The Top of the World

Ever wondered what the top of the world looks like? 

Here it is, in satellite view. You can make out North America clearly underneath the North Pole. You've got massive Alaska on the left, and you can see Florida protruding from the continent at the bottom right.

If you have not yet encountered Google Earth, give it a go. Satellite and aerial imagery are combined to provide stunning views of the world. Some areas are higher resolution than others.

Here, for example, is a fairly high res view of the Empire State Building.

Chicago is also captured in high resolution. You can zoom close enough to see which vehicles have sunroofs, and you can even see the lines on crosswalks.

You can take a virtual tour of famous landmarks. 

My favorite is the Grand Canyon, because the terrain feature allows you to whisk around the canyon 3-D style, as if you were flying through it. It's AMAZING.

Pearl Harbor is a fascinating visit as well, as you can see the submerged ships. But I'll leave that for you to explore!

Tags: Google Earth, satellite view, satellite images, Earth, world, travel, aerial photography, Grand Canyon, Pearl Harbor, Chicago, North Pole

Daylight Savings Time

I dislike the spring side of Daylight Saving Time. Gaining an hour's sleep in the fall I don't have a problem with. Losing an hour in the spring--aye, there's the rub.

Someone once told me that DST began when we were more of an agricultural community, so kids could still help out on the farm in the a.m. before school. But apparently this rationale is false. Per a WebExhibit article:

Farmers often dislike the clocks changing mid-year. Canadian poultry producer Marty Notenbomer notes, "The chickens do not adapt to the changed clock until several weeks have gone by, so the first week of April and the last week of October are very frustrating for us."

Some purport that it was Mr. Ben Franklin who first suggested the idea of Daylight Savings Time. Wikipedia asserts that he was being facetious:

It is sometimes asserted that DST was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in a letter to the editors of the Journal of Paris. Read the full text. However, the article was humorous; Franklin was not proposing DST, but rather that people should get up and go to bed earlier.

So where did it come from? Again, Wikipedia:

The idea of daylight saving time was first put into practice by the German government during the First World War.

So there you have it!

Tags: daylight savings, origin of daylight savings time, dst, spring forward, daylight savings time, why daylight savings

Organizing Digital Photos

Picasa2 will search your entire computer and create an organized inventory of your digital photos. I downloaded it last night and was impressed with how quickly it did the initial inventory and really liked the way the thumbnails-in-folders is setup for ease of view.

I also downloaded Hello from Picasa, which is supposed to work in conjunction with Blogger. I'll test it out soon.

Both of these are examples of Google's attempt to make free software the norm. I hadn't thought of this, but my husband pointed out that TV is really their main competitor, as TV has had the largest audience for advertisements. Now, it seems the Internet does. I think Google ads will be more targeted than TV commercials, because they can be customized to a surfer's habits and preferences.

Tags: picasa2, picasa, google, organizing digital photos, digital images, organizing photos, tv vs. internet, targeted marketing