It's Official: There Is No Cooler Learning Tool Than Google Earth!

Man - if I had had this as a kid, those encyclopedias would have been kicked to the curb as soon as I got up from the computer (i.e., never).

Click. There's ocean chlorophyll levels.

Click. There's a video of a starving polar bear futilely attacking a herd of walruses (big suckers).

Click. There's NYT articles on Mumbai.

Click. There's Hubble pics of something or another.

Click. There's a 150 year old map of Seattle overlaid on top of actual Seattle.

Click. There's a graphic showing the near-surface geological layer structure of Antarctica. With 7 links for more info.


Oh - and it also gets you over the US-centrist view of the globe REAL quick. It's too much of a pain to keep "righting" the view as you go around the world. Much easier to just learn what shit looks like from any orientation.

Man - turn the (realtime) sun on and off, look at the stars, go to Mars. Take a trip to Fiji, then Mt. Fuji*. Close with a live webcam in Prague. Oops, it's nitetime in Prague.


If I had had this as a kid, I'd be a far smarter adult.



* Mt. Fuji vista: h ttp://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/14480244.jpg

I am in awe of how smooth Google Earth works. Street views is awesome.

With effects maxed, and most of the layers on, it actually taxes my high-ish end gaming puter.

It's fucking worth it, though.

and now she knows her way around a globe pretty darn well!

But even more than the mere global-knowledge is the ability to read the news by spinning the globe, learn about freaky critters, see webcams & 360-degree pics, and, and, and...

I suppose that can wait for her to learn how to read, though. :P