I know I said I'd post more...

But I've been busy all evening playing with satellite photos.

I was reading about how pretty much any satellite photos you can get your hands on now have the White House, the Capitol Building, the Dept. of Treasury, and surrounding office buildings all modified, pixelated, obscured etc.


Google Map of the White House, Dept. of Treasury and surrounding buildings.

The United States Capitol Building and surrounding office buildings.

Here is the Lincoln Memorial at full 0.25m:1px resolution. These are only thumbnails linking to full size images. Be sure to follow the links to view the full size images.


So I started playing around and created a merged together 1m:1px ratio composite of the 2002 images with the 1988 black and white images.


Here is the original new degraded image:


And here is the original old non-degraded image:


Here's an example of the resolution difference between 1m:1px and 0.25m:1px.


Personally I think these alterations are complete appeasing bullshit that accomplish nothing in the way of additional safety. People were whining about sattelite images being available, so they alter the images to make your average Joe on google maps feel more safe. Sorry folks, do you suddenly think that they can't figure out where the building is now!? *gasp* "Muhammad! We've lost the U.S. Capitol! Our terrorist efforts have been thwarted by their making the building a little more pixelated! The Jihad is over my brothers!"

And for a few kicks:
WTC Site, New York.
"Area 51", Groom Lake, Nevada.
Makkah (Mecca), Saudi Arabia.
Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq.
The Statue of Liberty, Liberty Island.

Technorati Tags / Washington D.C. / Politics / Satellite Photos / Freedom of Information Act / Safety