Totally stolen from the Rampant Coyote
- Go to maps.google.com
- Click on “get directions”
- Enter “New York, New York” as your starting point.
- Enter “London, England” as your destination.
- Note step #23-24.
Bring a towel.
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Hilarious, geeky humor!
Funny ^_^. It also mentions at the top how long it would take if you drive all the way in one go. In addition to enormous resistance against sleep deprivation, you will also need that amphibious add-on for your batmobi… err… car :).
I’m not sure what’s more amusing, what you can get to or what you
can’t. (or how high an opinion google has of my swimming rate.) So
far, I’ve found you can get to:
-most anywhere in the UK
-most anywhere in Europe
-some places I wouldn’t consider “Europe”, like Moscow, Russia.
But you *cannot* get to:
-Beijing, China
-Tokyo, Japan
-Sao Paulo, Brazil
-Casablanca, Morocco
-Melbourne, Australia
-Honolulu, Hawaii
I think this has the effect of making google maps a much less perfect
platform for playing Risk. I mean, if all I can conquor is Europe,
well Pfft.
Yeah, someone passed this on to me a few weeks ago, it still makes me giggle. Just wait until we have accessible satellite images of the moon or other planets! Teehee
Longest I can find is from Anchorage, Alaska, to Moscow, Russia. Only 9,864 mi!
I’m just amazed that “swim” is a valid mode of transport for their direction finding service. You drive to the East coast, get out of your car, swim across the Atlantic, then get back in your car in France.
Also, why is France even part of the directions to London?!
There’s a tunnel through the English Channel, so you can head more direcly east to head to France and then north through the tunnel, instead of having to go further north.
Either that, or it has some strange prejucide for driving on land, and does so as often as possible.
Interesting time estimate for how long the trip will take (over 29 days). If I were to drive nearly 4000 miles, it would not take that long — maybe 8-10 days and probably less, including nightly pitstops. Does that mean they have actually estimated the time it would take to make that crossing (presumably w/o stopping to rest)?
I love how it’s apparently important that you start swimming from Boston, and not New York.
SteveDJ: Yes, it looks like they are estimating swimming at the human speed of approximately 5 mph. I wasn’t too careful with the calculations, but it’s close enough. Online references place that as probably the upper end of human swimming.
Leaving from Boston is probably important for one of two reasons: Swimming is so slow it should be minimized, or Google has explicitly set up certain “swimming” pathways in their software, as if they were ferry routes (I know they have at least some of those). Given the recommended swim, and Joe’s observation that you can’t seem to get other places, I lean towards the latter; if the former was the only thing in play you should have been instructed to swim to the nearest road in Spain or Portugal, whichever is nearer.
Maybe in a couple of years it will be able to book international flights for you, but until then I suppose this is the best they can do.
Apparently that feature doesn’t quite support intercontinental trips and “swim from place A to place B” (from Boston to Le Havre or something) is their hack for crossing the Atlantic. Try Miami, Florida -> Lisbon, Portugal for an even better example.
Eeeenteresting. Now whenever I’m down at Long Wharf, I’ll be thinking of these Google directions, and keeping my eye out for swimmers, haha.
Jeremiah (comment #4)> Just wait until we have accessible satellite images of the moon or other planets!
But the moon has been surveyed: http://moon.google.com/ (well, part of it anyways. See especially #3 in the FAQ).
Also Mars: http://www.google.com/mars/
Complete images would be Way Cool, though.
That was amazing. I’d better work on my swimming skills, I guess! Thanks for providing it for us!
Note step #23-24.
Bring a towel.
Well, duh. Every intergalactic hitchhiker knows to bring a towel.
Browncoat reminded me, anyone ever type “the answer to life the universe and everything” into Google calculator?
I’m just worried that after swimming all that way, you’d probably have dropped the money you’d need for the toll roads you’re going through when you get there.
On the other hand, it would all be in American money and they probably don’t take that there.
Katy mentioned http://moon.google.com
You should see the detail they have… look at how close you can zoom in. ;)
Matt
I always thought the moon was made of swiss cheese.. too bad I already told my kid it was made of rock.
Obviously Google knows of the secret plans of building a tunnel from Boston to France…
TOoo FUNNYYYY nearly dieing of laughter
So, the company I work for has a similar service. When some of us saw this, we had a coversation about why we aren’t providing similar “humorous” directions.
Apparently, the idea had been considered by the team, but the legal department put their foot down. Thier argument was that an individual could easily sue the company if a family member drowned while following these instructions.
So, while a lot of us personally think it’s funny, and adds some great personality to the interaction, there are also some understandable arguments about why not to do it.
>”the legal department put their foot down. Thier argument was that an individual could easily sue the company if a family member drowned while following these instructions.”
This is why civilization is doomed to fail.
Well if you check (for example) Fairfield to Sydney you would read instructions to use a kayak to cross the Pacific Ocean. It would be more reasonable though to assume that you want to get directions from Fairfield (NSW Australia) to Sydney instead of Fairfield (USA).