Giant Insect Invades Germany

Noryungi writes, "It seems the alien invasion of the Earth has just started! A 50-meter insect has been spotted roaming the German countryside! Let the 'I, for one, welcome our new giant insectoid overlords' joke contest begin!" A moderator at a Keyhole forum IDs the bug as a thrip, about 1mm long, squished under a glass plate during scanning.

No...

[ackthpt]

It seems the alien invasion of the Earth has just started!

No.. it's really Richard Branson's newest Eco-Friendly transportation mode. See, we'll strap seats to the backs of these giant genetically modified insects and they'll run us or fly us anywhere we want to go. What could possibly [imdb.com] go wrong [imdb.com]?

microsoft europe strenuously denied it was a bug from their code, "ours are a few metres smaller."

Re:No...

[Rockinsockindune]

Or we can plant a thumper (they are attracted to rythmic vibrations), and use hooks and ropes to climb to the tops of their backs.

Re:

[malsdavis]

If you think of how many thousands of times more efficient insects are at converting chemical energy to kinetic energy than our methods, particularly when it comes to acceleration, then maybe he is on to something!

Re:No...

[diablomonic]

lets see, chemical to kinetic, hmmm.. battery efficiency: maybe 90% on each of charge and discharge, lets say 80% overall. electric motor efficiency, good ones are >90%. total efficiency: >70%. thousands of times more than this: 70,000% efficiency..... LISA! in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

Re:

[malsdavis]

But you missed several steps out, mainly the difficult part which involves generating and delivering energy to the batteries (which btw are an extra unnecessary step). Start off with a naturally available source of chemical energy and the efficiency rate will totally plummet.

To prove the point: try find a car, (non-electric) train, plane or any form of mechanised transport which acheives >70% effiency!

Lastly, something which is 1,000 times more efficient that a 70% efficient motor isn't 70,000% efficient

Re:

[binkzz]

"I am God ...try prove otherwise."

God uses correct grammar.

"incremental efficiency" vs "absolute efficiency"

[TheLink]

If the creature containing the cells serves some other purpose other trhan converting food into raw energy then one should not measure efficiency in such absolute terms.

Say a human being is only 30% efficient in converting food to energy/"work". Given the human already needs a certain amount of food to stay alive, one should also measure the additional amount of food the human needs to do an additional amount of work.

Re:"incremental efficiency" vs "absolute efficienc

[nacturation]

The glucose to energy conversion is used for everything, both in the necessary functions to stay alive as well as doing stuff like kicking ass. Glucose in, energy out... regardless of what that energy is used for.
 

Re:

[LordVader717]

If only bicycles were to ride on the roads, they'd only need to be 12 feet wide, very thin, and would last forever.

Re:

[Orange Crush]

If only bicycles were to ride on the roads, they'd only need to be 12 feet wide, very thin, and would last forever.

They wouldn't last long under a stampede of 50 meter giant insects.

Re:

[sporkme]

This article [slashdot.org] on the physiological properties of b-movie monsters sparked a pretty good discussion about the possibility of massive insects. The larger an organism, the more effective the vascular system has to be. Simply scaling up an organism does not give you a living result.

Re:

[Fred_A]

With insects, on top of circulatory problems, breathing would also be difficult since most don't "actively" breath. So the 1m wingspan dragonfly probably was the best nature could do.

Re:No...

[griffjon]

The European community have known about this bug (and there are many others) for years now. Why do you think they're so solidly against genetically modified food? This is a Thwips Monsantoi

(btw, I'm joking, but just to be safe, I for one welcome our new genetically-modified-food-created insectile pooping overlords!)

That's Not a Bug

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a fucking feature, alright?

Re:That's Not a Bug

[Lord Ender]

And here I thought you were going for "It's a space station!"

Re:

[eonlabs]

Chi Chian used hollow worms

Re:

[Sillygates]

ehh thats nothing.cars fall off the bay bridge every day! http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=san+franci sco,+ca&ie=UTF8&z=19&ll=37.791553,-122.38519&spn=0 .001253,0.005107&t=k&om=1 [google.com]

Re:No... It Came From the German Countryside!!!

[CortoMaltese]

It Came From the Desert [wikipedia.org] anyone?

