Green Evening

A chap I met at a Green Social event recommended a fascinating tool to me - Google Earth. So, fascinating in fact that I have just spent a couple of hours fiddling with it.

I did the first thing that I suspect everyone does with it, which was to find my house.

And here it is:

I also found a few other interesting spots …

Google has some built in default places to visit on a sightseeing tour, including The Grand Canyon, Nelson’s Column and The Forbidden City in Beijing. You can even see what Iraq used to look like. It’s anyone’s guess what it looks like now. A series of craters, I suspect.

I’ve found places I’ve visited. The USA is especially well detailed. You can even follow the tracks of the roller coasters in Las Vegas, for example. Strangely, though, the pyramid shaped Luxor casino is represented by a box in the 3D building view, even though far more complex building shapes are correctly formed. Presumably because the building shapes are extruded upwards from their bases. Something which would never work to form a pyramid. And let’s face it, how many pyramid shaped buildings are there on the planet?

Rather disappointingly, London hasn’t got any 3D buildings yet. Hopefully they’re working on it.