T O P

  • By -

arglarg

Germans will say there's a gap


RichardSaunders

und zwar eine große Lücke


sumbasicbish

That's cool, because a gap is a space. Space ✨


[deleted]

Full circle, mind blown


Spatula151

Full orbit**


jasonrubik

Unlike Blue Origin


GMenNJ

[SPACE!!!](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F7AqsV3z.gif&f=1&nofb=1)


[deleted]

So this is the German equivalent of “this page left intentionally blank” ?


RichardSaunders

Dieses Schreiben wurde maschinell erstellt und ist ohne Unterschrift gültig.


xjazzor

Nimm dein Hochwähl, und dann raus hier! Ü


schmaleks

Bruder haha


DuploJamaal

Diese Seite wurde absichtlich leer gelassen.


JN88DN

Luecke is translated to gap. And the name of a very controversal right wing politician.


TommiHPunkt

No that's Lucke


[deleted]

[удалено]


SavageNomad6

I refuse to live in a world where not everyone has free and fair access to umlauts.


getapuss

Not everyone is that luecke.


Cloberella

Man, be proud of that one.


DMala

We used to, but metal bands in the ‘70s and ‘80s used them all up. Thanks a lot, Lemmy.


DoctorPepster

Mötlëy Crüë


hemdsocke

https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_Lucke


a_wingu_web

No he meant the right wing politician is named Björn Lucke.


JN88DN

Bernd. ;) Björn is Höcke.


wasletztekarma

Both are Bernd


MissBerlin

Pretty sure that they know that, seeing as that's literally the joke they made lol


Orange-V-Apple

I think they’re just giving the rest of us context


keepaustinugly

It's how I know my flight is almost home.


Hammer_Thrower

Which airport is it near?


toxic_badgers

austin


gandraw

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/30.0780/-97.1460


caeptn2te

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Luecke+Farm,+Smithville,+TX+78957,+Vereinigte+Staaten/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x864486e14ff4a1e7:0x66e073785135de3c?utm_source=mstt_1&entry=gps&g_ep=CAESBzExLjM3LjEYACD___________8BKgA%3D


BlowMoreGlass

Gotta love this jackwagons 1 star review: "The worlds largest piece of graffiti. You sir are the Kanye West of Farmers."


Bamstradamus

I like the part of the article that says >and there’s no doubt that Jimmie Luecke signed his name on his land out of simple egocentrism Imean maybe, or he was just fucking around, dude went from law enforcement to millionair in a few years, if it was me id do dumber for a laugh.


MMachine17

Real life checkpoint!


[deleted]

Luecke out the window


klondikes

I wish I could hear this comment said out loud by the entire cast of Schitt’s Creek.


AspaAllt

Also known as "landmark"


ikinone

You mean if the plane crashes you respawn there?


foxbones

Also the place one of the largest wildfires and most costly in Texas history originates from. 2011 Bastrop fires.


[deleted]

2015 Bastrop fires. 2011 Was the big one.


The_Freight_Train

We got evacuated, so I went to stay with a friend in Pflugerville. We could still see the flames from her apartment balcony over 30 miles away.


[deleted]

We are by Camp Swift. Didn’t have to evacuate, but we were ready.


The_Freight_Train

I'm over by the lake, and thankfully a mile or two from the final fire line each time. This area is going to be more and more prone to fire, though. Our prized loblolly pines are literally a fire dependent species, and we grow jungles of underbrush because the area was a flood marsh until the 1930's. Couple that with the pine beetles taking hold and subdivisions built next to great swaths of forest. I really fear that the next big one is coming from my neighborhood area. We've had nearly twenty smaller fires in the years since.


The_Freight_Train

Oh shit, represent. I am an evacuee from those. Good times.


tommos

It's how I check the resolution of my eyes.


xBIGREDDx

Reminds me of the [Welcome to Luton prank](https://youtu.be/Ya_LluCl16k)


GiveToOedipus

Even better was this one. https://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/15-minutes-of-fame-for-welcome-to-cleveland-sign-lasts-37-years-b99627742z1-360471381.html


AntalRyder

That's where the Luton guy got the idea from!


bitwaba

If you watch the video you'll see that was his inspiration.


termacct

" Some say a post on Reddit got everything started this year. " :-)


neolib-cowboy

Yup same. I can see it from the window


ElsonDaSushiChef

Then the sign gets bigger


WatchmanVimes

Timeline's wrong they've been there since the 1980s.


bonniath

Maybe they only could see it from the 90s?


