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Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

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Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#221

Post by f430 »

anonymousDan wrote: post #219
f430 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about sides here but if you launch rockets into cities indiscriminately and then the building where you keep your weapons, communication center using human shields after warning residents well ahead of time that the building will be blown up, actually gets taken out who is at fault here? Why are people even defending Hamas???! Does Israel not have right to defend itself? Is Israel like South Korea who gets a…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/17/palest...

curious but how many alt nick accounts do you have on this website?

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#222

Post by alisonkisk »

f430 wrote: post #196
Trias11 wrote: post #135

The questions are: - Does Google deliberatly blurring Gaza strip? - Who benefits by artificially degraded quality of Gaza maps? - Does Google quietly taking political sides?

Not sure about sides here but if you launch rockets into cities indiscriminately and then the building where you keep your weapons, communication center using human shields after warning residents well ahead of time that the building will be blown up, actually gets taken out who is at fault here? Why are people even defending Hamas???! Does Israel not have right to defend itself? Is Israel like South Korea who gets a…

This is an unnuanced take that ignores the complexity of the issue and provacative actions taken by Israel.

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#223

Post by slg »

areoform wrote: post #85
qart wrote: post #63

I zoomed into random areas like Chekka, Lebanon and Kumasi, Ghana. I hadn't heard of these places before today, but they looked big enough on Google Maps. Zooming in, the mosaics appeared as if they were shot years apart, with noticeably different resolutions. Could Gaza just be one such scan, rather than something sinister? > "Considering the importance of current events, I see no reason why commercial imagery of th…

It's one of the most heavily imaged areas in the world - on the ground, as it's an active conflict zone. In space, satellites will pass over the region every X hours no matter what. Planet's satellites have a fresh, high resolution map of the Earth ~3.5 hours. Google had, at the very least, 7 satellites imaging the Earth in 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkySat . The question isn't whether the data exists. It do…

>The question isn't whether the data exists. It does. The question is, why isn't it being displayed?

I just took a look at the Google Maps for Midtown Manhattan and they appear to be from around August 2019. Google surely has newer satellite images available for NYC. What is the reason they aren't updating them?

I think current events are making everyone a little too paranoid here. The images were required by law to be of lower resolution until mid-2020. The law changed and Google hasn't gotten around to updating the images yet because there is always a lag in imagery being updated. No real conspiracy theory needed.

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#224

Post by alisonkisk »

DSingularity wrote: post #151

The motivation should be obvious to everyone here: to stop the public from directly seeing the Israeli war crimes. That way the propaganda machine coming from the American authorities can continue to be swallowed hook, line, and sinker.

This makes no sense whatsoever, regardless of what side you are allowed with. Satellite imagery is inferior to simple cameras at documenting what's happening in Gaza, war crimes or not.

You are not improving the reputation of Palestinian concerns with your post, so you if you want to help them, rethink your approach.

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#225

Post by vultour »

azernik wrote: post #190
avipars wrote: post #120

Also look at the azrieli mall in tel aviv... there is a huge military base there which is blocked/blurred

Blurring military bases is pretty common - also done in the US, for example.

I've never seen a US military base blurred on Google Maps.

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#226

Post by grayfaced »

deadalus wrote: post #5

Is it possible to have real-time live-feed of the entire planet? If cost isn't an issue, would something like that be possible?

Rough numbers, back of envelope calculation: 500 trillion square meters on earth * 50 pixels per square meter * 3 byte pixel depth = 75 petabytes uncompressed. Assume 90% image compression and remove the 71% of earth that is oceans and you're down to a little over 2PB.

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#227

Post by alisonkisk »

devmunchies wrote: post #210
squarefoot wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just that. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf

$38 billion. woah. if US continues to give Israel unconditional aid then it will start to look like a vassal state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vassal_state

The US needs an ally in the Middle East that is more reliable than any of the Arab nations are. Better than being even more beholden to Saudi Arabia.

US interests also benefit quite a lot from Israeli industry, from Intel to Cellebrite

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#228

Post by klyrs »

jrochkind1 wrote: post #113
squeaky-clean wrote: post #97

Not really related to the article at hand, but I've been on a bit of a Google Maps binge the past couple weeks. I learned a few interesting facts, blurry Israel being one of them. Another strange thing I found that might not be super well known (I didn't know about it) is that all GPS data in China is offset by a nonlinear psuedo-random amount. If you turn on the satellite view in Google Maps and look at various citi…

My memory says that US government GPS at one point intentionally introduced reduction in accuracy/resolution as well, but they stopped, which was part of what led to the commercial GPS revolution (along with cheaper tech of course). Let's see... Wikipedia seems to confirm: > During the 1990s, GPS quality was degraded by the United States government in a program called "Selective Availability"; this was discontinued o…

Circa 1999, I was a member of a search and rescue team through the explorer scouts. We got to carry milspec GPS devices on a hike once, because the forestry service wanted accurate maps of some trails. We were under strict orders not to deviate from the trail or tamper with the devices. Very fun cloak&dagger atmosphere for what was otherwise a lovely walk in a park. Hilarious that the need for such missions was obviated a few months later

Re: Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

#229

Post by jjgreen »

gruez wrote: post #148
agnokapathetic wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes: https://medium.com/the-downlinq/super-resolution-and-object-...

You're basically letting an AI to hallucinate details, which looks good in most cases but in edge cases may cause unintended results: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24196650

Kind-of anticipated by Antonioni in Blow Up.
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