Things you always wanted to know the answer to [Vol. 5]

[Abbott]

P-Jay said:

Bastos

Prolific sponsors of Touring and Rally cars in the 80s and 90. Who were they? I can’t recall ever seeing a product carrying their logo.

Was it Webasto the sunroof maker?

[mko9]

Abbott said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

stemll said:

And yes, we did have this quite recently and the response to "was it during covid?" was that if it was, everything would have been parked up as almost nothing was flying

My recollection was that we postulated that it was indeed during Covid but then someone in the industry came along and said that during Covid it was like a plane parking lot and they couldn't move for them.

I don't actually remember what we concluded though.

There is one plane visible

To add more fuel to the discussion, Frankfurt is the closest airport to me. I only see five aircraft on the whole airfield, none of them are at a gate. Two of them appear to be taxiing, the other three possibly long term/permanent fixtures. On the other hand, there are plenty of C-17s and C-130s on the ramp at Ramstein AB, which is about an hour away.

[nessiemac]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

StevieBee said:

Why are there no aeroplanes at Heathrow airport on Google maps Satellite View? Not one:

Didn't we do this quite recently? I have a definite feeling of Deja Vu

We did!!

I posted the very same thing a few weeks ago

[StevieBee]

nessiemac said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

StevieBee said:

Why are there no aeroplanes at Heathrow airport on Google maps Satellite View? Not one:

Didn't we do this quite recently? I have a definite feeling of Deja Vu

We did!!

I posted the very same thing a few weeks ago

Ahh I didn't see that.

Great minds and all that.

[Abbott]

StevieBee said:

nessiemac said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

StevieBee said:

Why are there no aeroplanes at Heathrow airport on Google maps Satellite View? Not one:

Didn't we do this quite recently? I have a definite feeling of Deja Vu

We did!!

I posted the very same thing a few weeks ago

Ahh I didn't see that.

Great minds and all that.

Was there a conclusion?

[StevieBee]

Abbott said:

StevieBee said:

nessiemac said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

StevieBee said:

Why are there no aeroplanes at Heathrow airport on Google maps Satellite View? Not one:

Didn't we do this quite recently? I have a definite feeling of Deja Vu

We did!!

I posted the very same thing a few weeks ago

Ahh I didn't see that.

Great minds and all that.

Was there a conclusion?

I have done some research. Google uses stacked images to avoid clouds. The satellite will capture an area on one pass, and the same again on another pass and so on. From these a composite image is made from the parts of the images that don't have clouds in them. This explains why you don't see planes flying (that and they would be out of focus given the significant difference between them and the earth) and some roads appear a lot quieter than they normally are.

However, if you look at the entirety of the Heathrow site, which is around 5 square miles, you find no cars in the car park and not a single plane other than Concorde sat where it's always sat. This would require that images are taken at the exact point when there is no cloud cover over a part of the airport where at that precise moment, no planes, ground transport or cars are present.

Whilst not impossible, I do find it improbable.

My working hypothesis is that the collection of images do not make a particularly good total image, most likely because of different light on each pass. So the Google system makes an image using what it has and creates the missing parts itself. It's unlikely that it would recognise the image to be an airport, just seeing pixels. So, if the good images are indeed devoid of planes, then the bits it creates will also be devoid of planes as there's no reference pixels to replicate.

[nvubu]

On Google Earth the history slider shows that the image above was taken on 04/2020, and that it is being used for the "current" photo - with no aircraft showing, whereas the history slider shows the latest image being 07/2022 with plenty of aircraft and vehicles.

No idea why the earlier image is being used as the current one though.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

I had that last year maps and earth showed very different images with several years and version different

[generationx]

Abbott said:

P-Jay said:

Bastos

Prolific sponsors of Touring and Rally cars in the 80s and 90. Who were they? I can’t recall ever seeing a product carrying their logo.

Was it Webasto the sunroof maker?

Bastos was a European brand of cigarette. Notable for long, long-term sponsorship of Belgian driver Patrick Snijers:

[bodhi]

generationx said:

Bastos was a European brand of cigarette. Notable for long, long-term sponsorship of Belgian driver Patrick Snijers:

The same Patrick of that legendary E30 M3 doing the Manx Rally vid?

