You Might Help Find Steve Fossett
The search for Steve Fossett got some potent help from above today, and you might be able to help. DigitalGlobe, which supplies many of the images from space for Google Earth, has fresh imagery of the search area and that’s enabled the activation of something called the Amazon Mechanical Turk. Essentially, anyone with a computer can conduct a pixel-by-pixel search for Fossett. The site is self explanatory. The system is set up to allow masses of humans, able to differentiate objects (like airplane wreckage on a mountainside) and make judgment calls that computers don’t do well. (Go here to help.)
The search for Steve Fossett got some potent help from above today, and you might be able to help. DigitalGlobe, which supplies many of the images from space for Google Earth, has fresh imagery of the search area and that's enabled the activation of something called the Amazon Mechanical Turk. Essentially, anyone with a computer can conduct a pixel-by-pixel search for Fossett. The site is self explanatory. The system is set up to allow masses of humans, able to differentiate objects (like airplane wreckage on a mountainside) and make judgment calls that computers don't do well.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force is throwing its considerable resources behind the search and that's keeping optimism up that he might be found alive. It's been six days since the Super Decathlon he was flying disappeared on a scouting trip to locate potential sites for a land speed record attempt. In a podcast interview with AVweb Thursday, Civil Air Patrol Maj. Cynthia Ryan said the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center is using its "super secret snoopy stuff" satellite assets to comb the rugged 10,000 square miles where Fossett might be.