Imagine being about nine years old right now, and growing up with the Google Earth application on your computer! This has to be the ultimate geographic encyclopedia.
Google Earth is a program that allows you to zoom in on any location on our planet and get a satellite view of every detail below, or at any level you wish to click to. In addition, this cyber-terrain is linked to Wikipedia and a wealth of ground-level photographs of important sites. It was suggested to me by Kevin Wilks, former secretary of the Australian Metric Conversion Board, before my visit to his country last year. The free version may be downloaded at http://earth.google.com/. I dare you to spend less than one hour exploring with it the first time you use it. I spent a whole day just touring the world as if I had an unlimited global boarding pass! For those of us who are pursuing a universal standard of measurement, the idea of having the whole world in your hands is quite appealing. The zoom effect is what is most dramatic. I zoomed in on my parents' house of 44 years in Woburn, Massachusetts. Then, I typed in "Ouagadougou" and found myself catapulted to the downtown of the capital city of Burkina Faso, in Africa, faster than an orbiting spacecraft! Paul Trusten, R.Ph. Public Relations Director U.S. Metric Association, Inc. www.metric.org 3609 Caldera Blvd. Apt. 122 Midland TX 79707-2872 US +1(432)528-7724 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
