Friday 20 March 2009

Google Maps - Street View

Yesterday, whilst looking for some directions on Google Maps, I came across this amazing feature called Street View, which gives a street level view of things from a driver's perspective.

To use Street View, you need to drag the icon of a man just above the zoom slider onto a street of your interest. It covers most cities in the UK and probably the world. The amount of detail available is just mind blowing. This feature strikes me as just a step away from real life virtual driving, where one could drive around major cities from the comfort of their seats. Hats off to Google....

Monday 2 March 2009

“Earth – The Power of the Planet” by Dr. Iain Stewart

I finished watching the DVD “Earth – The Power of the Planet” presented by Dr. Iain Stewart this weekend. It took me a couple of weeks to watch the complete Two volume DVD with approximately 5 hours running time.

This DVD was an attempt by Dr. Iain Stewart and his team to explain the various forces (Volcanoes, Oceans and Ice, Atmosphere and Impacts from outer space) that shaped our planet so far and how the actions of the human beings over the past few thousand years are leaving an indelible imprint on the planet’s delicate ecology. It is difficult to pick what is best in this DVD, because every section is amazing and breathtaking. However, I most liked the section that is close to my heart termed “Rare Earth”, which is about an extraordinary sequence of events that led to the shaping of the planet that we live on today.

The conclusion by Dr. Iain Stewart and his team is our planet, because of its resilience, will eventually survive whatever the mankind may throw at it – but we humans may not be that fortunate.

The contents of the DVD and the presentation by Dr. Iain Stewart were truly exceptional. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this very informative DVD. To illustrate a point on how good the DVD is - by the end of the first DVD I was so impressed with what I saw that I felt like chucking my career in Oil & Gas and go and work with Dr. Iain Stewart on whatever project he is likely to work in the future. I would rate this work by Dr. Iain Stewart and his team as “Top notch” with an outcome that is “Truly brilliant”.

My advice is BUY this DVD set, if you are interested to know how our Planet was shaped over the past 4.6 billion years to its present state and how we humans are affecting its delicate ecology. If you are unable to BUY the DVD at least try and borrow it from wherever possible.