{"id":3743,"date":"2013-08-01T00:44:52","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T00:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3743"},"modified":"2013-08-01T00:44:52","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T00:44:52","slug":"george-clooney-keeps-an-eye-on-sudanese-dictator-by-satellite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3743","title":{"rendered":"George Clooney keeps an eye on Sudanese dictator by satellite"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader points me to this article about George Clooney and his political activism, particularly his interest in the conflict between North and South Sudan: George Clooney tastes sustainability in Nespresso coffee – Lucy Siegle\/theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n

“Most of the money I make on the [Nespresso] commercials I spend keeping a satellite over the border of North and South Sudan to keep an eye on Omar al-Bashir<\/a><\/strong> [the Sudanese dictator charged with war crimes at The Hague]. Then he puts out a statement saying that I’m spying on him and how would I like it if a camera was following me everywhere I went and I go ‘well welcome to my life Mr War Criminal’. I want the war criminal to have the same amount of attention that I get. I think that’s fair.” [My emphasis]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One cannot literally keep a satellite poised over an arbitrary spot on earth but activists can certainly use commercial earth observation satellites to monitor particular areas.\u00a0 (Sats in geostationary orbit<\/a> can hold a fixed position over the equator but even in that case they are far too high for high resolution imaging.) Satellite images might become available for a given spot every few days.<\/p>\n

In the next few years, George Clooney and others will have greatly enhanced means to monitor dictatorial regimes as well as to spot hidden environmental disasters, trawlers fishing illegally, etc. In development are constellations of low cost earth imaging satellites such as Skybox Imaging<\/a> and Planet Labs<\/a> that aim to make it possible to monitor a particular spot on earth more frequently, even multiple times per day.<\/p>\n

Already, the company MapBox<\/a> is contracting with imaging satellite companies to offer processed imagery of most any spot around the world in real or near real time: Real Time Imagery via MapBox Satellite Live – MapBox<\/a>. See also MapBox Plans to Bring You Super-Fresh Satellite Imagery – Wired Science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The goal of Mapbax is provide individuals and small businesses and organizations with limited resources the equivalent of a GIS (Geographic Information Systems) analyst who will turn that raw satellite data into something that is useful for them at a bargain price.<\/p>\n

\"PlanetLabsDove2image_April26_2013\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An image taken from Planet Labs<\/a> Dove 2 satellite on April 26, 2013. (Larger size<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

More resources on earth observation in the HobbySpace Eyes in the Sky<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader points me to this article about George Clooney and his political activism, particularly his interest in the conflict between North and South Sudan: George Clooney tastes sustainability in Nespresso coffee – Lucy Siegle\/theguardian.com “Most of the money I make on the [Nespresso] commercials I spend keeping a satellite over the border of North … Continue reading George Clooney keeps an eye on Sudanese dictator by satellite<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diy-space","category-eyes-in-the-sky"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-Yn","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2218,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=2218","url_meta":{"origin":3743,"position":0},"title":"Trailer for “Gravity” – film with George Clooney & Sandra Bullock","author":"TopSpacer","date":"May 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The movie Gravity stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as astronauts on the International Space Station. An accident leaves them stranded. The first trailer for the film has jut been released.\u00a0 'Gravity' Trailer: Watch George Clooney Get Lost In Space -\u00a0 MTV.com http:\/\/youtu.be\/ufsrgE0BYf0 Here is a synopsis of the movie:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar Sci-Fi"","block_context":{"text":"Solar Sci-Fi","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ufsrgE0BYf0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8996,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=8996","url_meta":{"origin":3743,"position":1},"title":"Video: Tomorrowland trailer","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This looks like it will be a fun ride:\u00a0Tomorrowland Movie - George Clooney Stars in Disney Film - Popular Mechanics http:\/\/youtu.be\/1k59gXTWf-A","rel":"","context":"In "Solar Sci-Fi"","block_context":{"text":"Solar Sci-Fi","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/1k59gXTWf-A\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3603,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3603","url_meta":{"origin":3743,"position":2},"title":"Video: New trailer for “Gravity”","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a new trailer for the movie Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney about a bad day in orbit: http:\/\/youtu.be\/C4pcg7bXgmU Here's the previous trailer: http:\/\/youtu.be\/ufsrgE0BYf0","rel":"","context":"In "Solar Sci-Fi"","block_context":{"text":"Solar Sci-Fi","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/C4pcg7bXgmU\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5938,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=5938","url_meta":{"origin":3743,"position":3},"title":"Video: Interview with director and co-writer of “Gravity”","author":"TopSpacer","date":"January 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Charlie Rose\u00a0interviewed Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n, director of the very successful film Gravity with Sandra Bullock and\u00a0George Clooney, and his son and co-writer \u00a0Jon\u00e1s Cuar\u00f3n: January.2.13 - charlierose.com []","rel":"","context":"In "Space films and videos"","block_context":{"text":"Space films and videos","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=39"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3982,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3982","url_meta":{"origin":3743,"position":4},"title":"Space memorabilia inspires Disney’s Tomorrowland film","author":"TopSpacer","date":"August 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Robert Pearlman writes an interesting story that connects a \"dusty old box\" found in the Walt Disney archives with the Tomorrowland movie coming out in 2014 with George Clooney in a leading role: Disney's 'Tomorrowland' movie inspired by space memorabilia - collectSPACE \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "History"","block_context":{"text":"History","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"DisneySpaceMemorabiliaBox","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/DisneySpaceMemorabiliaBox.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4821,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4821","url_meta":{"origin":3743,"position":5},"title":"“Gravity” beats October box office record","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The movie Gravity (see earlier post) did very well this opening weekeng:\u00a0Space thriller 'Gravity' earns record $55.6 million The film, which stars Oscar winners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney and wowed critics with its special effects, added $27.4 million from sales in international markets, for a combined debut of $83\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Solar Sci-Fi"","block_context":{"text":"Solar Sci-Fi","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3746,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3743\/revisions\/3746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}