fello mefites:

the Nardo Ring test track in Italy.
posted by spish at 9:29 AM on December 14, 2007

These are fun - thanks!

Before my first trip to Las Vegas, I had a great time looking at the surrounding area (no flying saucers, though) and also being bowled over by the sheer size of some of the casinos/resorts on the Strip. Google Maps rules.
posted by pointystick at 9:30 AM on December 14, 2007

Way cool.
posted by phaedon at 10:00 AM on December 14, 2007

can anyone explain to me the "circles in the desert" one? seems like a pretty strange thing to just draw for fun...
posted by rooftop secrets at 10:07 AM on December 14, 2007

Nevermind, i'm an idiot. Clicking over to the 'map' view explains this is a target on a bombing range.
posted by rooftop secrets at 10:08 AM on December 14, 2007

The africa up close ones were amazing.
posted by mattbucher at 10:23 AM on December 14, 2007

The Face in Rock (it's near Medicine Hat, in Alberta, Canada) was apparently undiscovered until a Google Earth user stumbled on it. I can't find anything online about how it might have come to be. Interestingly, it's completely invisible at ground level -- a lot of the definition of it comes from shadows visible only from way high up. I guess if the explanation requires choosing between chariots of the gods and random topography, I'd have to go with topography, but it's a pretty clear profile of a human head.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 10:33 AM on December 14, 2007

I'd like to see the giant island of floating garbage in the ocean that I keep hearing about.
posted by mecran01 at 11:59 AM on December 14, 2007

... but it's a pretty clear profile of a human head.

The earbuds are making me think Apple had something to do with this.
posted by itchylick at 12:23 PM on December 14, 2007 [1 favorite]

Damn, I should have read the article first.
posted by itchylick at 12:24 PM on December 14, 2007

Here's the offshore wind farm just northeast of Copenhagen.

And the world's largest solar-thermal district heating plant, just outside Marstal in southern Denmark.

And Rolf Disch's Solarsiedlung development (net-energy-producing townhouses) in Freiburg, Germany.

(This is fun!)
posted by gompa at 12:44 PM on December 14, 2007

I wish the man-made islands off the coast of Dubai were listed here.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 1:03 PM on December 14, 2007

I've been a regular reader of googlesightseeing.com since I first discovered it - lots of this kind of stuff, with added KMLs for Google Earth investigation.
posted by benzo8 at 1:07 PM on December 14, 2007

Kid Nation
posted by MrBCID at 1:28 PM on December 14, 2007

I wish the man-made islands off the coast of Dubai were listed here.

They are easy to find.
posted by peeedro at 3:11 PM on December 14, 2007

The Hollywood sign.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:46 PM on December 14, 2007

Houk island, Pulusik atoll; a freshwater lake on a speck of an island just at the line between Chuuk and Yap states, FSM. It's beautiful at ground level.
posted by X4ster at 8:13 PM on December 14, 2007

going here on Google Earth
52.069207, 4.3139865
is just plain mystifying....
posted by Rumple at 11:52 PM on December 14, 2007

These are 90' long hovercraft in Panama City, Florida. Here's what they look like up close (scroll down). I have seen them in action on St. Andrews Bay and they're very impressive.

Also, I'm pretty sure that's not a shark by the surfers. I've seen lots of sharks in the water and they don't look like that. They make a distinct black shadow, not a gray, fuzzy thing.
posted by wsg at 10:05 AM on December 15, 2007

Rumple,

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2007/02/car_parked_on_side_o.html
posted by wsg at 10:14 AM on December 15, 2007

Thanks wsg! Someone should tell the artist it's meant to be parallel parking, not orthogonal parking. Though maybe he just took angle parking to an extreme.
posted by Rumple at 10:40 AM on December 15, 2007

peeedro: thanks, super neat!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 3:54 PM on December 15, 2007