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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?

#391

Post by markdown »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #386
jussij wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel can get all the detailed imagery it needs by just launching a reconnaissance aircraft or drone. So on that basis I would say it only stops the Palestinians from getting imagery of the area. Now considering the fact Palestine only has rockets and not missiles, I doubt that imagery is of much value to them. Call me cynical, but I suspect the more important reason to keep these images blurred might be to stop the…

> Now considering the fact Palestine only has rockets and not missiles, I doubt that imagery is of much value to them. A high resolution image would be very useful to anyone who is planning a terror attack with suicide bombers, for example.

[flagged]

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

#392

Post by Robotbeat »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #263
riffic wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

are your examples geostationary?

Starlink is not geostationary. It is a very high density low altitude system.

Correct. And with a wide field of view (45 degrees), they'd allow a real-time view globally.

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

#393

Post by markdown »

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…

> Neither of these come close to ranking on wikipedias list of cities by population density

> Is the BBC just plain wrong here or am I missing something?

What you're missing is that you don't have to be anywhere near that list to be one of the most densely populated places in the world. Most of the world is empty.

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

#394

Post by bzbarsky »

tpmx wrote: post #95
Denvercoder9 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 1 px/m², the Earth's surface is 5×10^14 pixels, so with the full constellation of 10,000 satellites and 1 fps that'd be 5×10^10 pixels/satellite/second (about a terabit/satellite/second uncompressed). If you can shoot 30 images per second, you'd need a 1.6 gigapixel camera. It's technically possible but not feasible.

It would be quite useful at lower resolutions too, I think. Edit: The uncompressed bitrate comment is a bit like saying 1080p network video streaming will take decades to become feasible, because the incompressed bitrate is 1.485 gigabit/s...

The obvious first bandwidth issue here is through the optical sensor, which is definitely pre-compression, no?

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

#395

Post by Zhenya »

markdown wrote: post #391
MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Now considering the fact Palestine only has rockets and not missiles, I doubt that imagery is of much value to them. A high resolution image would be very useful to anyone who is planning a terror attack with suicide bombers, for example.

[flagged]

"slaughter wholesale"

I think we'll need a reference for that.

As far as I can tell, warning civilians to evacuate buildings is QUITE the opposite of wholesale slaughter.

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

#396

Post by Zhenya »

MyKneeGrows wrote: post #378
jussij wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel can get all the detailed imagery it needs by just launching a reconnaissance aircraft or drone. So on that basis I would say it only stops the Palestinians from getting imagery of the area. Now considering the fact Palestine only has rockets and not missiles, I doubt that imagery is of much value to them. Call me cynical, but I suspect the more important reason to keep these images blurred might be to stop the…

It's why they target news agencies such as AP. Now you can't get pictures on the ground. So we all have to rely on is low resolution maps to judge damage. "Security measures", or so they say. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

Yes.

Because no one there has a smart phone. Because they actually killed the journalist. /s

Of the course the obvious explanation is the correct one, the building housed military targets (Hamas operations etc) and it was destroyed.

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

#397

Post by catillac »

skyfaller wrote: post #388
URSpider94 wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is different but related. China has no ability to influence GPS accuracy within its borders. What they do is manipulate all of the authoritative maps available so that GPS coordinates won’t map cleanly to the digital waypoints in the map. The GPS locations are very precise, they are just off by as much as a quarter mile in varying directions depending on where in the county you are.

Can OpenStreetMap or someone make non-authoritative maps, or is this impossible without the cooperation of people on the ground who cannot operate safely within the borders of China?

At one point we spent some time reverse engineering the Chinese coordinate system, it’s actually quite fascinating. So terrible though.

But OSM actually doesn’t use that system! They use the normal coordinate system, which makes them unique across mapping services (and also a good tool to use to RE geojson away from chinas system).

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

#398

Post by [deleted] »

tayo42 wrote: post #361
jussij wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israel can get all the detailed imagery it needs by just launching a reconnaissance aircraft or drone. So on that basis I would say it only stops the Palestinians from getting imagery of the area. Now considering the fact Palestine only has rockets and not missiles, I doubt that imagery is of much value to them. Call me cynical, but I suspect the more important reason to keep these images blurred might be to stop the…

If that was the case why stop now? And why did they let parts unknown film in Palestine in 2013. The episode wasn't very pro Israel either. This a little to conspiracy theory for me.

[deleted]

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

#399

Post by kennywinker »

golergka wrote: post #255
sequoia wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at the country list, I see Israel is the #5 most densely populated country in the world. And Bnei Brak is the #5 most densely populated city, far more densely populated than Gaza. Bnei Brak was hit by rockets this week. Can you link me to some articles that refer to "Hamas firing rockets on Bnei Brak, one of the most densely populated cities in the world"? Or "on israel, one of the most densely populated coun…

Same reason that this conflict always gets the same optics in international media — jewish lives are worth less. At first, as you don't want to believe it, you argue, you investigate, you really try to find any sane reason that while these things are happening on ground with you and your family, everybody else still sees a different picture, and then you just come to realisation that there's no other explanation for…

I'm sorry to hear you're living through violence. That sounds horrible, and I hope you and your family are safe.

I see you conflating criticism of the actions of the Israeli government with opposition to Jewish lives. They are not the same. I oppose the Israeli government's policies and actions towards Palestine, but that does not mean I wish harm on you or your family, nor does it mean I don't see and value the Israeli lives lost during this conflict. There ARE other explanations for it.

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

#400

Post by nl »

sequoia wrote: post #242
jcranmer wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably missing this listing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen... Where Gaza listed as its own country, it would be one of the densest, since it's basically a city and its urban sprawl and nothing more (like the other densest entries on the list). Of course, Gaza is itself arguably only part of Palestine, but the West Bank itself is pretty dense (see how high Palestine ranks on tha…

Looking at the country list, I see Israel is the #5 most densely populated country in the world. And Bnei Brak is the #5 most densely populated city, far more densely populated than Gaza. Bnei Brak was hit by rockets this week. Can you link me to some articles that refer to "Hamas firing rockets on Bnei Brak, one of the most densely populated cities in the world"? Or "on israel, one of the most densely populated coun…

> And Bnei Brak is the #5 most densely populated city, far more densely populated than Gaza.

This is only because the term "city" is used inconsistently around the world. Bnei Brak is part of the district of Tel Aviv, and most geographers would consider it part of the Tel Aviv-Yafo urban agglomerations[1].

The absolute size of an area puts a ceiling on the density - roads etc take up space, and the larger the area the more likely it is to include freeways, or hit geographic features that limit density.

It would be better to think of it as a 7 sq km district, and as such its density (29,345 people per square km) isn't particularly high[2]. Looking at districts with similar geographic size Imbaba in Cairo is 8 square km and has a density of 177,038 per square km, or Güngören in Turkey is 8 sq km and has a density of 41,349 people per km. If we look at similar populations (204,639) then Manhattan Community Board 7 (population 207,699) has a density of 42,387 people per sq km, or Zaveri Bazar (pop 202,922) has a density of 114,001 people per sq km.

So yes, Bnei Brak is dense, but not especially so by comparable urban area standards.

[1] https://www.intechopen.com/books/urban-agglomeration/charact...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_city_districts_by_popu...

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