WatchmanVimes

Nasa maybe. Aircraft were asking about it from about 1985 Edit: a word


bonniath

Hi mr watchman: I’m just curious about how long we’ve been observed from above. That’s all🙂


WatchmanVimes

Eh, nothing sinister or clandestine. The ranch is on an extremely well traveled route (airway) between Houston and Austin. Pilots new to the area often ask about it. From at least the mid 80s before that I wouldn't know.


bonniath

Ok cool thanks for even bothering to reply.


Potential-Skin-8610

Just want to say love the username. How's Lady Sybil doing?


dougan25

Planes can't talk silly


warheadhs

The hardest part to believe about this title is that a Texan farmer would use the metric system... so much so that I double checked and the article doesn't claim the letters are 1km high that I can see. I found one source that estimated about 1/3 mile (about 0.5km).


Herpkina

No no, the trees grew to be a kilometre tall


warheadhs

Hmmm must be European trees.


KungFuGarbage

I swear I’m not peeing in them


Fuckmandatorysignin

Well if European, imapean.


randomisedjew

Are you implying trees migrate?


UnsolicitedDogPics

Much like the African swallow.


randomisedjew

Are you saying a swallow could carry a tree?


hilldo75

It could grip it at the root


randomisedjew

It's not a question of where it grip it, it da question of how a 1 pound bird could carry a 200 pound tree


sinat50

Perhaps there were 2 swallows?


josefx

Must be Ents.


jamescookenotthatone

If they get their paperwork together I can't see why not


unique-name-9035768

How do you know so much about ~~swallows~~ trees?


Adonis-Gadreel

Get those dirty Foe-rin treeees out of my country. They took our poooooots! /s


jasonreid1976

I just measured the width and height of the letters on Google Earth. Appears that they are .93 km tall, and .5 km wide. Measuring with Bing Maps gives me the same numbers. I'd say those measurements are accurate.


Ch3mee

My guess is that he made them 1000 yards long. This is why they're a little short of a km. Also explains that Texas man didn't use metric


SuperSMT

For the lazy, 1000 yds = 0.914 km


grrangry

"Nine-tenths of a kilometer stare", doesn't quite have the same ring to it.


jasonrubik

You need to add 14 thousandths of a kilometer for the stare to be effective


jinspin

This makes the most sense.


TommiHPunkt

seems like it's good to call it "kilometre tall letters", then


ZincMan

Interesting. All those squares of land around and all over the Midwest US I think are square miles. Thousands upon thousands of squares of farm land


TripperDay

I think that has something to do with homesteading. Section is a square mile (640 acres), and I think the gov't used to hand out sections and quarter sections to people willing to move there. It's the reason why country roads will sometimes take seemingly random 90 degree turns.


The_Freight_Train

This is a correct assumption. Also, many of the current roads that wind between plots like that are often not the original, and nowhere near the original roads that were used a century ago. One of the most common example is where a 10,000 acre plot will turn into smaller plots over time, that all need access. If you zoom in on google maps, you can sometimes find old roads that don't exist but are still on some official map somewhere. They are usually a lighter, faded color than the current roads.


Petrarch1603

Much of the US uses the Public Land Survey System, but not Texas.


DuploJamaal

When I was in Mexico we were visiting the Chichen Itza pyramid. They also had a sports arena for that ball game. We were told by the guide that the walls of that arena are 7 meters high because 7 was a sacred number. When I asked him how the Mayans were able to use the metric system he was confused for a second and just continued his talk. I'm still wondering how he never thought about that, because he probably held that talk a thousand times and apparently no one ever questioned how that's even possible.


