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December 22, 2008

Like a swarm of bees...

Migration corridors and transportation routes have always fascinated me, whether it's the momentous journeys made by herds of roaming caribou, monarch butterflies, or arctic terns, or human migration and transportation routes like the hypothetical crossings of Beringia or the rivers of Canada, former highways of the fur trade and First Nations people long before that, mountain routes like the one described in the Kohklux map, the Dine/Dene migration to the Southern US from Northern Canada, or the migration of European settlers into North America.

In many ways, we're becoming increasingly migratory.  I recently came across this link, which hosts a video that shows 24-hours worth of air traffic.  The jets flying back and forth between Europe and North America reminds me of a swarm of bees.  You may have to watch it more than once to catch all of the swarms.

You can link directly to the videos here and watch them in either Quicktime or Windows Media Player format.   

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The real-time traffic around Zurich (at http://radar.zhaw.ch/radar.html ) is VERY cool to watch.

Anonymous said...

The global video is very cool -- interesting to see where the swarming occurs but also where the one-offs fly.
Murray, the Zurich link is also fascinating -- which I think it woudl be for any airport, but even more so because it's an area I'm familiar with -- my mother grew up there (just outside of Effretikon, which appears on the map) and I still have family in the region. So I can picture the planes flying over the homes and landmarks below.

Jennybell said...

This reminds me of the trek I just made to the local Super Walmart! Like a swarm of bees doesn't even start to explain what it was like in there!