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I was working at Kinko's when she came by to pick me up, so I decided to show her the wonder that is Google Earth. Spinning the world around in 3D, zooming in on Disney World, New York, Washington DC, etc... it occured to me to show her what I found a few days ago: the link to my high school article on Wikipedia that included a link to Google Earth's location for my school's old "Palace of Education" complex in Havana, Cuba.
Amazed at what she was actually seeing (my school's old building is unmistakeable from above for those who have seen the mural in my school's lobby), she began to traverse the streets through the city she once called home, heading to the shoreline and moving northeast along the "malecon", discovering hotels she once knew, some that were recently build, the fortification and the statue of Maximo Gomez, etc... She was truly amazed.
As I was about to close up, I hit something that began to slowly zoom out until she told me rather excitedly to stop. There, in a little corner of the screen, on the bottom right, is a single label: "Nueva Paz", the town in which she was born and raised as a child. So I zoomed in for her.
The town can't be more than ten by ten blocks nestled in the surrounding green that is central Cuba, but it was amazing to be able to zoom in and be able to see cars on the road (granted, there weren't many of them, but still). She traversed the streets in her mind, with her finger, until she came to the very house she grew up in, in the southeast region of the town.
We all are bothered at the fact that Cuba is only ninety miles away, but to others it feels like it's on another planet. For this brief moment, her homeland felt closer than it has in nearly forty years. It brought tears to her eyes and she could hardly speak.
At home I spent the next two hours looking up other locations through this marvel of modern science. I looked for my own home town - Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico - but I have no memory of it and can't make out any landmarks. But, even if I did, I can at least go there at will.
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Granted, I do have some tequila in me, but that gave me a little lump in my throat, Nighthawk.
Posts: 2064 | Registered: Dec 2003
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My grandparents have been looking recently at our hometown in Ukraine and finding buildings they used to know and following paths they used to walk. They wouldn't stop babbling about it on the phone the other week.
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I was under the impression that the newest Carrier was named the Gerald Ford.
I was also under the impression that ships weren't built in Hawaii, they were maintained there.
edit: The Ronald Reagan was commissioned a couple years ago and is serving with a carrier group. CVN-77 is the George H W Bush. It will be the last Nimitz-Class, and the Gerald Ford will be the first of the new class of carriers.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Great thread. This is the kind of stuff that makes hatrack what it is -- along with all that other stuff. And usually I see threads like this and I just think, "hatrack is the place for me, man," but I don't comment. This time I thought I would. There's just something--- I dunno ---touching? about this post. Thanks
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
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When I got back from Japan, I showed my Mom around Yokohama - I took her from Landmark Tower down to Yamashita Park and through Chinatown, then up the hill to the church and down the narrow streets to the apartment I lived in. It was amazing.
We live in the future, friends!
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