Over on the west coast of Italy, closing in the northern arm of the Bay of Naples, are two islands. The one farther from the coast, but still not far out, is Ischia.

Off the northeast coast of Ischia is a remarkable island, now connected to Ischia by a causeway. The island’s about 200 m across, and quite tall. It’s topped by a castle, no surprise there (what a lovely and strategic place for a fortification!). Of course, the castle complex, in this Catholic land, includes several chapels. The island hosts thirteen churches.

I was quite tickled to see the shadow this little island casts on Google Maps’ satellite photo.

WikiPee says some scenes in the disturbing movie The Talented Mr. Ripley were shot here….

Nothing heavy on this Satt-ah-dee night, but here’s a castle I found while perusing the landscape in Google Earth. I love that you can see the terracing below the lower castle wall. Note the defensive shape of the main wall. As always, where are the storage rooms for food, water, ammunition? That’s the problem with holing up; you need supplies….

We took a different route through Ohio, avoiding the Toledo area by striking across the farmland of the northwestern part of the state. One problem is where to cross the mighty Maumee. This time, we crossed this bridge in Napoleon. At dusk.

The latest blooming azaleas in our yard are now fading….

If you didn’t know what the phrase meant, wouldn’t you think the hero in a bad spy novel would be beset by (Eastern European) Boolean operators?

So, the other week I was looking at topos of way down in Decatur County, in south Georgia, and I saw this stunningly round, distinct, and dramatic landform. I finally got around to checking it out on GoogleEarth, and it seems even more interesting than it looked on the map. Next time I’m down that way….

Not sure what it is, but I’d start with Carolina bays; they are rounder rather than oval in these parts and this landform is sure round!

More on stereoviewing….

One thing about the SAAs, most people throw up a Keynote (or that other MS format), and since archaeology has a lot of spatial variables, there’re often maps. Well, they used to be maps, hand-drawn back in the old days; now a GoogleMap or two creeps in….

Note that the cleared area on this image had just civic-ceremonial architecture—no normal residential area. Some of that was on the terraces that sprawl down the slopes, mostly toward the top and right of the frame (no, north is not “up”). When this was a vibrant community a millennia ago, it extended outside this image. It was BIG. Uh, scale? Those rectangular things are tour buses on one of the whitish patches toward the lower right….

I had a good idea today—at least I’m pretty sure, even now, that it’s a good idea. That makes today a superb day!

That hotel I’ve been hanging out in? I finally got something good out of the architecture—the view north from the 19th floor. Of course, I was turned around and kept trying to make this into the view east, but the shape of the bump on the horizon wasn’t looking right for Stone Mountain. I did think about it being a view north, since I couldn’t explain one building cluster in between…. So, conclusion, after consulting the multi-talented Guru: this is Kennesaw Mountain.

For unknown reasons (unexercised and unverbalized desire to wander exacerbated by fine spring weather?), I’ve been distracted for a time both yesterday and today looking closely at the Isle of Skye in Google Earth. I even downloaded a 1905 text from archive.org called The Misty Isle of Skye: Its Scenery, Its People, Its Story, and examined places noted therein.

Somewhere along the way, I discovered that those crazy Brits (or Scots) decided that if a Munro is any Scottish mountain more than 3K feet tall, then a somewhat smaller landform, at least 150 meters tall (just under 500 feet for you metric-challenged types), shall be referred to as a Marilyn (get it?), or, roughly, a hill. Or, and I suppose this is entirely possible, those Wikipedia wackos are totally pulling my leg!

Except for the pixellation, perhaps this could have been in the exhibition we saw yesterday…but it’s grabbed from Google Earth, and is of the Iranian coast just west of the Strait of Hormuz, tipped for a low-angle view….

In June the U.P. is a semitropical bug farm.

That’s Jim Harrison in Returning to Earth (2007; pg. 78), and he’s so right! Although not always—he also says the Seney stretch is 50 miles, but I think it’s quite a bit less. Like high 20s. I guess if you’re on a bicycle, though, it may well feel like fifty miles!

You may know Harrison as the author of Legends of the Fall or Wolf (both made into movies), or possibly from his non-fiction writing about food and cooking. I cleave more to his fiction pieces set in Michigan or Oklahoma.

Today’s vocabulary: cleave

Interesting word meaning either to split/sever or to adhere (both verbs, notice). Opposite meanings…I meant the latter…. I guess the clue is the “cleave to” phrasing; with “to” cleave almost always means to adhere/be attached.

Google Earth image of Abbotsbury Swannery lagoon, with mute swan-dots.

These days I often explore the world using Google Earth (free free free!), spurred by something I read somewhere—cheap trips, no?

Today I noticed mention of the Abbotsbury Swannery in a NYTimes article by Donald G. McNeil Jr. on the global avian flu virus situation (check the sidebar graphic, too). First, on the flu, yup, it’s still a problem, and is now endemic in parts of Egypt, Indonesia, and Nigeria, and probably also in China, Vietnam and Bangladesh—that’s two continents, and multiple flyways. The virus is adept at mutating, and scientists have already identified “10 clades and hundreds of variants”—makes you look a bit warily at those migrating birds overhead….

I’d never heard of a swannery before, and that the Abbotsbury (Dorset, UK) one dated back to the 11th century, well, geeze, my hand was instantly conflicted about whether to google the Swannery or search out the Google Earth icon first! Cleverly, I set GE app to opening while googling for info…. I found a tourist listing, including a photo of a recoverd bomb (looks like a huge black round, well, egg, given its display location at the Swannery!), and, no surprise, a Wikipedia entry, which has a lovely picture of downy mute swan cygnets.

The Google Earth picture is from the green season, and white swan-dots are along the shoreline and floating on the lagoon, and while there are a few swan and beach pictures from Panoramio, most of the nearby Google Earth Community links are to shoreline and bluff “pillbox” fortifications, I assume from WWII.

And, yup, the Wiki-people are alert; there’s mention of the avian flu showing up at the Swannery less than ago….

I love that this travel contributes nothing to my carbon footprint and removes nothing from my savings account….