Ich fur ein...

[Mateo_LeFou]

... Willkommen unsere neuen Insekt overlords

Other OB

[ackthpt]

Re:Ich fur ein...... Willkommen unsere neuen Insekt overlords

In Soviet Russia Google Maps bug YOU!

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

A real German would say:

Wir heissen unsere Insektenüberlordschaften willkommen! :)

As you can surely see

[Mateo_LeFou]

I'm a Frenchman. And a Spanishman.

Re:Other OB

[PresidentEnder]

Wir heißen unsere neue Insektenüberlordschaften willkommen!

Letztes Jahr gab keine Insektenüberlordschaften.

Re:

[menkhaura]

Whatever! Pray our new Insect Overlords understand the languages of ours, lowly earthlings!

Just in case:

Eu, da minha parte, dou boas-vindas aos nosos novos Senhores Insetos!

On my knees!

Re:Other OB

[Lane.exe]

Sagen sie! Im Amerika gibt es ein Insekt overlord für sechs Jahre!

Re:

[orcrist]

Or maybe they're mad because you didn't use the present perfect of "gibt es," which made your joke kinda grammatically unsound.

Well he did have an error, but in fact present perfect tense would make it even worse, since Germans only use that as an actual past tense. In fact the big error was using 'für' which is a typical error English speakers make in German, as well as the ordering, since the 'time' part of the phrase has to be moved up in the sentence; the rule of thumb in German sentence order is:

Re:

[Traa]

I thought you guys got rid of that "ß" thingy (eszett?) a while back?

Re:Other OB

[Minwee]

You wouldn't believe how many of those things are still filling up warehouses out in the country. Now that nobody wants them for official use any more they're practically free and poor people have been making up new words to use as many of them as they can.

Re:

[JayAEU]

Wir heißen unsere neuen Insektenüberlordschaften willkommen!

Gotta match the numerus on that adjective with the subject there... I like the sharp-s though. :)

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

The correct translation (as literal as possible, as interpreting as necessary) is:
"Ich zumindest heisse unsere neuen Insektenoberherrscher willkommen!"

I = Ich
for one = zumindest (in this context)
welcome = heisse ... willkommen
our = unsere
new = neuen
insect over-lords = Insekten-ober-herrscher

Re:

[hmccabe]

I wish I could mod this as "actually funny." H.

Re:

[kin_korn_karn]

no, it's a feature

If I'm curt with you it's 'cause time is a factor

[Mateo_LeFou]

We don't have time for niceties when shooting for fp or sp or tp.

Bugs!

[The Outbreak Monkey]

Looks like Google Maps still has some bugs.

Re:

[tonyr1988]

Time to bring it back to beta for a while . . .

Re:Bugs!

[stunt_penguin]

I think they should leave this one in for posterity, and call it a feature......... as if anyone's going to take it's presence too seriously :)

It's got more value as a cool link than a fixed bug.... I hope someone's got a sense of humor ^^

Joke contest?

[captnitro]

Let the 'I, for one, welcome our new giant insectoid overlords' joke contest begin!

Oh, let's not.

Alternatively, everybody can get it out of their systems today if I never have to hear it again.

Re:

[joe 155]

alright,

"I, for one, welcome our new giant insectoid overlords!"

Alternate joke contest

[Mateo_LeFou]

tag the article with something sly Mine was "tomcruise" 'cause I couldn't remember his character's name in WotW

Re:

[lottameez]

oh sure, but does it run linux? Nothing to see here, move along you beowulf cluster. In korea, only old people would find this funny.

Frist!

Re:

[fm6]

Yeah, I'm tired of it too. It used to be funny, but now it's achieved the same worn-out status that "automagically" always had.

Besides, it wasn't even the funniest insect line in the episode. Which was: "Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!"

Re:

[blue trane]

OK!!! Wait...how are you going to enforce the compact? Honesty? MUAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA

Forgive me, but...

[alienmole]

I, for one, welcome our new overlord-joke hating overlords!

Re:

[SeaFox]

I, for one, welcome our new overlord-joke hating overlords!

But in Soviet Russia, the overlords joke about YOU!

