# Human Footprint: Satellite pictures as Art.



## Statistikhengst (Jan 27, 2014)

My daughter and I recently visited a really wonderful natural history museum, called:

MUSEUM KOENIG.


Most of it is natural history and zoological research, but right now, on the top level, they have a special exhibition (Ausstellung) called* "Human Footprint: Menschliches Handeln im Satellitenbild"* (Human Footprint: human activities in (through) satellite photos.








When you walk into the exhibition, you think you are looking at some really interesting impressionistic paintings, until you get up close and see that those are thousands of satellite pictures of major (and minor) cities that have some very special characteristics about them (structures, colors, etc).

In order to help keep this organized, I shot a photo of the plaque next to each city and then shot a photo of the city itself.  Since this is an open exhibit, photographing this stuff is legal. I also asked beforehand.

There are just thousands and thousands more of these pictures here:

http://www.eovision.at/bildarchiv.html

So, without any further ado, here are some awesome pictures!

The opening satellite picture:











*Bashang, China:*











*Mezairaa, UAE:*
















*Al-Kufrah, Libya:*






Al-Kufrah has got to be one of the absolutely coolest images out there:






*Mecca, Saudi Arabia:*











*Belek, Turkey:*

















*Seville, Spain:*






All those aqua-colored squares? Solar panels.











*Zarya Oktabryia, Khazakhstan:*






(an oil mining city)






*Los Angeles, California, USA:*











*Weston, Florida, USA:*











*Prieska, South Africa:*











*Detoie, Botswana:*











*Calama (Atacama Desert), Chile:*


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## Statistikhengst (Jan 27, 2014)

BTW, I've been to the Atacama Desert and flew through Calama, stayed at a small town called San Pedro. The Atacama is not the hottest desert in the world, but it is the driest. There are some salt lakes there that have the highest concentration of salt in the whole world. It is impossible to sink in one of those lakes.

Here are a couple of pics of me with some colleagues, taking a time out at the Atacama desert, in December, 2009:






In front of a salt lake:











And in the salt lake:


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## Statistikhengst (Jan 27, 2014)

A friendly shout out to some folks who may really enjoy the information in the OP:  [MENTION=42916]Derideo_Te[/MENTION]  [MENTION=40495]AngelsNDemons[/MENTION]  [MENTION=41527]Pogo[/MENTION]  [MENTION=26011]Ernie S.[/MENTION]  [MENTION=9429]AVG-JOE[/MENTION]  [MENTION=45886]Mad_Cabbie[/MENTION]  [MENTION=42649]Gracie[/MENTION]  [MENTION=20412]JakeStarkey[/MENTION]  [MENTION=25505]Jroc[/MENTION]  [MENTION=38281]Wolfsister77[/MENTION]  [MENTION=21679]william the wie[/MENTION]  [MENTION=23424]syrenn[/MENTION]  [MENTION=43625]Mertex[/MENTION]  [MENTION=37250]aaronleland[/MENTION]  [MENTION=36767]Bloodrock44[/MENTION]  [MENTION=36528]cereal_killer[/MENTION]  [MENTION=40540]Connery[/MENTION]  [MENTION=30999]daws101[/MENTION]  [MENTION=46449]Delta4Embassy[/MENTION]  [MENTION=33449]BreezeWood[/MENTION]  [MENTION=31362]gallantwarrior[/MENTION]  [MENTION=24610]iamwhatiseem[/MENTION]  [MENTION=46750]Knightfall[/MENTION]  [MENTION=46690]Libertarianman[/MENTION]  [MENTION=20450]MarcATL[/MENTION]  [MENTION=20594]Mr Clean[/MENTION]  [MENTION=20704]Nosmo King[/MENTION]  [MENTION=43268]TemplarKormac[/MENTION]  [MENTION=20321]rightwinger[/MENTION]  [MENTION=41494]RandallFlagg[/MENTION]  [MENTION=25283]Sallow[/MENTION]  [MENTION=21357]SFC Ollie[/MENTION]  [MENTION=18905]Sherry[/MENTION]  [MENTION=43491]TooTall[/MENTION]  [MENTION=25451]tinydancer[/MENTION]  [MENTION=31918]Unkotare[/MENTION]  [MENTION=45104]WelfareQueen[/MENTION]  [MENTION=21524]oldfart[/MENTION]  [MENTION=42498]Esmeralda[/MENTION]  [MENTION=43888]AyeCantSeeYou[/MENTION]  [MENTION=19302]Montrovant[/MENTION]  [MENTION=11703]strollingbones[/MENTION]  [MENTION=18988]PixieStix[/MENTION]  [MENTION=23262]peach174[/MENTION]  [MENTION=13805]Againsheila[/MENTION]  [MENTION=38085]Noomi[/MENTION]  [MENTION=18905]Sherry[/MENTION]  [MENTION=29697]freedombecki[/MENTION]  [MENTION=38146]Dajjal[/MENTION]  [MENTION=18645]Sarah G[/MENTION]  [MENTION=46193]Thx[/MENTION]  [MENTION=20614]candycorn[/MENTION]  [MENTION=24452]Seawytch[/MENTION]  [MENTION=29614]C_Clayton_Jones[/MENTION]  [MENTION=18990]Barb[/MENTION]  [MENTION=19867]G.T.[/MENTION]  [MENTION=31057]JoeB131[/MENTION]  [MENTION=11278]editec[/MENTION]  [MENTION=22983]Flopper[/MENTION]  [MENTION=22889]Matthew[/MENTION]  [MENTION=46136]dreolin[/MENTION]  [MENTION=19867]G.T.[/MENTION]  [MENTION=19302]Montrovant[/MENTION]  [MENTION=24208]Spoonman[/MENTION]   [MENTION=24122]racewright[/MENTION]  [MENTION=5176]RetiredGySgt[/MENTION]  [MENTION=44536]BobPlumb[/MENTION]  [MENTION=46351]Shrimpbox[/MENTION]  [MENTION=39072]mamooth[/MENTION]  [MENTION=45320]Nyvin[/MENTION]


