Comments on entry #57463

On Trivial Pursuits

Thursday the Fourteenth of June, Two Thousand and Seven

Sometimes I forget and I just leave it spinning for hours...

Wow. I just totally lost the Google Earth game. Which is the lamest game ever. See, you zoom to about 20 kilometers eye height, set the imaginary globe to spinning, and then you go off and do something else for a while. Then you come back, and if it's over land, you stop it and try to figure out where you are. (I swear I don't do this often or anything, but whenever I open Google Earth for something else—which isn't very often, since it, like Celestia, is far more sexy than useful for me—I end up playing a few rounds. I bet you do lamer stuff, you just don't blog about it.)

Anyway, I totally thought Kenitra, Morocco was in Southern California. I am duly embarassed. They do both have the same basic climate and all, and I saw several large dams which made me think "First World" (and specifically the American West), but that's no excuse. I knew full well California doesn't go right up into the mountains in quite that way. And the coastline was clearly way too straight. I suck. That's why I'm trying again... grr, stupid ocean, nobody needs you... oh, crap, boring plains. This might take a while.

For a real challenge, turn off the compass so you don't even know which way is north. Now that's entertainment.

posted by Martin Marks at 1:13 at night // six comments

Oh, hellooo... glaciers! Big glaciers! I'm thinking Canada. All the infrastructure and straight lines of the prarie right next to huge glacierful forests. Granted, I don't have much to go on yet, but that's my early hunch. Further bulletins as events warrant!

comment by Martin // Thursday, the 14th of June, 2007, at 1:18 at night

(Glaciers or frozen lakes? Interesting question. Probably lakes. If lakes, big and numerous and cold, which supports Canada.)

comment by Martin // Thursday, the 14th of June, 2007, at 1:19 at night

These lake systems are fascinating—and quite beautiful. They seem to follow rivers. I've never seen anything quite like it. Oh, wow, this one is breathtaking. A huge squiggly lake—reflecting the clouds!—and in the forest around it a system of dusty roads breaks up into bizarre patterns. It's weirdly reminiscent either of a nerve ganglion or of tuber roots. And I have no idea if it supports my Canadian hypothesis.

comment by Martin // Thursday, the 14th of June, 2007, at 1:27 at night

Hang on—large water treatment plant and a couple of small towns. We're moving into an urban area... is that Vancouver Island? But, ignoring the fact that it's not a particularly large-looking city, I don't bother looking around to be sure, I zoom out for the confirm—instant heartbreak! Clearly not the British Columbia coastline! A little further back and we see that it's... Australia? Are you having me on, Google Earth? Apparently I wound up in Mandurah, which is clearly THE OPPOSITE OF CANADA. What the hell. I could swear I was good at this once.

The "road system" was actually aqueducts carrying waste water from what is apparently known as the "Halls Head Indirect Water Reuse Project", which is redirected into a series of what I assume are evaporation pools or something, I don't know. The lake is Lake Banksiadale, and is manmade. I thought it might be from the shape, and I looked for a dam, but I didn't see it from the 20km zoom level; it's quite a large dam, though, and blindingly obvious when you zoom in. Still quite a lovely lake, apparently, but that whole area that's so beautiful from space is infested with a kind of mold that's devastating the native plants, including the Banskia that gave the lake its name. The "glaciers" are clearly neither glaciers nor frozen lakes; they're presumably salt flats. The reason the little lakes cluster in the funny way they do is because they were large lakes that have partially dried up, leaving dozens of smaller lakes separated by walls of sediment. I am a dooooofus. In my defense it's not the irrigation pattern I'd expect in an arid environment, and there are forests.

Arrrgh. I really need to learn to stop getting fooled by the fact that the same area may look brown or grey or green depending upon where the picture came from. No, wait, the other thing. Go to bed. I really need to go to bed.

comment by Martin // Thursday, the 14th of June, 2007, at 1:54 at night

Aggh! I can't believe I thought Australia was Canada! It's just now striking home! I am the stupidest creature ever! And I blogged about it! In depth! Aggggh!

comment by Martin // Thursday, the 14th of June, 2007, at 1:59 at night

I cannot imagine ever being good at this game. However, watching you play via blog is quite fun.

Plus, you learned something about invasive exotics, and that's never anything to be ashamed of.

comment by Remi // Thursday, the 14th of June, 2007, at 9:51 in the morning

Sorry: This thread has shown no activity in 7 days, so to prevent comment spam all commenters are currently required to answer a Very Simple Question. If you don't answer the question, I'm afraid your comment will disappear into nothingness, so watch that you do.


name:

email:

url:

response:
The Very Simple Question: How did George Bernard Shaw claim one might spell "fish", using the "gh" from "trough", the "o" from "women", and the "ti" from "nation"?
(Hint: take the "www.flying" and ".net" from the name of this website and you'll have it.)

Remember me?
Live Comment Preview: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.