Check out the Cool Pictures Captured on Google Earth!
I was browsing my Yahoo! News and found this great article from PC World called In Pictures: The Strangest Sights in Google Earth. Check these out!
This is from Alberta, Canada. Doesn’t it look like an American Indian wearing headphones?
This is a man-made lake near Bauru, Brazil. I wonder who’s idea this was?
Why is that car parked on the side of the building?
Can you believe the detail in this herd of elephants captured by Google Earth in Africa? UPDATE: Well, although this came from the PC World article (go look for yourself) and says “Google’s satellites sometimes catch the Earth’s inhabitants on the move, like these ten African elephants (Google Earth coordinates 10.903497,19.93229)”, people have commented that this was taken by possibly a helicopter (which may be one of the methods Google Earth uses) and that this may be misleading so in any case, according to PC World this is from Google Earth.
Just one of many crop circles. Here is a link to the Google Earth Community Crop Circle Collection.
View Larger Map
Why is a fighter jet parked in a parking lot in a residential neighborhood near Paris?
One Google Earth Community has placemarks for more than 3300 planes in flight, including this World War II bomber, flying over Huntingdon, England.
I really enjoyed these and I hope you do too.
~Susan Mellott
Stumble it!
October 20th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
“Can you believe the detail in this herd of elephants captured by Google Earth in Africa?”
Most of the images in Google Earth are taken from aircraft, not from space, so yeah, the detail is pretty good for some of the images.
October 20th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
By the way those elephants are huddled together and the grass flattened by wind it is obvious that that photo was taken from a helicopter. Lie and get negative feedback.
October 20th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
James,
All I can say is that the PC World article said it is from Google Earth. Brian did comment that some of Google Earth’s photos were taken by aircraft. Here is what the PC World article said about this picture: “Google’s satellites sometimes catch the Earth’s inhabitants on the move, like these ten African elephants (Google Earth coordinates 10.903497,19.93229)”. They may be mistaken though and I updated my post to reflect this.
~Susan
October 20th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
If it’s from Alberta, Canada, why does it automatically make it American. You know aboriginal people didn’t just live America.
October 20th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
The elephant photo is part of a collaboration between google earth and national geographic. A few years back, google integrated these aerial photos at the place they were taken. So yes, it’s in google earth, and no, they were not taken by chance by a satellite so the high resolution has nothing to do with the rest of the google earth system.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Thank you Jipi, for your additional information. PC World was half right then (was Google Earth, was not by satellite).
October 20th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Uh, Kaylyn, as a Canadian I am happy to inform you that our country is located in North America, thus many things native to Canada are correctly labeled as ‘American’.
October 20th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
the 3rd picture with the cars, the car thats parked on the side of the building is really an ad, dont really remember what it was for though, and im too lazy to look it up
October 21st, 2007 at 12:50 am
In NYC there is a small “airstrip” on top of a building (#77 I think, but dont know the street). At the end is a mock up WWI biplane. That and the nude sunbathers are the reasons google earth exists…
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:09 am
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October 22nd, 2007 at 8:30 am
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October 22nd, 2007 at 1:39 pm
LOVE THE COMMENTS…AND THE PIX!!!
October 23rd, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Bob. I too am Canadian, and although I live in North America, I don’t consider myself American. I suspect that when American’s use the word American, they are not thinking of Canada, (or any other country in North or South America)
October 24th, 2007 at 6:40 am
I agree with you Ted that when citizens of the USA use the term ‘American’ they do not necessarily include other residents of the Americas. However, ‘American Indians’ refers to a group of people that traditionally inhabited large regions of North America - the modern socio-political boundaries dividing Canada and the lower 48 states of the US don’t hold any sway over their geographical range. Ergo, ‘American Indians’, although a misnomer (the correct term is “Native Americans’) refers primarily to the indiginous population of North America, and not only to the Native Americans currently dwelling in the United States.
Semantics aside, we are talking about what something -looks- like. Say we have a cake, for instance, that looks like a boat. Does it make a difference that it is, quite patently, not a water-going vessel? Where the mountain range exists geographically does not enter into the comparison; it would not make a difference to the resemblence to a Native American if the range was located in Italy.
October 24th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
wow, amazing
October 24th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
“By the way those elephants are huddled together and the grass flattened by wind it is obvious that that photo was taken from a helicopter. Lie and get negative feedback.”
