On Google Maps

New, high-resolution Landsat 8 images have been swapped into Google Maps, yielding really amazing pictures of terrain and buildings.  The whole earth is now cloud-free and the detail is good enough to make out patio furniture, stone paths, and garden boxes in my backyards.

A nice 3-D effect has been added, with taller structures like houses and trees shifting perspective against the ground as I pan over a neighborhood.  .

Street View has also been updated, as I found out when I called up 5 Woodside to show my parents my UK abode.  The picture of the house was perfect, but when I shifted perspective to show my street, I was surprised to find…well…me.

 

The photos must have been taken by the Google-Cam-Car last summer.  It’s my old car, midday. and it looks like I’m  packing for a trip north.  ‘Cute that they blurred the milk bottle in my right hand. 

I must have been lost in thought: I don’t recall seeing the vehicle glide past.  But it’s nice to be immortalized, literally ‘On the Map’.