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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?

#491

Post by cutemonster »

eloff wrote: post #417
markdown wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Woah, you've gone pretty far off the deep end. You'd do well to remember there are two sides to any conflict (as my parents drilled into us whenever my brother and I would blame each other). In my opinion you can see Israel exercising serious restraint, evacuating people from a target first when possible, firing warning shots before the real attack. Hamas on the other hand is indiscriminately firing over 3000 rockets…

> the Palestinians, but they're hardly the good guys

Do you need to write "the Palestinians"? Sounds as if everyone were to blame for the rockets, but less than 1% of the people in Gaza, are in Hamas military wing.

Would it be weird to write "Hamas" instead about those who fire rockets? Or "terrorists in Hamas". (but please don't blame everyone for what a few are doing)

And in the same way, I wouldn't say that the Israelis are taking land from Palestinians on the west bank -- instead I'd write "the state and the settlers" take land. And that's also a small percentage of everyone, .. hmm seems it's somewhere between 5 and 10%, so more than 90% never did that

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

#492

Post by fy20 »

joering2 wrote: post #415
js2 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recently, I discovered Street View sometimes captures car crashes: https://goo.gl/maps/kJdgWQUU3eUMReUE8 https://ibb.co/x18fy3s

Two years ago when I saw Google car in front of me about to pass, I sure as hell opened the window and give it a bird, Maverick style. And sure as hell some 6 months later punching the address of my encounter, there I was in my car, with blurred face showing a middle finger that was surprisingly not blurred. So I showed it to all my friends all proud and stuff. Sadly a few months later the photo was replaced by I gue…

Well they knew the photo had a face, so maybe their algorithms simply prefer photos without people. There's plenty of reasons why you should prefer a photo of a location without a person, even if blurred - this being one of them!

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

#493

Post by fps_doug »

andi999 wrote: post #460
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…

Isnt it that all google services are not available in china, so it might not be possible to use google maps inside china.

When it still was available they had a license, but only when using Google Maps in China.

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

#494

Post by stonogo »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #470
acomjean wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a civil engineer last century gps accuracy was an issue because people wanted to use gps for surveying. They came up with a system that would use 2 receivers and a radio between them to get much higher accuracies. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/natureofgeoinfo/book/export/... I think the US Government can also shut it off at a moments notice.

What is the accuracy of GPS surveying? I briefely looked through the pdf, and probally missed it? I live in the Bay Area, and homeowners are concerned over a few inches. (There's a huge need for cheap surveys. Until GPS gets it to under a inch, traditional surveys will off pipes, and landmarks, is here to stay? Or, am I wrong?)

Civil and mining engineers have been making use of centimeter-accurate GNSS configurations for years now. The equipment necessary costs a few thousand dollars, more if you need even more precision. Most major civil and mining engineering projects use self-guided earth-moving equipment, not feasible without this technology.

The problem for homeowners is that surveys aren't enough. The vast majority of land titles are not registered in precise coordinates; they're registered in terms of landmarks, benchmarks, and so forth. This is changing at a glacial pace, but for now, the tech isn't the problem.

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

#495

Post by ac29 »

hellbannedguy wrote: post #470
acomjean wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a civil engineer last century gps accuracy was an issue because people wanted to use gps for surveying. They came up with a system that would use 2 receivers and a radio between them to get much higher accuracies. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/natureofgeoinfo/book/export/... I think the US Government can also shut it off at a moments notice.

What is the accuracy of GPS surveying? I briefely looked through the pdf, and probally missed it? I live in the Bay Area, and homeowners are concerned over a few inches. (There's a huge need for cheap surveys. Until GPS gets it to under a inch, traditional surveys will off pipes, and landmarks, is here to stay? Or, am I wrong?)

RTK has an accuracy of around 1cm. Its widely used by surveyors (and other things like agriculture, construction machine control, etc).

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

#496

Post by duckmysick »

supernova87a wrote: post #488
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…

>I learned a few interesting facts, blurry Israel being one of them. Yes, Israel specifically has favor from the US government that satellite imagery of that country is allowed to be blurred: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyl%E2%80%93Bingaman_Amendment... .

The BBC article in the submission mentions this restriction and the Kyl-Bingaman Amendment.

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

#497

Post by Insanity »

nroets wrote: post #480
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…

All Google products except the Google Translate App are blocked in China. So no Google maps. I spent 2 months cycling China from Hong Kong to Beijing. Despite only using Chinese characters, Baidu maps worked very well for me. I copied the characters I needed (Hotel, supermarket) into it from the translator. Here's my journal https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/5000years

Really nice photos, must have been quite the trip!

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

#498

Post by sofixa »

three14 wrote: post #442
geofft wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the phrasing you'd prefer? "Children were once again murdered in cold blood in Gaza, a metropolis that could be just like Singapore, Tokyo, or Hong Kong given its dense population and prime geographic location, were it not under constant military oppression from a country whose illegal nuclear weapons program is more successful than that of North Korea"? I think a lot of people would find that uncomfortably pa…

Whatever criticism Israel may or may not deserve over its current bombing campaign, you aren't going to convince anyone if you misuse phrases like "murdered in cold blood". That's just not what those words mean.

What do you call it when a military air force with enormous reconnaissance capabilities bombs civilian targets and civilians, including children, die?

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

#499

Post by Udik »

seagullz wrote: post #469
lacksconfidence wrote: post #422

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article makes this very clear. There is no google-israel conspiracy. The limits on satelite resolution were dictated by the US government.

And the US government is dictated by a Israel-first policy. At least in view of the UNSC vetoes [0] and the weapons it supplies. [0] https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/43-times-us-has-used-veto...

The idea that a country might pass internal laws specifically to favour a foreign country is incredible, and gives the measure of how much the US is subservient to Israel's interests.

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

#500

Post by sofixa »

sequoia wrote: post #416
mcguire wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Israeli lives are worth at least $400 / year each to the United States, given the $3.3B annual aid and a population of 9M. Since 2007, when the US stopped economic aid, it's been entirely military aid. ( https://explorer.usaid.gov/cd/ISR ) In total, Afghanistan gets more, $4.9B, but that only comes to $129 per Afghan. (That's the "you break it, you bought it" plan, I guess.) The next highest is Jordan, $1.7B or $170…

Just to clarify: these are the neighbours that expelled all their Jews leaving them refugees in Israel and also tried to destroy the country and many of which have not stopped trying for its entire history. Getting along takes two.

> Just to clarify: these are the neighbours that expelled all their Jews leaving them refugees in Israel and also tried to destroy the country and many of which have not stopped trying for its entire history. Getting along takes two

Sure, if you decide to start there. If you start a little further away, around WWI and before WWII, you have Jews settling lands where they were a small minority en masse, and after WWII mass migration there ( for very good reasons), and active Jewish and Arab boycotts for a UN proposed and unfair towards the Arabs partition of the land ( like murdering the UN negotiator by Jews).

Israel doesn't help its case for peaceful coexistence, if there is even such a case, by illegally occupying, ethnic cleansing and resettling Palestinian lands. If Israel wanted peace, it is the main party that can actually do something about it, but they do the opposite, up to and including that Israel is a country for Jews in their constitution, while refusing to acknowledge Palestine is a thing. Where should the Palestinians go?

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