Note: The compass is in the upper left because of the length of the photo. I oriented Google Earth so East was up, then rotated the screen shot 90 degrees in photo shop so north would again appear up.
Contest #11 Answer
The answer to contest #11 is the Dead Sea. In particular, just south of the Dead Sea proper between Israel and Jordan. The objects with regular shapes are salt evaporation ponds. The Dead Sea is now so salty, than the salts which precipitate contain heavy metals now, which are usually so dilute in regular sea water it is almost impossible to harvest.
Winners of Contest #11 are:
- Ben Bayer
- Stepher Hope
- Andy McAllister
- Spathiinc
- Roland
Note: be as specific as possible when giving an answer. Because an answer might be technically true (Earth or Asia), doesn’t mean it will be counted as correct if other places could also fit under your answer.
image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfred/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/potashman/
Geographic Ignorance? Not here!
This is from the February 14, New York Times:
A popular video on YouTube shows Kellie Pickler, the adorable platinum blonde from “American Idol,” appearing on the Fox game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” during celebrity week. Selected from a third-grade geography curriculum, the $25,000 question asked: “Budapest is the capital of what European country?”
Ms. Pickler threw up both hands and looked at the large blackboard perplexed. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. Playing it safe, she chose to copy the answer offered by one of the genuine fifth graders: Hungary. “Hungry?” she said, eyes widening in disbelief. “That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.”
….
Not only are citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge, she said, but they also don’t think it matters.
She pointed to a 2006 National Geographic poll that found nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds don’t think it is necessary or important to know where countries in the news are located. So more than three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map.
If Ms. Pickler would like to play the game, I would be glad to put up a photo of her house for a contest. Unfortunately, I still the the regulars would get it right and she would get it wrong.