A plea to the news media

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It's time to stop using the phrase "It can be seen from space!" In an era of sub-meter spatial resolution satellite sensors, it no longer makes sense to point out the vastness of something by saying that "it can be seen from space". You can see cars and trees from space now- just have a look at Google Earth (or Maps). We can only assume that spy satellites can detect objects much smaller than that, so there are probably few things left on the Earth's surface that can't be seen from space (unless it's cloudy!)

I felt compelled to write this blog post after last night's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, where he kept saying that the Gulf Oil Spill is large enough "to be seen from space". But, he is not alone. The recent discovery of a very large beaver dam in Canada drew similar responses.

This is just no longer a meaningful phrase unless you qualify it with something like "the space shuttle astronauts can see it without binoculars". Otherwise, just about everything on the Earth's surface is visible (and images are regularly being recorded) from space.

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