[Rusty Old-Banger]

Nethybridge said:

Rusty Old-Banger said:

Sway said:

They've a sensor so that they co-ordinate. One is the master.

It's so that you don't just get a weirdly discordant rhythm that might confuse.

This. (Highway worker)

Highway worker eh? , the very person to ask, does flashing your headlights like dribbling maniac persuade
a temporary roadworks traffic light to turn to green any quicker than it was planning to do ?

No. They are all radar.

[Rusty Old-Banger]

droopsnoot said:

Clockwork Cupcake said:

StevieBee said:

Why are there no aeroplanes at Heathrow airport on Google maps Satellite View? Not one:

Didn't we do this quite recently? I have a definite feeling of Deja Vu

And on that subject, isn't there an entire thread somewhere where someone argues about the presence of headlight sensors in temporary traffic lights, where even the input from someone who designs such lights for a living wasn't enough to persuade them?

Yeah I think that may have been me too. Same with merge points/"queue jumping" too.

[Nethybridge]

What the flig went on in New Zealand that they have [had?] so many extinct birds ?

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Rusty Old-Banger said:

Nethybridge said:

Rusty Old-Banger said:

Sway said:

They've a sensor so that they co-ordinate. One is the master.

It's so that you don't just get a weirdly discordant rhythm that might confuse.

This. (Highway worker)

Highway worker eh? , the very person to ask, does flashing your headlights like dribbling maniac persuade
a temporary roadworks traffic light to turn to green any quicker than it was planning to do ?

No. They are all radar.

I am right in thinking that 40-odd years ago, before radar was cheap, that some traffic lights *did* use light sensors and that flashing your lights *would* cause them to change if there was nothing coming the other way? Because that is almost certainly where the idea has come from.

(This question is entirely separate from them all being radar now)

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Nethybridge said:

What the flig went on in New Zealand that they have [had?] so many extinct birds ?

Food mainly.

NZ doesn't have any indigenous mammals except bats. Early Polynesians discovered a lot of flightless birds as a result of no predators. They discovered they were easy to catch and tasted rather good.

With the introduction of other mammals and farming methods, the bird population inevitably suffered.

[Rusty Old-Banger]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Rusty Old-Banger said:

Nethybridge said:

Rusty Old-Banger said:

Sway said:

They've a sensor so that they co-ordinate. One is the master.

It's so that you don't just get a weirdly discordant rhythm that might confuse.

This. (Highway worker)

Highway worker eh? , the very person to ask, does flashing your headlights like dribbling maniac persuade
a temporary roadworks traffic light to turn to green any quicker than it was planning to do ?

No. They are all radar.

I am right in thinking that 40-odd years ago, before radar was cheap, that some traffic lights *did* use light sensors and that flashing your lights *would* cause them to change if there was nothing coming the other way? Because that is almost certainly where the idea has come from.

(This question is entirely separate from them all being radar now)

I think so, but that was before my time. But I dont know how that would have worked in the daytime, so maybe it's a but of an urban myth. I don't know, I suppose is the most accurate answer!

[Jordie Barretts sock]

It's never been a thing. It's an urban myth.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Jordie Barretts sock said:

It's never been a thing. It's an urban myth.

Never? Not once in the 100-odd years since electric traffic lights were first introduced? That's a very bold statement.

[Jordie Barretts sock]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

Jordie Barretts sock said:

It's never been a thing. It's an urban myth.

Never? Not once in the 100-odd years since electric traffic lights were first introduced? That's a very bold statement.

Why?

Flashing your lights at a light sensor (because it hasn't already picked up your approaching lights, obviously) makes traffic lights change in the dark. Ok.

[Clockwork Cupcake]

Jordie Barretts sock said:

Why?

Flashing your lights at a light sensor (because it hasn't already picked up your approaching lights, obviously) makes traffic lights change in the dark. Ok.

Dipped headlights and main beams illuminate the same distance? Ok.

That aside, it was a simple enough question; have temporary traffic lights *ever* been equipped with light sensors, even in the dim and distant past? It's a pretty bold statement for you to say that, no, never at any point since they were invented has a set of traffic lights ever been equipped with a photodiode or other form of light sensor.

Anyway, no matter. I was just interested in knowing if the myth had any kernel of truth (because sometimes they do).