Dogs from space
According to The Sun newspaper, a Dorset family's dog is so big that it can be seen from space, but is this a true fact, or is it just another whopper?
The Sun reported that Boris, the 14 stone bull mastiff belonging to the Milner family in Bournemouth, is so big that he "was tracked lazing in his garden by a Google Earth satellite", and a photograph in the article does indeed show a fuzzy blob which could well be the dog in question.
www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1267477.ece
It wasn't just the Sun that reported this story, but is it as remarkable as it sounds, or is it bending the truth a little? The claim that an object "can be seen from space" normally refers to objects which are visible to the naked eye, such as the Great Wall of China, not objects which are visible as a couple of computer enhanced pixels photographed through a high-powered lens.
Furthermore, the photos on Google Earth are not actually taken from "space" but from aircraft flying at around 1,000 feet or lower, although reading the Sun article you could be forgiven for thinking that Google Earth has its very own fleet of spy satellites up there beaming live pictures back to the planet. Some newspapers, including the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and Daily Record, even went so far as to say that the satellites that Google uses to take these photos are orbiting some 400 miles above the earth. Where this tidbit of misinformation came from is anyone's guess.
The most interesting aspect of this story is that it was thought worthy of reporting at all. It illustrates how people are generally unaware of the astonishing level of detail that can be seen on the aerial survey photos these days, as used in products like Google Earth and sites like Google Maps. In some cities the highest quality photography used on Google allows you to pinpoint objects as small as 10cm in diameter.
If you haven't already done so, you might like to look at your own postcodes using Google Maps and check out what you can see when you click the "satellite" button and zoom all the way in:
If you should happen to find yourself on Google Earth, sunbathing in your back garden, be sure to let the tabloids know and you too could make the headlines.... On second thoughts, perhaps you'd better not.
18th June 2008
This article comes from the SKILLZONE email newsletter, published monthly since January 2008, and covering topics related to technology and the internet. All articles and artwork in the SKILLZONE newsletter are orignal content.