Works great in Google Earth too

[jessohyes]

Just paste in 48.857699 ,10.205451

Jess

Re:

[Psykosys]

But do they have 3d data for it?

Way to spoil the joke

[spoco2]

You know... I don't think it was really neccessary to have right there in the heading the little note that it's some tiny bug squished during the scanning process.

The fact it was posted with the Monty Python foot should be enough for anyone to know it shouldn't be taken seriously.

We could have had hundreds, if not thousands, of posts as to exactly what it could all mean, how it got there, why it was taking a large dump at the time of the photo...

But now... now you've ruined it.

I hope you're happy... go and sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

Re:Way to spoil the joke

[Schraegstrichpunkt]

I don't think it was really neccessary to have right there in the heading the little note that it's some tiny bug squished during the scanning process.

Of course it was. It's what they want us to think. If they didn't put that idea in our heads, we'd be free to think about what really happened.

Re:Way to spoil the joke

[nwbvt]

"The fact it was posted with the Monty Python foot should be enough for anyone to know it shouldn't be taken seriously."

So if they didn't include the Monty Python foot, people would have seriously thought there was a giant bug in Germany?

Re:Way to spoil the joke

[mooingyak]

Personally, I'm not entirely sold on this whole "insect stuck in the scanner" story. I smell coverup.

Re:

[jamesh]

Given that your post is (currently) modded "Score:3, Informative", you aren't alone...

Of course he's not alone!

[commodoresloat]

None of us are! There's a giant fucking bug out there!

Re:

[gkhan1]

Actually, I agree. If you zoom out three or four times, it's still there. Did they use the exact same picture to scan from at such radically different zooms? I find it unbelievable.

Re:

[ArtStone]

And if you look just to the west of the Alien Bug, you'll see the town named Aalen.

A coincidence? I think not.

Re:

[ThatComputerGuy]

Man.... I saw the foot and initially thought "holy fuck, that's an insanely huge ass bug."

Alcohol. Heh.

Re:

[Bo'Bob'O]

New Volkswagon SUV?

(Ok sorry, latenight at work)

Re:

[spoco2]

:D

That amused me.

absolutely preposterous

[circletimessquare]

we all know giant (fill-in-the-blank) overlords always appear in japan first, specifically in tokyo

fun

[sporkme]

Here are two Escher-licious images from google maps:
Boston [google.com]
Dallas [google.com]

...and an interesting effect that can occur when frames are spliced:
Sidewalk ends [ministryof...anda.co.uk]

Of course, there are tons of these, including the popular ipod [google.com].

Re:

[alchemist68]

If you think those Escher-licious images from google maps are cool, check out the images of the buildings around the World Trade Center site in New York City. The tops of the buildings are going in all different directions.

Bug in the Matrix

[this great guy]

Sidewalk ends [ministryof...anda.co.uk]

This is obviously a bug in the Matrix.

cool

[artifex2004]

While looking for the Fort Worth Water Gardens, I found this [google.com].
Note the lake's color range, not just its unnatural appearance. Now zoom out a couple times.
They've obviously retouched the lake in the closer images, because you can see evidence of dodging and burning.

Re:fun

[babbage]

One of my favorites is Versailles [google.com]. Yes, that Versailles [wikipedia.org].

Did you realize that the world's most famous palace, it's grounds, and the community in front of it are laid out like an enormous happy-face stick figure [homeip.net]? Take a look at that aerial photo, then go back and look at the Google view [google.com] -- it's obvious once you look for it. And this all goes back to, what, 1500s and earlier [wikipedia.org]?

It almost makes you think that the French first sent people up in hot-air balloons [wikipedia.org] just so that they'd get a chance to see the joke that architects & urban planners had set up centuries earlier...

:-)

Re:

[Cutriss]

Here's another really neat example left behind by Google's integration of satellite imagery from Katrina:

Link [google.com]

The bridge is washed out, yes, but Google didn't integrate satellite imagery for coastal Jackson County, so you have half a bridge. What's also interesting to note is that the Bay St. Louis bridge, west of the one seen in the above link, is also washed out, and Google previously had that imagery integrated as well, but it seems they've removed it, and now the only section of the MS coast seen

From the Googleplex

[NetDrain]

But from the Corp network, we have:

http://theblight.net/misc/germany.jpg [theblight.net]

The Maps team is going to be -pissed.- It'll be awesome.

