PHOTO ESSAY - best of Google Earth

[Michael Moore]

If you are reading this, you have probably dorked out on Google Earth and you have probably been transfixed by some alarming patterns. As the temperatures start to dip below freezing, as I face another winter in the basement, hunkered over my keyboard, I thought I would compile some of my favorites.

Big ups to Ed Burtynsky and good old Koyyanisqatsi. Enjoy!

Untitled





Untitled





Wéiqí





Year of the Monkey





(detail from Year of the Monkey)





Untitled

[Thomas MacWood]

Surreal.

[TEPaul]

I just flew in and out of Phoenix yesterday. That last one is outside Phoenix, isn't it? 

[Kyle Henderson]

3rd one is Ballyneal under construction.

[Tom Yost]

4 & 5 are Sun City AZ.  I recognized the circular patterns, but you tried to fool me by rotating the images 

[David_Tepper]

Those green circles are likely a function of a rotating, circular crop irrigation system made by Lindsay Mfg.

[Reef Wilson]

Here's a fun one along those lines. I would have made an image of this, but you'll want to zoom in a bit anyway. I stumbled on this trying to identify a course near here that I played a long time ago. I never figured out which course it was.

Reef

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=26.891837,-82.274637&spn=0.04547,0.090981&t=h&z=14

[Jason McNamara]

So, who makes more money at course #1?  The golf ball diver/reseller or the guy with the mosquito-repellent concession?

[Michael Dugger]

#1 is Stone Harbor

The last might be Pauite Wolf

[Tom Naccarato]

Wrong.

#1 is Aberdeen.

But you were close!

[Mike Nuzzo]

Great pictures ... thank you.
Surreal is an apt description.

I've hypothesized that a circle is the worst shape for routing a golf course.
I guess if it is big enough it can work - but it can't be good.  Is it?

Cheers