Anyone who doesn't want to be on this occasional mention list: just let me know, I will drop the name immediately. None of these members have ever indicated that I am somehow on their ignore list.

Thanks, 

-Stat


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## Sallow (Jan 27, 2014)

Nice


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## Nosmo King (Jan 27, 2014)

Human engineering giveth and human engineering taketh away.


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## Wolfsister77 (Jan 27, 2014)

Wow, very interesting.


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## Ernie S. (Jan 27, 2014)

I'm familiar with Weston. I did a lot of work there. I guess it's a neat idea, but seem pretty cookie cutter to me. One street looks just like the last.


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## Barb (Jan 27, 2014)

Your pictures remind me of a recurring thought regarding a chicken and egg question I posed in a learning journal of Allen, T. and Hoekstra, T. (1992) Toward A Unified Ecology Columbia University Press, NY:



> The text specifies irritation as the signal that organisms respond to, and I wondered why pleasure was not included as a trigger to response, as pleasure is not exclusive to humans. Plants seek light, fullness produces pleasure in pets, and animals in the wild play with and protect their young, displaying affection. *Allen and Hoekstra caution against objectifying organisms so as not to miss important information about the perceptions of their own reality in favor of applying human criteria to them. That caution is appreciable, but it does seem that some similarities do apply. From the beginning of the text I have noticed how the hierarchy of levels, scales, and natural constraints of different criteria, and even landscape corridors match in some way arrangements of human government, civil engineering, competition, family structure (more cohesive within than without), and social activity.* Humans, no matter how one sees them emerging, got here last. Does it not seem more reasonable that the similarities we see are evolutionary, and we copying other organisms rather than ascribing our own attributes in reverse?
> 
> The Population Criterion
> (Allen and Hoekstra, pgs. 201-237)
> ...


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## Statistikhengst (Jan 27, 2014)

Sallow said:


> Nice




Thanks!



Wolfsister77 said:


> Wow, very interesting.



Thanks!




Nosmo King said:


> Human engineering giveth and human engineering taketh away.



Indeed.



Ernie S. said:


> I'm familiar with Weston. I did a lot of work there. I guess it's a neat idea, but seem pretty cookie cutter to me. One street looks just like the last.



Indeed.


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## Statistikhengst (Jan 27, 2014)

Barb said:


> Your pictures remind me of a recurring thought regarding a chicken and egg question I posed in a learning journal of Allen, T. and Hoekstra, T. (1992) Toward A Unified Ecology Columbia University Press, NY:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Bolded (in red): fascinating.


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## PixieStix (Jan 27, 2014)

I like this pic...pretty cool


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## syrenn (Jan 27, 2014)

i cant resist.... 






Teenager draws penis on parents' roof to lure Google Earth | UK news | theguardian.com


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## Statistikhengst (Jan 27, 2014)

PixieStix said:


> I like this pic...pretty cool




Hey, [MENTION=18988]PixieStix[/MENTION] - thanks!!!


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## Barb (Jan 27, 2014)

Statistikhengst said:


> Barb said:
> 
> 
> > Your pictures remind me of a recurring thought regarding a chicken and egg question I posed in a learning journal of Allen, T. and Hoekstra, T. (1992) Toward A Unified Ecology Columbia University Press, NY:
> ...



Thank you  I did well in my science classes, but I had to approach the texts as a science as a second language student. Still, the crossover connections that can be made between organisms and human societies are pretty remarkable, I thought.

For example, compare this picture to the satellite images:


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## Statistikhengst (Jan 28, 2014)

Barb said:


> Statistikhengst said:
> 
> 
> > Barb said:
> ...



Wow!


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