Google Maps

Props to Google.

I found this picture of Elm Grove Park while virtually walking through the north end. Had a picture for every third of a block or so, and you could toggle the picture around - look up, to the left, right, down, zoom in a bit, whatever. Something is really fascinating about that.

Where did they get all those pictures? That's starting to confuse me. I mean, I understand how they can scan the earth from a bird's eyes view with their nifty satellites, but how on earth are they getting pictures like this? It looks like you'd have to be standing there, looking towards it, or looking up, to get a lot of these. It's a bit puzzling.

But it's not a bad thing. It's incredible really. It's like magic. We're getting close to a point where satellites and cameras will be interconnected in such a way that they can take high quality still-pictures of the entire earth at any point in time. They could maybe clean up their whole interface. It was a bit difficult to move virtually through the north end. Something seems fascinating about the ability, though, to look through what you neighborhood, or your planet was like at a point in time. It's a new sort of power that we've never had before.

I'm still confused though. How are they getting all of these pictures? If you've got any idea, leave a comment, because I'm still perplexed.