Google Earth seems to want to put
everyone on the map and on the internet.
Some feel they are invading one’s privacy and I am sure that is the
case, but in this day and age, no one can be private very long. If you have any part of a person’s information
and if you dig deep enough on the internet, you can find out almost everything
there is to know about that person. It
is easier if you have the person’s name, address, and telephone number, but
with only one of those, you can find the rest.
There are all sorts of “people finder” sites, some free and some have a
fee. If you have a little patients and
take the time for some research, the free ones work just fine. With Google Earth, you can see where someone
lives. You can get a street view or an aerial
view. Don’t believe me, just search for
yourself. You can even find home values
and what a home sold for. Nothing seems
private or sacred anymore.
Why am I talking about Google
Earth? Because I read an article in
Discover Magazine about what one employee (Rebecca Moore) did for a 1200 member
tribe in the Amazon forest. She was
sitting in her office one day when the Chief of the tribe walked in and asked
for her help. He was the only member of
the tribe to go to college and he discovered her and some of the things she
exposed in the past (like mountaintop-removal mining in the Appalachia Mountains)
while surfing the internet. He also saw
on Google Earth how loggers were steadily encroaching on his tribe’s lush,
green rainforest. She did help. She went to his village and met the people
and photographed them and the area. A
computer center with satellite-based WI-FI was set up for the people. The next year she and her group went back
with GPS-equipped Android smartphone so that they could document and photograph
evidence of environmental crimes. Not
only that, but instead of industries around the world cutting their emissions,
they will be allowed to pay this tribe to protect carbon-holding trees. Works for both the tribe and the companies.
Don’t you just love it when a
plan comes together for the good of all?
You all have a great day now, you hear?
I do love it when a plan comes together.
ReplyDeleteI love the ActiveCaptain web site. I can switch from navigational chart views to statelite views. Makes it much easier to navigate knowing what an area actually looks like.
Sometimes the internet available stuff does come to good use huh? I'm so glad to see less kids screwing around on it loading up junk. Guess it's too much trouble for them to have to type instead of just sending text messages .
ReplyDeleteCheck out www.vpike.com. You can drive-by.
ReplyDeleteSixbears, isn't that what the A-team guy said at the end of show?
ReplyDeleteYes, there are a lot of helpful stuff out there on the web.
Ben, back when we were kids, we never screwed up did we?? Well, maybe just a little.
Michael, I checked it out and put my current address in and an old one when I lived in County Club Hgts in Pennslvania. Neither places showed street views but they do in Google Earth.
Just way too much fun and useful things on the Net!
ReplyDeleteI could spend even more time here if I had it!
HJ, I know what you mean. There is too much information out there and not enough hours in the day.
ReplyDelete