Here I sit, having not blogged for a while. It has been sitting like a burr under the saddle. I went to a meeting, to become a pc for the Republican party in Winslow. I love being back in politics and look forward to becoming more involved. But that is a side note. Back to the meeting and what I learned there.
It was brought up that there are new facilities that are to serve as emergency shelters, kind of like tent cities that Sheriff Joe uses in Maricopa County. Some have cited 3rd person testimony of corrections officers leaving Winslow prison to train at these federal tent cities. Very interesting and very scary. And no offense to my Winslow brethren, but very hard to swallow. (Though my fellow Winslowians should keep reading. It will make sense.)
I guess that my schooling in Missouri has rubbed off on me. I am the kind of guy that needs to see hard evidence. And then…
The other day, I was at the office, and Dr Merrell was so proud of his new download on his computer. He was trying to show me where he had been a missionary in Taipei, Taiwan. www.earth.google.com It’s fascinating to say the least. So this is what I want to talk about, the above mentioned website. If you have high speed internet, the program, the free version that I have, takes about 12 minutes to download.
So what is Google Earth? It is satellite imagery that has been downloaded to the net. You can look at any location. You can almost see any building but not with a whole lot of detail. For example, I saw my parents’ home, but not with too much detail. I mean I know that judging by how full the Wal-Mart parking lot is, which is next door, that during that time of day, there should be a car and boat in the drive and people in the pool. Just the way it is. But I could not tell if there was a car in the drive or not.
Then as I was looking at the improvements of Yuma, I noticed that there were some subtle changes that one might not see when looking for a specific place. I was not, but I decided to follow the highway back to Winslow. Before I left Yuma, I noticed that there were about 6 different ground discolorations in the City of Yuma alone. This is definitely not a continuous picture, or from even the same pass of photo imaging. Some areas appear to be colorized. Some are sepia. But why are there these discontinuities?
So I am panning the I-8, see my dad’s farm. Well I see where it should be. OK Yuma had this new shopping plaza built 4-5 years ago. That is there. My house built 4 years ago. That is not there. I looked at my dad’s farm, built 30, that’s THIRTY years ago. THAT IS NOT THERE. Hmmm. I panned further south of my dad’s farm to the natural cisterns that I used to climb through as a teen. The area was blurred. I left the browser there for about an hour to see if it needs to buffer. Still a blur.
OK I know that there is a bombing range just southeast of my dad’s farm. The fighters have been so close to the ground that I could see if the pilot shaved or not. I expected that area to be blurred. It was. But why immediately south? What is there? What is there south of Welton? What is there 8 miles east of Dateland on the I-8?
Now the Dateland, there is something of interest. I have driven the 8 between Yuma and the end in Casa Grande so many times. I know the stops and exits. And then I saw something near Dateland that I have never seen before. What is it? It appears to be a facility that is ¼ mile deep, ½ mile wide, and the buildings near a tenth mile long, and planted at angles to the plots they are on.
So I then stopped to search the desert from the air, in a way that I have never really searched before. Sure I have driven most of the dirt roads in Yuma County, but thanks to Google Earth, there is a lot that I do not know about my beloved old stomping grounds.
And yet, now I must pause. Why do we see all these patches and blurs. Why are some of the images 30+ years old while others are up to date? It seems that there is a lot for hiding. Yet for what reason are the pictures not accurate?
Times are changing. It is interesting. I am preparing. Are you?
