Is there anyway to get rid of this spiral that is showing up in Google Earth?

Please....anybody?

Its really annoying, and moreover, if I understand these posts correctly, its filled with politically inspired propaganda (however innocently aquired) from Iraqbodycount.com.

I know someone probably thought they were doing a wonderful thing by posting this here, but is there anyone who knows more about the program that would please tell me how to delete it from my version of google earth?

there has to be a better way to post it for those who WANT TO actually see such propaganda, and let the rest of us view Iraq and the places of Iraq as we would.

thanks in advance.

Hi mrclark and welcome,

you can switch off the layers in your Google Earth for you to stop seeing certain data:



Thanks,

Dulce.

Thank you Dulce (which is what I call my wife), for getting to my post so quickly.

I can't tell you how much I enjoy using this program. I'm even searching for ways to use it with my business.

Unfortunately, turning off the "military" option in the layers, turns off other great military bookmarks.

(EDIT:::::: I'd like to add, that after reading a little more here on the bbs, I may have inadvertantly clicked on and downloaded this module (or whatever its called) which displays this spiral. If that is the case, I'd gladly accept any help from someone who knows how to delete it from my copy of Google Earth:::::END EDIT)

I know the poster must have taken a lot of time to make his elaborate design....but how about just one simple bookmark linking to his own site (or the site of his choice) with his detailed list of all the people who've died in the Iraq war.

I mean....the acutal spiral is hardly factually representative of where people died.....and since google Earth is supposed to be a program which touts its GEOGRAPHICAL components (longitude, latitude, etc), I think he Google editors should remove the display and the OP can go ahead and post one by one each locale where a death is supposed to have happened.

The way it is now, it overpowers other bookmarks.

Whatever yours or anyone elses feelings on this war.....the spiral screws up any other bookmarks by obscuring them.

And who has the time to go one by one searching for other bookmarks to decipher which belong to his display and which don't.

thanks again Dulce for your prompt response

peace.

No problem mrclark

whenever you want to delete any content you've dowloaded in your Google Earth from the forum, you need to place the pointer of your mouse on the file (you'll find it in "My places"), right click and then delete. On the other hand, if the file downloaded has already been added to the database, then it won't be deleted unless you uncheck the layer where it is, sorry

Even when most the members here try to post placemarks with accurancy, it is something that I know you'll understand is almost impossible to control for the team. For you, as for me and for any of us, there are post that we like and dislike, placemarks that we considered more right, wrong, fair, unfair, interesting, etc...

Being a community of enthusastic users has its issues, but I know that you'll enjoy the place and the program as much as we do

Be very welcome again

Dulce.


PS. nice thing to call a wife

Thank you.

Is there anyway to delete the database and "start over" so to speak?

I'll try to uninstall Google Earth and reinstall it.

Sorry, but in this politically charged environment that we live in, some things should remain somewhat pure.

I'm sure the original poster of the GIANT DEATH SPIRAL wants to get attention....but there are more subtle ways of doing it.

This smaks of some kind of "protest", and I dont' think that is what the creators of this technology had in mind....

thanks again

Sorry you feel that way mrclark. Sometimes a low key approach does not get the message across. In my opinion, the fact that American soldiers are killing and being killed, is not something I want you or anyone else to be able to easily ignore. Maybe the OP was making a "protest", maybe he was just presenting facts. Are you uncomfortable with the facts? Are there errors?

By the way, your namesake killed when necessary, for revenge, and often "Without Remorse" , but that was when he was young. When he grew older he felt the regret of killing, as do I.

ok--im editing this down to a few lines--it waas a bigassed post but it was also dripping with a little too much venom.

the skinny is that that spiral is trying to bring attention to a political/military even--not so bad except that its not having anything to do with specific physical locations.

Its someone making a statement--pure and simple. And I can think of a ton of ways to abuse that loophole. And some pretty accurate but highly politically incorrect ones too.

Migh want to consider that before someone here does a cross continental flow demarking the spread of Islam and weather or not those areas are generally educated peoples or not----so, you seee how this sort of thing could be abused..

just a thought...

Quote:

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not so bad except that its not having anything to do with specific physical locations

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This is the question; not anything more. It is nothing with Islam, nothing with demarcation, nothing with education...

Why do you feel so harmed?

Quote:

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This is the question; not anything more. It is nothing with Islam, nothing with demarcation, nothing with education...

Why do you feel so harmed?

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I guess I'm lost here...how did Islam and education come into this? No one said anyting about Islam. It's only educational for ma persone personal knowledge of it.

Demarcation, yes. It's a map. Maps are about physical locations. We have an interesting map here that shows arial views and allowed us to put interesting comment marks on it. And thats a functions that I really like.

Your last statement--I don't feel "harmed". but I fail to see the ruining of the baghdad area map by listing a chronological list of negative events. that only have relevance to the entire region.

We could spiral the Balkans with a few thound marks for only a few years of its recent history. We could do isreal,palistine, egypt, etc with all the terrorist attacks since the late 60's. and on...and on...

People seem to be missing the point. ONE point could link to a thread with that list. Or better yet, to a download link. but the creator doesnt seem to feel that will hold the interest of people--but hey!! I know! Lets smear the entire city with an interesting looking spiral. You see? prolly not. By creating a few thousand points, he draws everyones attention away from every other single point in the region.

Thats simple logic, cant have it both ways. If everyones point is equally important and valid, then its obvious abuse to list thousands of non-physicaly relevenat ones.

plain and simple--its abusing the map. What makes GE so great is that anyone can use this. Ya know something? As much as I like reading other peoples comments and personal insideinfo--I don't even turn on Google Showcase around baghdad anymore.

I've been asked "why" do I bother with it. My question is "why" this person had to use GE to plase this info? "Why" is it in G. Showcase and not in the unranked listings? Why is it not an overlay.

awww screw it....even the mighty google has succumbed to pithy idealists.

want my soapbox? 'cause im done with it.

I would appear that you've looked before you've leaped (or, in this case, read ALL the posts associated with the civilian deaths thread).

The spiral was a solution suggested by one of the GE programmers to avoid just smearing the map with "guestimated" positions from the various news wires and iraqideaths.com. Read about the spiral in the thread and why it looks the way it does. You'll find that in this instance, it was the best solution to a HUGE problem of how to display the civilian costs of this war.

Also, I note that you DON'T complain about the ones he posted with the US/Coalition casualties. How come? Are their deaths "more important" to you and therefore not necessary to rant about? This is one of those "you can't have it both ways" conversations, though - the second one (the civilian casualties) came about because of the first one. Many of the readers of the first thread (US/Coalition casualties) requested that he create it. He did.

In closing, one other thing you've failed to take note of is that both posts have been moved out of the main forums and put into the Current Events forum - where they won't show on the layers in the next update.