The Stone Mountain sculpture

 

 

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The carving on the mountain is widely thought to be 190 feet x 90 feet, provided by their official website as well as on Wikipedia. However, based on measurements made in Google Earth, Peter believed the actual size to be closer to 167′ x 77′. After repeated inquiries, Stone Mountain Park was able to confirm the actual size of the carving at 158′ x 76′ — even smaller than he had suggested (though still quite massive).

It’s also widely advertised that the total cutout on the mountain covers 3 acres. As it turns out, the cutout are is roughly 359′ x 191′ which amounts to 1.57 acres.

Peter’s new model just recently went live in the 3D Warehouse, so you can use this KML file to fly there and see it in Google Earth.

Daniel Tunkelang Leaving Google Maps to Join LinkedIn

Daniel Tunkelang has announced on his blog today that he is leaving his position at Google Maps for an exciting research position at LinkedIn. Daniel was hired at Google about a year ago. There he worked on authority pages and the of mapping businesses to their official home pages.

When Daniel was first hired at Google as an engineer he did something that was amazing and delightful. He reached out to me, looking to understand issues and concerns that I had with Google Maps and their approach to Local. We initially had several detailed email exchanges and a long telephone call. He was gracious, inquisitive and forthright. All things that I respect and honor. He reached across a chasm that typically exists between Google and me and was sincere in his efforts to understand my critiques. Google could learn much from his outreach efforts (although as he pointed out personal contact doesn’t scale well :) ).

We have stayed in touch, off and on throughout the year and I have appreciated the occasional communications and (personal) assistance that he has provided. Even though I don’t know him in a truly personal sense, I consider him a friend and wish him well at LinkedIn.