CTOvision just put up my post on how Google Earth does more to uncover ancient ruins and remains, track pirates, and other really cool stuff for free than commercially available products for hundreds of thousands of dollars could a decade ago. The growing power of open source and off-the-shelf technology as well as the internet has been one of the drivers of non-state actor super-empowerment.
The background to that post is pretty interesting as well. I heard about what Google Earth could do from Dr. Lee Berger himself (upper left). I was having a beer at DC's Thunderburger when a man to my left started making observations on the varied physiognomy of the people sitting at the bar. This drew me in to a conversation and, when I asked him what he did, he replied that he was an explorer. Not realizing we still had explorers, I asked Lee, with whom I was on first name basis at this point, to elaborate, and he told me that he was the man behind the Maputo caves discovery, the largest find of early human remains, and invited me and a friend to a ceremony at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History where I got so see the casts of australopithecus sediba (bottom left) that were being donated on behalf of the South African government. When security asked me which journal I represented, I told them that I was one of Lee's drinking buddies. This sort of thing only happens in DC...
By Alex Olesker
I'm super jealous, bro. Why does this sort of thing always seem to happen to you - when I'm not around?
Your pal from William and Mary
Posted by: cdbarnewolt@mac.com | April 25, 2011 at 02:27 PM