MetaFilter posts tagged with googleearth

Cows as compasses

Knappster — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:03:19 -0800

Using images from Google Earth, scientists have determined that grazing cattle and deer align themselves with the Earth's magnetic field.

World Where's Waldo

majikstreet — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:30:28 -0800

NPR article on World Where's Waldo Link to the website A Canadian woman made a giant waldo and put it on top of her house and is waiting for the google earth satellites to pick him up.

Another step into the metaverse

mullingitover — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:42:05 -0800

Building on the ideas of Microsoft's Photosynth, flickr's geotagging, and Google's Panoramio, Viewfinder aims to organize photographs spatially in 3D worlds such as Google Earth. See it in action.

What Did We Call This Place When?

mmahaffie — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:23:24 -0800

Native Names Projects by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe GIS Program and the Hawaii Board on Geographic Names are adding audio pronunciation guides to geospatial place-name datasets in several on-line mapping formats. Both groups have small grants from the Federal Geographic Data Committee. The Hawaii folks have already been adding diacritical marks to USGS maps to guide pronunciation. The Coeur d'Alene staff have posted traditional names and links to audio files on a flash-based map site, the National Map site and (most usefully, I think) via Google Earth (KMZ).

I Am The Eye In The Sky

Bora Horza Gobuchul — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:17:02 -0800

Discoveries made using satellite imagery, particularly via Google Earth, have made headlines in the blue and green before. Increasingly high-resolution photos, combined with obsessive interest, have lead inevitably to the next step: interpretation and analysis of spots on the Earth's surface for which information is restricted, censored, or classified, such as the preparedness of military defenses in North Korea and Iran, or the viability of Saudi Arabia's next big oil play. Of course, not all mapping is benevolent.

Civil War and/or Aerial Reconnaissance Nerds Only

marxchivist — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 09:43:34 -0800

The of Battlefields and Bibliophiles blog has a fun quiz. Check your knowledge of American Civil War battlefields by guessing which battleground is featured in the Google Earth images. Answers here. I think I know more than the average doofus about this sort of thing, but the only ones I got right were #1, 3 and 4. I got close on number 6. The same blog featured a Hilarious! post on Black Confederates last month. Also, I recently ran across this thoughtful Civil War blog, done by a sixteen year-old girl.

beautiful ways to span a gap or a river

nickyskye — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:01:34 -0800

Construction of the World's Highest Bridge, Millau Viaduct in France, which is slightly higher than the Eiffel Tower. It is now included in a list of Google Earth extremes. World's most interesting bridges. Gallery of beautiful world bridges. Le viaduc de Millau, in French. Previously. Images of pretty images of bridges from around the world (no captions). Types of bridge construction basics.

This Thread Has Been Pre-Godwin'd For Your Convenience.

brain_drain — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 10:24:51 -0800

An Unfortunate View From the Sky. The U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air.

Google Maps and Earth Lights

philomathoholic — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 21:20:06 -0800

We've seen that one picture of earth at night. And we all know what Google Earth is. But someone has put the two together. Be sure to check out the map overlays, including the dusk map.

Huge And Unique

jonson — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:54:53 -0800

Because everyone loves a good superlative, the Google Earth Community's "Huge and Unique" page lists the world's tallest, deepest, longest, widest & general all-around most of everything there is. With pictures! Found via.