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Airmail Arrows Across the USA
Friday, 30th May 2014 by Ian Brown
In the early days of the US Postal Service’s national airmail service, pilots had to navigate across the USA by sight alone – a task that bad weather could make extremely difficult. And so a network of towers was built, each bearing a gas-powered light for night-time visibility, and each with a large arrow-shaped foundation designed to assist daytime navigation. Almost all of the ~1,500 towers were dismantled long ago, but a number of the concrete arrows exist to this day, such as in the front yard of this farmhouse in Minnesota.
On this day: Ten Cent Beer Night Riot
On June 4, 1974, the Cleveland Indians attempted to boost attendance for their baseball game at Cleveland Stadium by selling beer for only 10¢, an 85% discount. Surprisingly, the plan backfired, as the crowd – able…
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Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Thursday, 22nd May 2014 by Ian Brown
This weekend will see the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500, modestly called The Greatest Spectacle in Racing. The contest takes place at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which was visited by the Street View car a couple of years ago. So, start your engines and join us for a tour of this celebrated race track.
The Walls of Ston
Thursday, 15th May 2014 by Ian Brown
Although the walls in question are made of stone, the title of this post isn’t missing an ‘e’. Ston is a town in Croatia which is the proud owner of Europe’s longest structure. The walls of Ston are defensive walls of incredible architectural and cultural significance that were originally built in 1461, much of which still stands to this day.
The contradictory position of satellite censorship
Thursday, 8th May 2014 by Ian Brown
In the early days of online mapping, sensitive locations were often censored for security reasons. Examples include military installations, government buildings, royal residences, prisons, power plants and more. However in many cases blurring happened on one service but not another. When features such as Street View and 45º coverage became more widespread, the original blurred images weren’t updated, leading to many confusing mapping contradictions. One of the most blur-happy nations is the Netherlands, and one of the biggest contradictions is the Koninklijk Paleis in Amsterdam, which has detailed interior Street View on Google …
Solar Power Towers
Friday, 25th April 2014 by Ian Brown
We’ve visited a few solar power generation facilities in the past, but here is a roundup of solar power towers – elevated structures surrounded by movable mirrors called heliostats. The mirrors concentrate solar energy onto receptors in the tower where the heat is used to generate steam, which drives turbines to create electricity. By far the largest location (by generating capacity) is the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California’s Mojave Desert, south-west of Las Vegas.
Google Underwater View
Thursday, 17th April 2014 by Ian Brown
The latest frontier for Google’s Street View technology is underwater. Cameras have visited quite a number of popular diving and snorkelling locations, giving us spectacular imagery of sea life and coral reefs. Today we’re taking a tour of these locations, beginning with Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where we find a number of sea turtles.
Previously on Google Sightseeing
Catch A Fire With Google Maps
Google Maps is on fire! Or at least it seems that way, considering the number of fires Google imagery has captured over the years. Take a journey with us as we travel the globe in search of flames and smoke.
Welcome to Hel
They say hell is a pretty bad place to be, but this Hel is rather pleasant – at least in summertime. Poland’s Hel Peninsula is a 35-km (22-mile) long sand bar peninsula jutting into the Baltic Sea. Formerly used as a military installation due to its strategic location, today the peninsula is one of Central Europe’s most popular beach resort destinations.
St Petersburg UNESCO World Heritage Site – Part Two: Forts and Fortresses
Continuing our exploration of one of the world’s largest UNESCO World Heritage Sites, we’ll visit some of the structures built…
Recent Comments
- Noel: There is a fantastic looking concert venue in Sweden called Dalhalla (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Dalhalla)...
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