Monday 12 September 2011

It's pretty obvious, actually.

The India/Pakistan border
It's a common cliché (echoed in our recent episode of Moonbase 3) that you can't see national borders from space.

It depends on the border.

2 comments:

eon said...

The border between North and South Korea is even more obvious. All evidence of civilization (lighting, etc.) ends abruptly north of the DMZ, except for a few lights around Pyongyang.

Most socialist countries look about the same. As do most Third World countries. Add in Islamism, and you have a triple whammy of ineffectualness in the public works department. Far from "keeping the lights on", most such countries have never had lights to begin with. (Not electric ones, at least.)

Of course, as of yet, there is no way for a satellite to photograph one thing from orbit. Namely, the intolerable air of smugness around Berkeley, CA, Boston, MA, etc.

I wonder what color it would be? Blue, or a sort of vaguely unsettling turquoise?

cheers

eon

Sergej said...

I noticed the same thing in daylight satellite photos of Israel and its neighbors, back in high school ("Know Your Middle East: a classroom map with helpful information, to be displayed in a classroom" kinda thing.) In this case, the difference was in the shade of green or sand-brown. But hey, as long as the neighbors keep their problems on their side of the border, it's their problem. If they ask for help planning a power grid or irrigating a field, help can be given.