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Why is the Gaza Strip blurry on Google Maps?

bbc.com

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

#341

Post by csteubs »

protomikron wrote: post #301
csteubs wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. It sounds a bit far-out (and it is) but we've proven the feasibility with a testing group of around 300 passengers using a multitude of different phones/altitudes/conditions/routes. GPS works in airplane mode, so we pre-cache target coordinates based on the filed flight plan and alert the passenger to hold the device to the window when overflying the target. The gyroscope is used to provide feedback on phone…

Do you have an example of the final (aerial) imagery result?

We do, search ’Not A Satellite’ and our social accounts will pop up. Instagram has the most descriptive content/examples.

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

#342

Post by plaidfuji »

This link title is extremely misleading to the point of being disingenuous and provocative. The title of the linked article is “Israel-Gaza: Why is the region blurry on Google Maps?”... because the entire Israel / Gaza / West Bank region is blurred in the exact same way. There is no preferential blurring of Palestinian areas. The clear answer is to prevent actors on both sides from using Google’s satellite imagery to plan attacks against one another. But please continue the breathless hot takes.

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

#343

Post by slg »

whatshisface wrote: post #338
slg wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reasoning behind the government's decision is irrelevant here. Google is a company headquartered in the US. Going against the official policy of the US government is a more politicalized move than going with the status quo. Side note, you should be careful using Israeli and Jewish as interchangeable terms. There is no such thing as an "Israeli diaspora".

> Going against the official policy of the US government is a more politicalized move than going with the status quo. How can this be when the policy of the US government is itself determined by politics in its original, non-metaphorical form?

I don't understand what you are getting at. If the US recognized Palestine that would also be a policy "determined by politics in its original, non-metaphorical form". There is no apolitical answer to the question of whether to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

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

#344

Post by dalbasal »

sequoia wrote: post #134

Tangentially related but where does this come from and why is it so widely repeated (as in this article): > ...Gaza, one of the most densely populated places in the world I've seen this claim (both in the "one of the most..." and " the #1 most..." forms) many times and I don't know where it comes from. What am I missing? Here[0] wikipedia says Gaza Strip has ~5,046/sqkm. I thought maybe Gaza City was meant, it's dens…

Articles citing articles citing articles... aka cliche. They're not really wrong. The definition of "place" is just arbitrary, so it's always "debatable.^"

Bnei Brak, incidentally, is also often described as the densest place in the world. It's just in other contexts that don't interest an international readership. It was mentioned often, in covid related contexts.

^Meaning, pointlessly debateable.

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

#345

Post by whatshisface »

slg wrote: post #343
whatshisface wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Going against the official policy of the US government is a more politicalized move than going with the status quo. How can this be when the policy of the US government is itself determined by politics in its original, non-metaphorical form?

I don't understand what you are getting at. If the US recognized Palestine that would also be a policy "determined by politics in its original, non-metaphorical form". There is no apolitical answer to the question of whether to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state.

If there's no apolitical answer, then going with the status quo isn't an apolitical answer.

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

#346

Post by slg »

DSingularity wrote: post #334
shaya wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you actually don't know the facts. Palestine is a land, it was called that way even when the time of the British mandate, before WWII. Are the arabs that lived there are Palestinians? Yes. But what you don't mention is that also the jews that lived there were called Palestinians. The land of Israel and Palestine are exactly the same thing. There are arab Palestinians and jew Palestinians. They were not so smart…

Well, you actually don’t know the facts. Did Jews live there before the British? Yes. But what you don’t mention is that they were under 8% of the total population. Of course, given what you already omit, you also omit that those 8% owned only 2% of the land. So tell me, why would the 92% accept that so much of what is rightfully theirs would be forcefully taken from them and given to a minority population? Especiall…

I don't know where your numbers are coming from, but they are at the very least misleading because the population was not exclusively made up of Jews and the group we now call Palestinians and not all land was privately owned.

EDIT: I rephrased this to more clearly explain my point.

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

#347

Post by [deleted] »

tomerv wrote: post #177
jrochkind1 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Interesting to note that the removal of selective availability enabled the creation of Geocaching ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching#History ).

[deleted]

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

#348

Post by dirtyid »

varenc wrote: post #265
dirtyid wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you checked out South Korea?

South Korean on GMaps feel likes a snapshot of 2009. Whereas the rest of Google Maps has switched to something vector based, South Korea still has tiling based map images with different images for different zoom levels and the place names just baked into the image. Any idea why? Apple Maps is great in comparison.

Some more info: https://ogleearth.com/2012/07/constraining-online-maps-the-c...

>Why is Google’s Korean map behaving this way? In short, because of Korea’s Spatial Data Industry Promotion Act from 2009, specifically Article 7, which states that:

>Spatial data business operators may produce and distribute any processed spatial data. In such cases, processed spatial data shall not include any spatial data on any military base provided for in subparagraph 1 of Article 2 of the Protection of Military Bases and Installations Act nor on any military installation provided for in subparagraph 2 of the said Article.

>And considering the existence of the most heavily militarized border on the planet between North Korea and South Korea, this means a substantial part of South Korea is riddled with military installations.

>By limiting the maximum resolution of its Korean imagery on maps.google.co.kr, Google appears to have satisfied Korean regulators that it is obeying the relevant Korean laws. Thus, Google avoids having to blur or otherwise censor the satellite imagery base layer for Korea — something which it has successfully managed to avoid in China, India and elsewhere.

Write up about Apples courser application

https://ogleearth.com/2012/07/apple-censors-ipad-maps-app-ov...

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

#349

Post by avip »

stormbrew wrote: post #333
avip wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Were you using the term "claims control over entry of goods into the territory" instead of "claims their land", there would be much less to argue about. "claims their land" sounds like Israel would like to annex Gaza and make it part of Israel - which is ridiculous and patently false.

Is it? Certainly, there are political factions within Israel that claim it should be part of Israel -- that's why there were settlements to remove in the first place . It would be ridiculous to deny that, honestly. Those factions seem to continue to grow in influence every year as well. The idea that Israel should be one state that covers the entirety of the former mandate of Palestine seems to actually be pretty pop…

Does Egypt also claim their land?

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

#350

Post by jakelazaroff »

avip wrote: post #319
stormbrew wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel recognizes no government in Gaza (neither the Palestinian Authority, which has no power there, nor Hamas, which they recognize as terrorists not a government), claims control over entry and exit to the territory of goods and people, including by sea, and claims the right to enter the territory at any time to carry out military activity. Israel also does not recognize a Palestinian state in general to be at war…

Were you using the term "claims control over entry of goods into the territory" instead of "claims their land", there would be much less to argue about. "claims their land" sounds like Israel would like to annex Gaza and make it part of Israel - which is ridiculous and patently false.

> "claims their land" sounds like Israel would like to annex Gaza and make it part of Israel - which is ridiculous and patently false.

It very much is not. A recent a Netanyahu election ad showed a map of Israel without Gaza and the West Bank cut out, overlaid with the words “one state”. Among other examples. https://twitter.com/jewish_worker/status/1394036492213833728...

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