 | Of late, Google Earth is blossoming into a more mainstream research, teaching, and news tool. CNN, for one, uses Google Earth renderings in its broadcasts; when Katrina struck, Google released special "overlays" that showed the extent of the flooding. The program can also be tricked out with 3-D buildings, special guided tours, weather details, and other information layers. Underneath all the potential for pedagogy, I find the most delight in the basic human weirdness on display. Here, a malcontent has chosen to create a large-scale profanity in an English field. Was someone mad at Eddie? Was Eddie merely very self-loathing? Were aliens involved? We may never know, but this field testifies to the idea that no matter how obsessively we scan, observe, and label the Earth, there will always be little pockets of mystery. The airplanes, however, will be found and identified. |  |
Photograph © the GeoInformation Group. |
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