Wow James, that’s pretty petty of you to “threaten” someone with negative feedback because they “lie” about a picture. You need more to do with your time.
October 25th, 2007 at 3:22 am
Thank god no one has posted the one with me nude sunbathing. I’m not sure why but the resolution for my home is even higher than the elephants.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
It’s fascinating how people argue about little things, and how they like to make judgments of others. Native American, or American Indians are two general terms that refer to the Indian tribes, the Eskimo’s and the moose from Canada. And as a US Citizen, the statement that all of us here in the states is arrogant is somewhat offensive. I agree that many of us are, but so are many people from around the world. Anyway, thanks for the pictures, they are awesome.
October 25th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Bob - Thank you for telling Kaylyn that an native individual in whatever country in any of the Americas can be referred to as American Indians.
Ted- While you’re right that colliqually, U.S. citizens tend to refer to themselves as “Americans” this is technically incorrect. And global, as well as linguistically they should be referred to as “USers.” This is a lame sounding name, yes, but it is technically correct.
Mexicans, USers and Canadians are all Americans.
October 28th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
The comments on this are interesting. And I don’t consider Canadians Americans; although they live in North America (the continent), they do not live in America.
Forgetting that, his original intention of the Canadian Indian American had nothing to do with Canadians being Americans, he was pointing out that a formation in the ground, in Canada, was shaped like an Indian American wearing ear buds, nothing more.
That said,
These pix are friggin cool! Great post!
October 28th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Strange, that photo of BAURO-SP-BRAZIL. I know the city and never heard of such a pool/lagoon/whatever.
October 28th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
The problem some Canadians have with the word “American” does mystify me. To my understanding, everything and everyone originating in the major land masses of the Western Hemisphere is defined by the accepted nomenclature as American, from the Northern Territories to the Tierra del Fuego. There may be legitimate reasons to object to the whole thing being named after Amerigo Vespucci, but we are all equally stuck with it, and if anyone is going to reject being called North American or South American simply because of the particular nation to which they belong, then we should all reject it. When I’m referring to my country, I use “U.S.”, “U.S. Citizen”, “U.S. resident” etc. In fact, the only time I usually use the word American is in reference to the aboriginal Americans, regardless of what national government they are associated with–and usually I say “Native American”. I am familiar with the Canadian term First Nations, and I think that would probably be a better idea than Native Americans (though what term like that do you use for the individual?). But as with the term American, First Nations would be just as (or just as not) legitimately applied in the U.S. as in Canada.
I wonder how many residents of the Far East, by the way, object to being called by the official name of that continent–Asian, seeing as that was originally only the name of what is now Turkey…
There is the one sticking point that our nation is the only one whose official name actually contains the word “America”, but this does not make it any more designated as part of North America than Canada and Mexico. All of our maps, no matter in which country they are made, say the same thing–North America & South America. It might be best to use the term America only for geography, and only with “North”, “South”, or “Central” attached to it–but that would need us all to agree on a good term for the aboriginal peoples that both distinguishes them/us as being from this region and rolls off the tongue better than aboriginal this-or-that, without necessarily having to know the name of every blessed tribe on the continent (though more of that would be good too–but on the other hand, even if someone would say “Doesn’t it look like a Lakota…”, then someone who is Lakota might say “but that doesn’t look like a Lakota headdress”, or “we don’t *use* headdresses”), but still be able to simply respectfully remark on the obviously striking resemblance in simple terms.
Do you have a better suggestion for a general term to be used in that way?
October 29th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
the one about the car on the side of a building was from a famous advertisement campaign, i believe in england(?) where the car was glued to the building side and there are paintings of street markings, turn lane, etc on the side of the parking deck as an advertisement for it. I stumbled across it a few months ago under the guise of “clever advertising”
November 1st, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Lighten up. jeez some people have too much time
on their hands. These are just neat pictures.
Get over it! How about THANKING the person who took
the time to post them.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:51 am
Nice pics. The first one is really nice. I think its man made.
http://msrinirao.blogspot.com
December 2nd, 2007 at 6:39 am
i dont think that satellites could have very high resolution that they can capture elephant pics from space.
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:31 am
these are only jokes i think
January 31st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Great site and great pic’s.
Thanks!
Chris.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Thank you
June 28th, 2008 at 12:34 am
the indian image with headphones is interesting
June 30th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
thank for article…