View from on high
One of the marvels of the modern desktop is the view from Google Earth. Forget the glimpse of your city from an airplane window, or a passing passenger train (not likely). Imagine things from a different perspective; from high above, higher than an eagle’s soaring eye. But just as sharp, unless the pixel pixies are busy.
Google Earth (and its baby brother, Google Maps) permit a view of your neighbourhood that is wonderful, in the “full of wonder sense” that I learned from Farley Mowat. Look, there’s the pool down the street, and it is green! Hey, check out the school buses, all parked for the summer (now you know when the shot was taken). Wow, there is a pyramid! All there, for free. Well, some people really hate the idea of free that doesn’t make them money.
That’s why some wiseacres in Australia have been busy, busy, busy… arranging that their corporate logos are filling an acre of grassy ground, so that when the next Google Satellite passes by, their image is available to the world at large.
Don’t worry, someone will find the shots and put them on the web for the rest of us. Probably the same gang that have been finding airplane shadows or black helicopters or optical illusions or White Houses that have been mysteriously blurred (Pixel Pixies of the universe, unite). I just find it disturbing that there is so much insecurity in Australia. Can Canada be far behind?