This is News?

[Anonymous Coward]

If i step on a bug with my sneaker, take a picture of it and upload it to the internet, will I make the front page of slashdot too?

'Bugzilla' users?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok, so that's what they meant when they said they were using an in-house version of Bugzilla ?

That's nothing.

[Weaselmancer]

Check out this giant fly attacking Mt. St. Helens! [cambria.com]

during "scanning"??

[Anonymous Coward]

who the hell would "scan" satellite pictures? this should be digital, morons. hello, it's 2006.

Re:

[idonthack]

this should be digital, morons.

scan /skæn/, scanned, scanning, noun -verb (used with object)

5. to read (data) for use by a computer or computerized device, esp. using an optical scanner.

Re:

[Cid Highwind]

Most of the high-resolution imagery on Google Earth is from aerial photograpy not satellites, and even in 2006 the vast majority of that is still shot on positive-color film. Satellites are sexy and high-tech, but not the most cost-effective way to get very high reolution true-color images.

Now the fuzzy, false-color "aww, they don't have good pics of this area" imagery *is* from a satellite (Landsat 7, IIRC).

figures.

[not a cylon]

Well that's what happens when Google tells their employees to spend 20% of their time doing whatever interests them. Giant, mutant, killer insects.

Damn Ph.D's, with their genome maps and fancy internet tubes.

With apologies to Kafka...

[yuriismaster]

As Gregor Samsa woke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself in his bed, transformed into a monstrous insect.

...and invaded Germany.

Nothing to see here, move along

[naoursla]

It is just Google's new crawler.

Upping the ante, eh?

[OldManAndTheC++]

It is just Google's new crawler.

Clearly a mere robots.txt is not going to help against this...we're gonna need real robots! Giant ones!!

The Yukon/Alaska Black Box

[Clueless Moron]

If you tell us what this is hiding [google.ca], will they have to kill you?

Re:

[Osty]

If you tell us what this is hiding, will they have to kill you?

As far as I can tell, it's hiding nothing [live.com]. Does that mean I have to die now?

Re:

[BeeBeard]

That's just the famous bridge to nowhere.

Re:The Yukon/Alaska Black Box

[idonthack]

Examine the edges and surrounding areas. It looks like it's just a hole where four sections came together.

Nice try, Google...

[gd23ka]

but it's yet only another marketing ploy. Wait till you see Snoopy or Scooby Doo turn up
on the map, or they start the Google Maps Treasure Hunt next year.

My wife's pun

[Fortran IV]

That's definitely not the lesser of two weevils.

(My wife is an incorrigible punster. I try not to incorrige her.)

Google Earth too

[MobyDisk]

Run Google Earth and see it in psuedo-3D! Just punch in the coordinates 48.857699,10.205451

Smoots in a Thrip?

[Easy2RememberNick]

How many Smoots in a Thrips?

Google Sightseeing

[Anonymous Cumshot]

Google Sightseeing [googlesightseeing.com] (the site from which the submitter likely found the giant bug) has lots of similar mishaps chronicled...

Including boobies! [googlesightseeing.com]

wrong way

[Smoking]

Hey dude, turn left, Oktoberfest is definitely not this way...

Satellites have scanners?

[BlueMonk]

Someone enlighten me. I was under the impression that these images were coming directly from Satellite images. Maybe I was misled by the fact that the button on the map that says what mode it is in says "Satellite". Am I to believe that there are people physically getting these images on paper, putting them in a scanner and scanning each square of Google's whole database of images from earth's surface!? Of course if there were actual people involved, you'd think they would have noticed this, but even an automated process seems ridiculous to me... why would these images ever be in physical form?

Re:

[DerekLyons]

Someone enlighten me. I was under the impression that these images were coming directly from Satellite images. Maybe I was misled by the fact that the button on the map that says what mode it is in says "Satellite".

You are correct - Google has misled you by implying that all the photographs came from satellite imagery, when in fact much of it came from aerial photography.

