Google Maps Scavenger Hunt

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pewd @ Jul 10 2007, 09:18 PM) [snapback]476618[/snapback]</div>

Eeeeewwwwww! I wouldn't fly on that airplane. They don't have a first class section! :lol:
Aah, don't worry, that runway is too short for that plane to take off from anyway.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(pewd @ Jul 10 2007, 09:18 PM) [snapback]476618[/snapback]</div>

More weirdness caused by the satellite mosaic - if you look close you'll see just the faintest tracings of misalignment in the runway striping where the mosaic edge cuts off the 1st class cabin of that hapless jet. Kinda brings to mind those science fiction time travel movies where the temporal borders slice through the universe clean as a scalpel, cleaving whole planets. Well, let's hope the 1st class passengers kept some peanuts packets so they'd have something to eat wherever they wound up!

Now, to find Sufferin's aquatic acreage ...

MB

 

Weird, wild stuff. I came across that decapitated airplane yesterday in my searches, and was seriously saving it to post in the next round of "The Airport Game." It's the only obvious solution to the problem of taking off on a short runway: make the plane shorter!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ichabod @ Jul 11 2007, 05:34 AM) [snapback]476725[/snapback]</div>

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Just for the record, that jet isn't using that runway as a runway but as a taxiway, probably after having just landed to the northeast on the intersecting runway.

MB

 

Well I think it's about time for a hint... it looked to me like a big enough patch of ocean that it could be spotted by rotating around in Google Earth... no luck with a quick shot at that though. I also considered that it might be the site of a famous shipwreck, but I only checked one such site, and no, it's not the Titanic's resting place.

And on a tangent from a previous post: for those of you who are on Macs, I'm pretty certain you can get Google Earth for Mac now as well.

 

It's not Challenger Deep in the Marianas Trench either, to save everyone some time.

I also think we can also safely eliminate Kow's swimming pool as a possibility, in case anyone was thinking along those lines

MB

 

It's not the shipwreck site for:
The Russian SSBN Kursk
The USS Thresher
The RMS Lusitania

Also not the site of the earthquake which generated the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

 

OK, time for a hint.
I'll add the scale (yes it is a large area). Instead of replacing the old picture, I'll just add a new of the same area. They may be slightly different scale, and the original may have some more geographic features to it, but you should be able to line them up.

[attachmentid=9624]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 9 2007, 05:26 PM) [snapback]475844[/snapback]</div>

Too easy for you. Funny, however, in that I was looking at exactly those same photos of blue planes with white wings while desperately trying to ferret out Kow's damn mini airport.

 

It's the lost island of Atlantis.

But putting Atlantis into Goofymaps only takes you to Erich von Daniken's old jail cell, so no help there!

It can't be the North Pole (besides, I did that one already).

Is the scale 200 miles across because that's the zoom limit or because what we're looking at is 200 miles across?

MB


BTW, Sufferin's latest reminds me of a geographic puzzle:

Take a shovel and from any point on the North American continent start digging, and keep digging right through the center of the earth until you emerge on the opposite side of the globe (when you can dust off your hands and finally take a lemonade break). What's the percentage likelihood that you'll emerge onto dry land?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Mad Hatter @ Jul 11 2007, 06:58 PM) [snapback]477157[/snapback]</div>

Argh! Found it, 0W 0N! http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&...mp;z=7&om=1

or from google earth

[attachmentid=9627]

Give me a chance to find the next one.

Found it! This one deserves two pictures. No hints should be needed!
[attachmentid=9631]

[attachmentid=9632]

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 11 2007, 08:13 PM) [snapback]477193[/snapback]</div>

Well, it appears a very slim chance. A quick exercise using Google earth yields the following:


[attachmentid=9635]

A point in the US say 38N 90W (yellow pushpin) when transferred though the center of the earth maps into 38S and 90E (red push pin.) The rest of the North America is reversed and reflected.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toups @ Jul 11 2007, 07:05 PM) [snapback]477254[/snapback]</div>

I'm not going to pick a fight with Googlemaps; it's most likely correct, but back when a friend of mine and I created this puzzle using a globe we calculated that no part of the continent mirrored onto land - the bits of Australian and Antarctic overlap weren't spotted. So our original answer was zero percent. You'll note that the Indian Ocean could still quite easily engulf the entire continent - we don't generally think of the Indian Ocean as much of a body of water, but it's quite sizeable!

Now there're the seeds of an interesting game - map geographic locations onto other locations & see how distorted our perceptions of relative sizes are - for example (and I haven't done this), if you dropped continental Europe into the Gulf of Mexico (rotated to engulf as much of it as possible and yes, it would make a big splash) how much of Europe would still fall onto Mexico, Venezuela and the Gulf coast of the US, if any of it? Most of it, or just a little? If you dumped Ireland into Lake Superior could ye still catch fish from any point along the lake's shoreline? And so on.

OK, back to finding that damn bridge ---

MB

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Boulder Bum @ Jul 12 2007, 01:09 AM) [snapback]477392[/snapback]</div>

That would be (is be?) the Denver Art Museum.
http://www.google.com/maps?hl=en&q=Den...p;z=19&om=1
The "ART" sculpture helped give it away. Never been there myself.


**** NEXT IMAGE UP FOR GRABS ******

 

OK, I'll take the spot since I have one saved, and a pretty easy clue:

This has been described as the only body of water in the world that's 90 percent guns. Two bonus points:

1. Whose description is that (3 part answer)?
2. What's the significance of the bridge?

[attachmentid=9644]

 

Right you are. The bonus points were:

1. Lionel Essrog related Frank Minna's description in Jonathan Lethem's novel. Granted, you'd have to have read the book, and most likely have a copy of it in front of you to get that one It's a good read though, and I recommend it. About a private detective with Tourette syndrome.

2. Highest elevation on the NYC subway.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ Jul 12 2007, 12:19 AM) [snapback]477327[/snapback]</div>

airportkid, your recollection may be correct. This was a quick exercise using google earth and a picture editor. Since I am not yet fluent in google earth, the actual viewpoints for the two images may not have been exactly aligned properly. Also the quick outline may have left a little to be desired. I should try again with a better tool (or learn google earth better.) So the proper answer may be "slim or none and slim just left town!"