Well I really should know better.

The moment I mention the fact that Google Earth hasn’t yet been released for the Mac… I discover that Google Earth has just been released for the Mac. For all of you who, like me, have been suffering severe PC envy for months now – suffer no more! And if you’ve never seen GE in action, then you really are in for a treat.

Don’t forget, each post on this site has a ‘View in Google Earth’ link at the bottom which will open into the application – showing you placemarks for everything we’ve talked about.

Go on then, get with the downloading already!

(And for those of you who’ve been running GE for months… its finally come out of beta, so you guys should probably all download it too)

This is the 341-year-old Kastellet in Copenhagen, Denmark – one of the best preserved fortifications in Northern Europe. King Christian IV originally had the star-shaped island built to house a castle for him to hide in (should the need arise), but due to “economic constraints” the castle was never built.

Today the island functions as a military area and has a museum, park, its own church and even a windmill… this is Denmark after all!

There’s some more info at Wikipedia.

Incidentally, this is also the site of the Little Mermaid, but it’s too small to see anything much. Is it any better on Google Earth? (Roll-on the final Mac version…!)

Thanks to Troy Fuqua, Corey

Between 1984 and 1993 Rosyth Royal Navy Dockard was the UK’s sole location for refitting our nuclear submarines. These days the dockyard still does work on Royal Navy ships and is also the storage location for seven of the eleven decommissioned submarines, which you can clearly see in the satellite picture (the other 4 are at Devonport, Plymouth).

The submarines are: The HMS Dreadnought (the oldest of the UK’s submarines), HMS Churchill, HMS Swiftsure, HMS Resolution, HMS Repulse, HMS Renown and HMS Revenge. You can see a couple in the background of this ground level photo.

The last four made up the fleet of “Resolution class” submarines, which carried Polaris missiles and served as the UK’s nuclear deterrent for over 28 years and 228 unbroken patrols. All seven of the subs have now had their nuclear fuel rods removed but are still potentially dangerous and, worryingly, no-one’s quite sure what to do with them :-/

Thanks: subflux & Matthew

Brainpark III is an office park outside Rotterdam which, while under construction a few years ago, had its name written in the dirt. Before you ask, yes there is a Brainpark I and II, a name so stupid they used it three times.

Thanks: Wilfred van Breda

It’s been a while since we had a good bridge shadow, so here is the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward bridge – more commonly known as the Dames Point bridge, in Jacksonville, Florida. Opened in 1989, the 2 mile long bridge is the longest concrete cable-stayed bridge in the United States. I think it’s also a rather beautiful contruction. Well, you know… for a bridge.

Live Local has some incredibly high resolution imagery of the bridge – detailed enough to make out which models of car are driving across I’m sure. Our other Live Local thumbnail is of the very top of one of the tower verticals, where you can see a 15 foot wide platform and the stairs leading up to it.

Impressive stuff, however I’m still not sure about Live Local – I find the interface for the bird’s eye images clunky and confusing. More importantly, I think Microsoft are missing the point slightly, as one of the reasons I like satellite maps is the geek factor – they’re pictures, **taken by satellites***, I mean, that’s just cool, right?

Thanks to David Fletcher.

* Yes, I’m fully aware that some of Google’s best imagery is aerial photography, but that’s not the point!