Google Brings Street View to the Amazon
The Amazon rainforest is about to get the Google Street View treatment.
Google Street View is an awesome tool for planning trips, mapping out journeys and even just seeing places you wouldn't otherwise have the chance to see. You can check out London's Piccadilly Circus, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, the penguins of Antarctica, and the Guinness Brewery without ever leaving your home. Soon, you'll be able to add the Amazon rainforest to that list.
"A few members of our Brazil and U.S. Street View and Google Earth Outreach teams are currently in the Amazon rainforest using our Street View technology to capture images of the river, surrounding forests and adjacent river communities," Karin Tuxen-Bettman of Google Earth Outreach and Karina Andrade of Google Street View revealed today via the official Google blog.
"In partnership with the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation (FAS), the local non-profit conservation organization that invited us to the area, we’re training some of FAS’s representatives on the imagery collection process and leaving some of our equipment behind for them to continue the work. By teaching locals how to operate these tools, they can continue sharing their points of view, culture and ways of life with audiences across the globe."
Google and FAS will photograph a 50km section of the Rio Negro River, extending from the Tumbira community near Manaus to the Terra Preta community. The company plans to use the Google Earth Trike (a tricycle with cameras mounted on top) to maneuver through the narrow dirt paths of the Amazon villages. The search giant will also mount the camera on a boat to take photos from the perspective of the boasts floating down the river. Then they'll begin the process of stitching together the photos to create the 360 degree panoramic shots we're used to seeing on Google Street View.
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First thing I thought when I read the title was Amazon.com...
This will be pretty cool...i hope that people will finally realize the full consequences of deforestation and habitat destruction...
This will be pretty cool...i hope that people will finally realize the full consequences of deforestation and habitat destruction...
You have more faith in humanity than I, my friend; most people don't understand the implications of top soil erosion or even the impending water shortage.
It has always seemed crazy to me that people spray thousands of gallons of water on their lawn every year in the pursuit of greener grass, when people in other countries kill and die for a fraction of that to drink.
But on topic, even though they have built an advertising empire on such products, Google has provided the world a service through google maps/streetview, and many other projects that have pushed tech a little further (anyone remember the, at the time, astronomical amount of storage a free gmail account brought, at a time when you had to pay for yahoo to get over 50mb).
We have directly benefited from their pursuit of profit.
You have more faith in humanity than I, my friend; most people don't understand the implications of top soil erosion or even the impending water shortage.It has always seemed crazy to me that people spray thousands of gallons of water on their lawn every year in the pursuit of greener grass, when people in other countries kill and die for a fraction of that to drink.
That has nothing to do with what people do, it has to do with the way capitalism works. For some people to be happy and have whatever they want, there HAS to be people who are unhappy and have nothing. You can't have the balance you are seeking with the existence of capitalism. If it wasn't for those who have nothing then people in the US and most of Europe wouldn't be able to buy cheap stuff
"the perspective of the boasts floating down the river"
I first thought Street View was coming to products sold on Amazon. Boy was I wrong.
That has nothing to do with what people do, it has to do with the way capitalism works. For some people to be happy and have whatever they want, there HAS to be people who are unhappy and have nothing. You can't have the balance you are seeking with the existence of capitalism. If it wasn't for those who have nothing then people in the US and most of Europe wouldn't be able to buy cheap stuff
This is absolutely true. People are inherently selfish (i am guilty as well); a small anecdote, just yesterday i was driving home from work and i saw something under the overpass, it was a woman who had somehow fallen over in a powered wheel chair, I stopped and helped her up; she was wet from the oil and nastiness on the road and best she could guess she had been there an hour. I in no way claim to be pious, or even virtuous and honest; but how could you drive past that. While im rambling, how could anyone show true hate for homeless people when maybe 5%(not real statistic) are out there by choice; most are schizophrenic (sure some are drug addicts, but thats never something anyone starts out wanting to be).
As i have gotten older i have lost the urge to recklessly pursue excess. At one point i was 100% behind capitalism; The only future i can picture that is not pulled from the dystopian scenes of a 90's action movie, is some form of technocracy/socialism hybrid (i picture robotics handling remedial task and people under a certain learning ability are assigned a public service position, supported by the government.)
There is a world of information free at hand, but no one can see past the lolcats and up to the minute facebook status updates; lol i think im ready for some post apocalyptia.
I am Brazilian and I thought it was about Amazon.com too, lol