Google Earth

Port of Rotterdam

• Posted by Rob (#1) on November 27, 2007 16:49 CET

Yeah, yeah, we all know that Rotterdam has a large port. Perhaps not the world's largest in tonnage anymore, but definitely the largest in Europe. And it looks amazing in Google Earth.

Let's begin with a parking lot, just to make sure you have a familiar frame of reference:

That was the ECT parking lot. ECT is a company that deals with a few containers:

A few? Okay, maybe more than a few:

Definitely more than a few. But ECT is just one part of the port, there is plenty of room for coal/bulk cargo and refineries as well:

And that's just the (reclaimed) Maasvlakte area of the port.. the indusry actually stretches out to downtown Rotterdam. Which is all the way to the right, more than 20 miles/30 kilometers land-inwards:

Nice.

• PermaLink: Port of Rotterdam
• Tags: Rotterdam, Google Earth, port, ECT
• Post comment

Man-made objects visible from the moon

• Posted by Rob (#1) on September 24, 2007 14:57 CEST

Most people believe that the only man-made object visible from the moon is the Chinese wall. As usual, most people are wrong. The Chinese wall might be long, but it's certainly not significantly wide. If it were visible (and it isn't), then certainly a lot of canals, highways and dikes would be too. So please, ignore that urban myth for once and for all because it's simply that: a myth.

So are any man-made objects visible from space? The palms in Dubai might be a good candidate. If you know where to look, both the Jebel Ali and Jumeira Palm islands appear as tiny pixels in Google Earth as soon as your zoom level takes you somewhere between 3000 and 4000 kilometers of eye altitude. That's still a long distance away from our definition of where space begins (I believe 62km is the norm), but so far it's the best we got. Or is it?

I'm willing to argue that we, the Dutch, can actually claim to have made the most visible object: Flevoland. Google Earth is not very useful here because surrounding land blur the distant images into one colour, but again: if you do know it's there, you can easily see it stretches more than a single pixel from the same distance. And it would have to, because this man-made island is probably the biggest artificial object mankind has ever made: dikes, mills and pumps have reclaimed over 1400 square kilometers of land. With a population of over 300.000, the island is not just a fun housing project, but an entire province. And even if it isn't visible from space: it's home to Lowlands festival and therefore worthy to be mentioned.

• PermaLink: Man-made objects visible from the moon
• Tags: Dubai, Google Earth, Lowlands, Flevoland, reclamation, space, Chinese wall, Jumeira Palm, Jebel Ali Palm
• Post comment

SimDubai

• Posted by Rob (#1) on August 13, 2006 08:55 CEST

Being a huge fan of Sim City and urbanity, I also love to see some of the more impressive accomplishments of landscape architecture that can be seen with Google Earth.

Take as example the Sim City-like precision and planning oversight that is being demonstrated in the United Arab Emirates where Dubai is booming.

Huge highways and large traffic corridors are being built the in the desert, nicely ahead of the actual occupancy:

And sometimes Dubai looks exactly like a Sim City screenshot:

Quite amazing. This satellite view almost makes me want to play Sim City right away.

(This is an edited repost of a Skyscraper City thread of mine.)

• PermaLink: SimDubai (2 comments)
• Tags: Sim City, Dubai, landscape architecture, Google Earth
• Post comment

"Google Earth helps terrorists"

• Posted by Rob (#1) on August 13, 2005 12:37 CEST

I'm no fan of Google, or at least I'm not a fan of their editorial staff when it comes to the selection of "News" sources. But to say that Google Earth helps terrorists, that's a bit over the top if you ask me. If you can, also read Arjan's excellent Dutch writeup.

Both politicians and police are concerned that certain locations in the Netherlands, such as the port of Rotterdam, the royal palace in the Hague and Amsterdam Airport, already potential terrorist targets, could be made more vulnerable to terrorists thanks to the detailed images created from satellites and aircrafts within the last three years available via Google Earth.

Technically it's fair point: a free flow of information benefits everyone, including the bad guys.
But when actual possesion of blueprints and weapons is not a terrorist threat in the Netherlands, I don't think government should waste time on matters like these.

• PermaLink: "Google Earth helps terrorists"
• Tags: Google, Google Earth
• Post comment