Am I to believe that there are people physically getting these images on paper, putting them in a scanner and scanning ea

Re:

[malsdavis]

I remember a story a couple of years ago about MSN Virtual Earth denying the existance of the Apple headquaters.

http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/25/ 1856220 [slashdot.org] is the Slashdot article on it.

Fark had a thread of wierd finds last week

[gmezero]

http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink =2294440 [fark.com]

There are some really great shots in that thread as well
as some co-ordinates to follow up on. One is a wierd land
area in New Mexico where some scammers had built out all
the roads for an entire city development and then skipped
out with the money and never built a thing.

Very wierd stuff.

Re:

[Millenniumman]

Proof [google.com] that Apple is taking over the world.

Re:

[Millenniumman]

latitude: -30.51635182698483
longitude: 121.3369736498427

Re:

[jkauzlar]

I'm curious, but I don't see it.

The Escher Imaging Satellite

[craznar]

That explains it all.

Re:

[Derek Pomery]

http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2006/06/kc 135_caught_re.html [gearthblog.com]

Re:I checked the photo and

[doti]

Zoom out, put in map mode, and you'll se it's in the same country as Berlin, so it's Germany.

Re:

[Main Gauche]

"That doesn't look anything like Germany."

Because in Germany, bugs don't leave their excrement in the middle of a nice clean field like that?

Ok, I admit it. You got modded both +1 Funny and +1 Informative, and I'm left very confused. Not by the usual random moderation, mind you, but by what I'm supposed to be thinking right now....

You're right!

[idonthack]

Nobody over there actually names things in German. That's just a myth.
I hear "Kugeltalstraße" is a really popular Chinese street name. Yep, sure looks like China [comcast.net] to me.

Your sig.

[megaditto]

Difference between US and the rest of the world [rawstory.com]

This goes both ways, of course. 'War on Terror'?

Here is what they see in China: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14975282/site/newsweek/sit e/newsweek/ [msn.com]
Here is what we see in America: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14964292/site/newsweek / [msn.com]

Re:U.S. Action soon to take place

[EraserMouseMan]

Wait!!! The UN should threaten sanctions agains the insect first. We must also be sensitive and careful not to hurt the insect's feelings. Or our actions may provoke more insect insurgency. Surely the insect will respond to diplomacy. We should try talking to the insect before we fight. The insect probably doesn't understand that we respect it and mean it no harm.

Re:Germans subpoena Google

[Anonymous Cowpat]

In other news, world renowned military strategist, The Ghost of Sir Basil Liddel-Hart has commented that the bug made a major strategic flaw. "He, and we are assuming this bug to be a 'he' made a serious error." Sir Basil's Ghost, said. "Making his initial landfall target in one of the most millitarily keen nations the world has ever seen was a very poor idea. Because of this mistake the bug has triggered the full mobilisation of the german armed forces and a full scale search and destroy mission has been initiated by the Luftwaffer. My own strategic analysis of the situation leads me to conclude that the bug would have done better to land across the border in France where he would have been almost immediately surrendered to and would have been able to demand any surrender terms he so desired. My advice to the bug now would be to make for France with all haste and use the freshly-surrendered French army to fight the Germans." When queried about how long the French army could be expected to hold out against the most dedicated military machine in the world Sir Basil's Ghost spluttered into his tea and continued: "Oh good gracious me no. The plan wasn't for the French to FIGHT the germans, no-one would expect that and if the French actually tried firing back the Germans would just laugh anyway. No the idea is that the French will immediately surrender again (as is to be expected) and dealing with all the PoW's will hinder the panzer divisions persuing the bug. This should give him the time necessary to hop across the channel and claim asylum in Britain. I hear the benefits are very good".

In a further development, Russia has started to mobilise its troops onto it's western border in anticipation of a German attack. President Putin said: "Germany has a history of doing this, they did it in the first world war and they also have a history of ripping off old first world war battle plans for use again."

Asked to step in and resolve the situation by bombing the lot of them back to the stone-age, President George W. Bush said "It is not the policy of the US Government to interfere in the internal issues of sovereign states. We also don't bomb places that don't end in -stan or start with an 'I'" he said, "It's apples and grapefruits really. None of our turtlewax."