Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

I have a new addiction. Wikimapia. A combination of Google Maps and Wikipedia and their goal is to “describe the whole Earth!” Seriously, with things like this and Google Earth I can’t leave the computer. The following images will take you to their Wikimapia page. I have also set up Matt’s Wikimapia Blog to look at the fun and interesting things to do with Wikimapia.

There are similarities between Google Earth and Wikimapia, but the idea of Wikimapia is to make it easy to see and find out info about the places you are looking at. You can easily add new places or add to or change existing ones. At right are two that I added: Gig Harbor High School and its band room. Because that is the kind of geek I am.

And for some more…

Seattle (large image)

Here is a view of Seattle. As you can see, even at this resolution, there are quite a number of places marked.

Zooming in we can check out my alma mater, the University of Washington. At times the screen can feel cluttered with so many things maked but it actually isn’t too bad and you can get used to it. You also have the option of turning the place markers off to see easier.

Well I couldn’t let the Physics Astronomy Building (where I spent oh so many hours) go un-marked. So I added the UW Sundial and Planetarium.

Here we have the second oldest building on campus, the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory. In this pic you can see the information page that can be added to or edited (or marked for deletion).

New York and the Dark Tower (large image)

I couldn’t leave the site until I had added Steven King’s Dark Tower to the New York skyline.

And finally. I offer a challenge (although one without a prize… other than my praises… for what they are worth…). Where is the following place and what is it? (The road next to it is kind of a clue. And you can’t just say “monument” because of the image title. Also keep in mind that I am from Washington…)

EDIT: Yes, these are the “creepy statues”. Technically, they are called “gospodor monument park”. It can be found on Wikimapia here. Here is a KOMO news article and you can see a few pictures here and here. And here is a Seattle Times article. As my mom pointed out, they are named for Dominic Gospodor a rich guy from Seattle who put the statues up.

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Matthew Jones