I’m particularly proud of the lede graf on today’s Times Picayune story about New Orleans police cars and other city vehicles languishing at a city repair plant amid the city’s budget woes. Pride comes before a fall, but I do really appreciate the editors at the Times Picayune for recognizing the merit in the “visible from space” angle, instead of chopping it. Here’s a photo I took of the plant last week:
Read the full story at the Times Picayune‘s website. Here’s a teaser quote:
“We’ve got a bunch of cars stacked up right now that need body work, but there’s no one to do it,” said Assistant Chief Marlon Defillo, at a recent NOPD statistics meeting.
Defillo asked his police commanders to remind their officers to be careful not to get into any scrapes with their cruisers, because there’s no telling when they’ll get fixed. Of the NOPD’s 1,376 vehicles, 78 are awaiting repair at this point, according to the city’s records.
Oh, and here’s the Google Maps image of the facility, which shows the cars languishing on the tarmac outside, waiting for repair:
“Visible from Space” … rather poetic, Matt, and I don’t begrudge you’re using the phrase, but the geek in me won’t let me sit still and I must comment: Google Maps images from the elevation shown in your example aren’t actually from space. They’re aerial views taken from a plane, provided from various local sources. For example, in the Portland area the imagery is provided by Metro. The genius of Google is that they’ve taken all this imagery from hundreds, perhaps thousands of sources, and stitched it together to represent every part of the globe, various elevations, and even various points in history.
Of course, to a really good spy satellite with massive image sensors and near-perfect lenses, *everything* is “visible” from space. But the phrase “visible from space” itself is more commonly used to refer to landmarks so massive that they’re visible to the naked eye to an astronaut or pilot at high enough elevation to be outside the atmosphere.
Turns out that a great many objects fit that definition:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/visible_from_space_031006.html
But to see individual cars or ordinary parking lots, you’re going to at least need binoculars or a good camera.
Bob, it’s funny. I was actually just having the same conversation over breakfast. It seems, if I were being wholeheartedly honest, I should have added a second paragraph:
“Actually, the problem is more likely visible from a plane, or high up, with a pair of binoculars. But it’s probably not visible with the naked eye…you know…from space.”
Fortunately you’re right: The statement is accurate, thanks to advances in satellite technology. And more importantly, it sounds good. Doesn’t it?
Yes, sounds lovely.