Country Scribe: New technology leaves nothing to the imagination

The relentless march of technology makes one wonder, is anything left to the imagination anymore?

Thanks to Google, anybody with a high-speed Internet connection can fly around at 2,000 feet above the earth and zoom in close enough to see cars, buildings and roads in Brazil or Thailand -- or your hometown.

There is some concern that terrorists will use the detailed satellite images to select targets, so some places around Washington, D. C., like Dick Cheney's residence, have been blurred over.

But my farm is still clear as a bell. I can see individual trees. I can see our rusty old machinery. I can see our illegal garbage pile.

Of course, human nature being as it is, I spend most of my time zooming in on neighbor's back yards.

All you people around here with long driveways who have been keeping old cars hidden out back behind the windbreak -- I know who you are. Your junk is hidden from the road, but from space, it stands out like a sore thumb.

Don't worry, I won't go to the town board to make you clean it up if you agree not to report my junkpile in the woods that you also can only see from space.

Just when one might despair that there are no more secrets, no more discoveries to be made, no more mysteries on the surface of the earth -- there comes encouraging news from New Guinea.

In December, a team of scientists penetrated the two million acre rain forest of the Foja Mountains in Indonesia, a remote area untouched by human habitation, apparently for its entire existence.

A dozen scientists jumped off a helicopter in a damp bog with enough supplies to last two weeks. Before they could even carve a camp out of the jungle, the group was greeted in a friendly manner by exotic mammals such as the golden mantled tree kangaroo and rare species of wild boar.

Oddly, the animals were unafraid of humans. They didn't mind being picked up and examined. They seemed naively curious about the newcomers to their paradise.

Later on, a pair of birds called the "six-wire bird of paradise" marched into camp and performed a bizarre mating dance for the scientists. The birds had never before been photographed.

The scientists were made dizzy by their surroundings. Before their helicopter picked them up, they had discovered 20 new species of frogs, a new species of bird, many new species of plants, as well as unheard of variations on countless other plants and animals.

Pictures of the new discoveries have been splashed across the globe. Reporters seem incredulous that such a remote, undiscovered place could still exist in this worn out world.

We shouldn't be so surprised. Scientists estimate that we have identified only a fraction of the plants and insects which exist in the Amazon region. There are tribes of aboriginals in the world's jungles who still have had no contact with civilization.

Even more obscure is the animal and plant life in the world's oceans. Scientists were astounded to find a worm a few years ago which only lives in the 500 degree water around deep-sea volcanic vents.

Turn your eyes skyward and the mysteries deepen.

Any star in the sky could have planets in its orbit. However, with our miserably inadequate telescopes, scientists have only been able to examine a few dozen of the closest stars.

Nobody has ever actually observed a planet outside our solar system, but by measuring a slight wobble in the light of a few nearby stars, scientists have been able to prove that just over 100 such planets do exist.

There are billions of stars in our galaxy. Each could have a dozen planets. And there are over a billion galaxies. Don't do the math, it will boggle your mind.

So, we have a lot of work to do if we are going to figure out this astonishing planet and the grand and glorious universe above.

Of course, we first have to get our noses out of our neighbor's back yard.

Visit Eric's weblog at www.countryscribe . com