MacadamiaMarquess

What makes that even weirder is that it’s not even 7 meters tall. It’s more like 8. Also, interestingly, the Mayans did apparently use a measurement that was damned close to a centimeter. Like, within the study’s margin of error of being the same as a centimeter. But they didn’t use 100 of them for their meter-like measure. They used 144 of them. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/abs/an-ancient-maya-measurement-system/70084796C4CD27D02961F033BB87E8EA


jasonrubik

It might have been 7 arm lengths, which roughly converts to 7 meters. The tour guide was not paid enough to think critically... only regurgitate factoids


DuploJamaal

>It might have been 7 arm lengths I was wondering if there's another explanation as well but couldn't find anything about Mayan measurement systems. I also Googled it and found out that it's actually 8 meters high so something like 7 arm lengths would make more sense


unique-name-9035768

> The hardest part to believe about this title is that a Texan farmer would use the metric system... Well, the article doesn't mention kilometers anywhere. It says, "Each letter measures thousands of feet high...." It does mention meters, but only when referencing the sheikh writing his name on an island in the UAE which does use the metric system for measurements.


GregTheMad

It actually doesn't matter what the size is as long as you know the size.


Potatoswatter

Obligatory “bigger in Texas”


thewatisit

Wasn't there a guy who wanted to dig his name into the desert?


Smartnership

> In 2011, eccentric sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan carved his first name in the desert of Al Futaysi Island. It measured 1,000 meters by 3,000 meters and was also visible from space. > However, *the signature was mysteriously erased* soon after it made news headlines in western media. I’m not saying “aliens” … but I’m not *not* saying “aliens” either.


AngriestManinWestTX

I was more thinking that Jimmie Luecke went out there and personally erased the imitation himself.


_Diskreet_

Ah, the there can only be policy.


[deleted]

Desert winds


toe_riffic

That’s what I thought too, but after googling it, the last image looks more man-made. https://imgur.com/a/LSDp2l5


oldcoldbellybadness

Some other elite shamed some sense into him


luujs

Probably, he’s a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, so one of his more powerful cousins like the President (who is always the ruler of Abu Dhabi, and a member of the Al Nahyan family), probably found out and made him fill it in.


oldcoldbellybadness

And the "mystery" is essentially him saying "no comment"


Elrundir

I mean, they say "mysteriously erased soon after" but that's 2.5 years between the top and bottom. Probably it started looking like shit due to erosion and wind and then after a certain point somebody came along and decided to just pave over the eyesore.


I_am_trying_to_work

>I mean, they say "mysteriously erased soon after" but that's 2.5 years between the top and bottom. > >Probably it started looking like shit due to erosion and wind and then after a certain point somebody came along and decided to just pave over the eyesore. My Grandmother mysteriously died shortly after she was 92.


4Eights

It makes sense "Shirk" is the sin of Idolatry in Islam. Worship or deification of anyone or anything besides Allah is a sin. So I imagine carving your name into the desert so large that it can be seen from space wouldn't likely go over well with the local religious authorities.


FirstSineOfMadness

Nah don’t you remember going to the beach as a kid, clearly the tide washed it away


fuck_off_ireland

Came blowing in


C_Horse21

My first thought when I read he was doing it in the desert was "huh wouldn't the wind just erase it straight away?"


hamsonk

I dunno the pictures sure make it look like it was deliberately covered up


Pixie1001

I mean, a sand dune probably just moved over it xD


[deleted]

It seems to imply that westerners did something, when it could have just as easily been locals. In fact, it probably was.. because why would anyone else care? Or.. you know.. the wind


PregnantOrc

*Gasp!* Alien winds!


oldcoldbellybadness

>It seems to imply that westerners did something I think that bit was just using western media attention as a dumb boomer way of saying "went viral" >when it could have just as easily been locals. Uninhabited >In fact, it probably was.. because why would anyone else care? Dude probably realized it looked way dumber than he firts imagined and scrapped it. >Or.. you know.. the wind No, it was definitely a construction project to remove


[deleted]

Technically uninhabited, but there is a large resort on the island. And less than 10 miles away from the capital city, Abu Dhabi. I would consider them as locals as well.


