Sunday 31 May 2009

Resolution...



Just been looking at a humungous wind turbine in Reading, England when I noticed how clean and clear the imagary was.


As I mentioned, Here, I've found a way of tabulating the quality. It works like this:

  1. Find a car on a road.
  2. Zoom in until it becomes blurred.
  3. Measure distance between ground level and eye altitude.
Simple enough, huh?

The clear bit of Reading contains the M4 motorway.



These two cars are shown from a relative altitude of 85 feet. Close enough for me to hazard a guess that the blue car in lane 3 is a Mark IV Fiesta.

Just using the previous search history seems like as good a method of comparison as any...

Widnes:



247 feet up and already losing definition.

Ubon, Thailand:



549 feet above and pretty cack to be honest.

Birkenhead:



That's from 210 feet up. About the same as Widnes really.

I seem to remember that Utrecht had some pretty clear pictures.



Hell yeah. 127 feet up and you can make out the doormirrors. Almost as good as Reading.

Imagine if everywhere was as high quality as this!

So I have to find out what the res is like close to google campus.



38 feet! Bloody favouritism I call it!

Is anywhere higher res than this?

Saturday 30 May 2009

Glyder Fawr

It's a mountain in Snowdonia. Much beloved by Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit.

53° 6'12.11"N, 4° 1'41.08"W



Look at that! Isn't it gorgeous? It's like some stone stegasaurus is incubating a brood of dragons.



Or this? I want to stand right there. Hopefully I will get the chance to soon.

Monday 25 May 2009

Last man standing...

See this house?



Nothing special as houses go. No swimming pool. Bit of a back garden. Venetian blinds in the windows.

But it's special to someone. The guy that lives in it just wont leave. He's got a union flag flying in the back garden, and his house is attached to the remnants of two demolished houses.



Everything else is gone. Bulldozed. Razed to the ground. Most of the houses at the top of the second picture are gone now, or will be soon. It's all going back to nature. Or would be if people didn't keep fly-tipping shite all over it.

bristling badger: vote against the bnp

bristling badger: vote against the bnp

The recent furore over MPs expenses means many people will either abstain from voting in the European elections, or else will cast a protest vote against the mainstream parties.

The British National Party stands to benefit greatly. Unlike a general election, there is a system of proportional representation in place. A share of the vote of 8 percent could see the BNP get a seat. If they get seats, they get hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money.

Last time turnout was 38 percent, and the BNP scored between 6 and 8 percent in the four main constituencies they're targeting. So it's easy to see how they could break through 8 percent this time, but would probably fail to if everyone voted.

Under the voting system - explained in this short animation - it's important to vote for a party that will score higher than the BNP. That's going to be Labour, Conservative, LibDem, UKIP and Green.

Especially crucial is the playoff for the final seat awarded in each constituency, likely to be between the parties coming fifth and sixth; ie likely to be between Green and BNP. An extra 3 percent on the Labour vote will probably make no difference, whereas that 3 percent going to the Greens would probably be the difference between a seat going Green or BNP.

If it sounds fiddly, or like the Greens are trying to scam for votes, check it out yourself. Here's last time's results. Here's an online calculator that can translate any breakdown you type in into seats.

In the North West, BNP leader Nick Griffin is standing. Griffin has made an excellent job of changing public perception of the BNP. Like the party itself, he has his roots in the National Front. The party prohibits non-whites from membership.



'All black people will be repatriated, even if they were born here,' Griffin told Wales on Sunday in 1996.

In 1997 he produced a publication called Who Are The Mindbenders, alleging that the media is run by Jews. He proved the BBC was Jewish controlled by naming 17 Jewish employees from a total of over 23,000.

During his 1998 trial that saw him convicted of inciting racial hatred, he compared the belief that six million Jews died in the Holocaust to the belief that the earth is flat.

The BNP are not just a little bit right of UKIP. They are a party of extreme white supremacism and racism. Many of their officials, including Nick Griffin, have convictions for racially motivated crimes. A seat in the European Parliament will massively boost their funds and their platform.

A vote for a party likely to score more than the BNP is a vote against the BNP. Please - especially if you live in their target areas of North West, East Midlands, West Midlands or Yorkshire and the Humber - make sure everyone you know who's registered votes against them.

Nick Griffin's march needs to end here.

Tuesday 19 May 2009

Woman with three breasts



This is in French Polynesia. It's part of a 360 degree panorama.

It's also the most popular blog post I've ever made. If you're here for a good time, I'm sorry to disappoint you.

Don't suppose you want a driving lesson instead do you?