Mecca, Saudi Arabia where each year more than 15 million Muslims visit this important religious site. Here you can see Abraj Al Bait, one of the world largest clock towers, visible even from space!
I was reading about Google’s new map resolution, and it struck me this would have been very interesting had it happened during the cold war:
Link— Improving the availability of more high quality imagery is one of the many ways we’re continuing to bring you the most comprehensive and accurate maps of the world. In this month’s update, you’ll find another extensive refresh to our high resolution aerial and satellite imagery (viewable in both Google Maps and Google Earth), as well as new 45 degree imagery in Google Maps spanning 30 new cities. Google Maps and Earth now feature updated aerial imagery for more than 20 locations, and updated satellite imagery for more than 60 regions. Here are a few interesting locations included in our latest release.
Huh? You speak as though the cold war had somehow stopped sometime prior to the next Tuesday after tomorrow. Just because you’re no longer paying attention doesn’t mean hostilities have ceased.
Are we talking about the same cold war between the same two super powers?
“visible even from space!”
Um, so’s my house, using Google Maps (or Flash Earth, or one of several others). Whereas neither my house nor that clock tower would be visible from space with the unenhanced human eye.
Google Maps is mostly not satellite imagery, actually. The last five or so ticks on the zoom scale are shot from aircraft; that’s why there’s a maximum zoom in more remote areas where aircraft surveillance isn’t practical.
As for visible from space with the naked eye… Sure it is. There are dozens of manmade objects visible from the lower orbits. That’s not an extraordinary claim. (“Visible from the moon” or whatever bullcrap people say about e.g. the Great Wall, on the other hand, is bullcrap.)
Yes, the same war. One side stopped playing, the other didn’t. Absolutely. The Cold War franchise has been pursued by every U.S. President since Saint Ronald Reagan and shows no sign of slowing down. Once the other side (temporarily) withdrew, the U.S. simply changed the name to Spreading Democracy, or whatever, and carried on regardless.
In other words, what is commonly called the Cold War is a proper subset of American Empire.
Getting back on topic, yes it’s terrific to chase news headlines with the Google Earth, especially Street View. I’m thinking Google should merge with the U.S. Post Office, somehow, with the result being an updated (and quite possibly less expensive) Constitutional mandate, bringing the Post Office into the Information Age.
I was involved 8-ish years back in putting a GIS system online for a government organization. We were contacted by the state-level version of FEMA and told that we had to reduce the resolution (lower already than many other online sources of satellite imagery, even back then) to blur out the local nuclear power plant, because high res imagery would apparently make it vulnerable to a terrorist attack.
That’s just bizzare. You redifine what the cold war means and then complain when someone uses the common interpretation of the term. Did you have a point?
The Cold War paused a wee bit in the early 1990s while the two major players reloaded. The Cold War continues apace:
…this via RT.com although it’s a generally-reported story.
Point? You can wish the Cold War dead and forgotten but your candidate Romney knows better.
Romney says a lot of things, but he isn’t the president at the time of writing. And sure, the USA and the Russian Federation may not be the bosomest of buddies, but neither are they waving nukes at each other to anything like the degree they once did. They may yet come to do so again, but we’ll decide whether to consider that a continuation of the Cold War if and when it happens.