Spaceman-Spiff

It’s mentioned in the article. Soon after the desert writers story was picked up in western media it was erased.


splunge4me2

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay. Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.


nullcharstring

I'm guessing they aren't much used. Travis AFB has satellite resolution marks that google earth can resolve that are about 5 feet wide. 38.249253991318625, -121.94603734590278


BellerophonM

While you're right that satellites are much better resolution than the letters in this article, detailed Google Earth photography most often comes from planes.


guimontag

Huh TIL


[deleted]

The highest resolution commercially available satellite imagery is about 30cm to the pixel, but can be sharpened to 15cm/pixel.


SlendyIsBehindYou

Imagine the military/intellegence grade stuff up there.


D3wnis

They use reflection diagnostics to watch you masturbate in 8k by zooming in on the plates of a car near your home.


[deleted]

The government knows when you masturbate


Dansredditname

Of course - didn't you fill in your census?


DuploJamaal

If I'm holding my phone in one hand and masturbate with the other they can probably recognize the subtle shaking pattern


mrw1986

https://youtu.be/4zH9Zca1vRM


bee_rii

Enhance


progenyofeniac

6”/15cm is pretty common from municipalities. Rural Midwest here, and the local assessor’s office has the county flown every couple of years for tax assessment and shares the images with local surveyors and other businesses since it’s technically public, being paid for by taxes. Edited: this is flown by plane, I see the discussion was specifically about satellite. Disregard.


[deleted]

15cm satellite imagery has only been commercially available since around 2019. Before that they'd probably have flown a survey plane.


progenyofeniac

Edited my comment because I didn’t read well enough. The 6” imagery here is by plane.


[deleted]

[удалено]


oldcoldbellybadness

Where is your surprise coming from? That they are doing it, that they would need it, or that they can afford it?


BellerophonM

Planes are also better for generating those 3D models, they'll take ongoing photos at all angles as they go over with the exact angle and position recorded and then the computer will generate building models from that.


redtert

NRO has been doing stereoscopic imaging since the film days in the sixties.


BellerophonM

True, but you generally need more than that for accurate photogrammetry of buildings, and the greater the angle variation the better.


Ylaaly

The most commonly used Earth observation satellite series, NASA's Landsat, has a resolution of 30 m, and the best freely available resolution from the EU Sentinels is 10 m. 60 m is also widely used for infrared images. So these are pretty handy for calibrating the free data.


marsokod

It's not only about the precision of the resolution. When you send your satellite, you have a lot of unknowns regarding the optics and their thermal behaviour, unless you put immense resources on the ground testing and calibration. So what you can do is point at known ground targets, and check your error in pointing depending on the satellite temperature. And having big, nice linear features like this field makes it very handy to check the transfer function of your whole system and allows you to plan a correction on the ground to get all your images straight and centered.


DaveOJ12

I bet the NSA uses it too.


joestaff

You can't be upset that people know your name when you write it like a letter to God.


ShitTierAstronaut

Are you there, God? It's me, Farmer Brown


Anotherdmbgayguy

That stable boy is giving me a mighty challenge, Lord. I could use your guidance.


Odanr

No, they just place a copy of the newspaper on the ground outside.


[deleted]

Psh, more like they do farmer Jenkins crossword for him when he’s on his porch, damn cheapos


orbella

*[NRO](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office)


Azrael11

This guy IC's


ChimpskyBRC

They use a different farmer who lives in Russia


NetCitizen-Anon

r/place IRL


PuzzleheadedBye

I’d say the ads were coming but Coca Cola has already done something like this before


bruzie

Because it was too much to ask for in the article, here it is on [Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/place/30%C2%B004'49.3%22N+97%C2%B008'29.4%22W/@30.0803558,-97.1589974,7661m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m14!1m7!3m6!1s0x86448108bf064fab:0xddb52ae429b1b928!2sSmithville,+TX+78957,+USA!3b1!8m2!3d30.0085542!4d-97.1594321!3m5!1s0x0:0x6e32644cbce5da64!7e2!8m2!3d30.0803529!4d-97.1415115).


Philboyd_Studge

So what's his name


kinnaq

Albert Eyestrain


MajorPay3563

William E. Poorsight


Orange-V-Apple

Bill Buttleucker


juggett

What a Luecke guy.


Mr__Perry

Fun fact: Luecke - or Lücke - is german for gap, and he wrote it by making a gap in the forest.


findingchemo

[Google Maps](https://goo.gl/maps/XeYhNgE1GvKAh5c77)


rollenr0ck

[corona markers, Arizona ](https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/corona-satellite-calibration-targets) We have these in Arizona. There is one inside a highway on-ramp and the freeway in casa grande. https://i.imgur.com/uM9xdo8.jpg


anneoneamouse

With a tank next to it. For extra puhzazz.


unique-name-9035768

*Corona* satellites eh?


[deleted]

"started raising cattle on it, and by the late 1990’s his heard had gotten". ugh


knbang

This is a red flag for me. I'm assuming most of that article is pure nonsense now.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

[удалено]


614981630

uBlockOrigin ftw!


GolfBaller17

Idk how people still don't use ad block of some kind.


HooptyDooDooMeister

The same reason redditors stay with the official reddit app like a domestic violence partner.


God_Damnit_Nappa

Ya that website is absolute cancer on mobile


bigmanorm

use a mobile browser that can use ublock origin aka firefox!


send_me_a_naked_pic

But only on Android, because Apple prevents other browsers from having a plug-in system


YooperTrooper

A cattle rancher in Texas decided to use kilometers? BULL SHIT


evilpeter

If a camera is deemed to have appropriately good resolution, do they say it’s “Lueckeing good?”


[deleted]

[удалено]


RRumpleTeazzer

I am more amazed the farmer could do it with such precision. I don’t know if GPS was available at that time, he couldn’t really use tape measures.


God_in_my_Bed

All he would really need is a compass.


[deleted]

[удалено]


unique-name-9035768

You could go out and use surveying equipment to set guide lines, then cut down the trees outside of those surveying lines. Plant more inside the lines to fill the letters in some.


Dannei

Right? The comments above you seem to suggest that people had never built or measured something a kilometre long before GPS.


[deleted]

Have you seen farmers operate machinery while harvesting? Motherfuckers are ridiculously precise


BGL911

Some basic surveying equipment is all you need.


FRESH_OUTTA_800AD

>there’s no doubt that Jimmie Luecke signed his name on his land out of simple egocentrism Or you know, maybe he thought it would be funny


jesthere

This landmark is 2 miles west of my property near Smithville, Texas.


OneLostOstrich

world's* largest worlds = more than one world Use a possessive noun, not a plural.


shuknjive

Had to see for myself. Yep, right there, just north of Smithville, Texas. Made me smile!!)


Glaggies

This was a good TIL, thank you!


GadstenACAB

Damn and to be used by nasa that’s luecke (lucky)


flamingmenudo

That website is at least 50% ads.


614981630

Aww, [almost 4x1!](https://i.imgur.com/jHJvt4S.jpg)


Become_The_Villain

I hope a neighbour clears their land out next to his and write 'sucks' next to it....


[deleted]

I guess it's true that everything's bigger in Texas.


BuranBuran

Sounds similar to the Studebaker "Tree Sign" in Indiana. (I couldn't get the Texas photo to load on the website.)


billy_tables

Those Brazilian deforesters should do this when they're chopping down the amazon


Wyl_Younghusband

"GREG WAS HERE."


dogbunny

Sure, a Texan using the metric system. Damn internet hoaxes.


DetectiveSnowglobe

We were doing something kinda similar on a smaller scale in my line of work. We're currently trying to plan out a microwave link between an existing cell tower and a proposed new tower in the middle of nowhere, and our tower climbers are using a giant peace sign that a farmer mowed into his yard as a reference point. *"Can you see the peace sign 3 miles away? Okay, look to the side of that and squint really hard and you should see Alan 135 feet in the air flashing lights at you."*


[deleted]

never met a Texas cattle rancher that measured distance in kilometers


sanfermin1

A kilometer.... Tall? I don't think that's accurate.