As a student, I am always on the look out for distractions, I mean I can find some myself -like tidying my very messy room- but internet based ones are always more fun. I think there's something inherent in a student to investigate distractions if they are working, even if they are genuinely interested in what they are doing. So with this in mind, whilst I was reading an article on Renaissance comedy, I found myself downloading Google Earth. For those of you who are regular listeners to Chris Moyles's Radio 1 Breakfast Show, you will know the team were messing about with it earlier in the week and looking up their hotel in New York and other "useful" things. They seem to use it as a distraction when they're supposed to be working too...
The concept is a brilliant one, "Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips"*, which means you can search for your house, see a satellite picture of it and zoom in or you can be more productive and search for restaurants and hotels in a specific area. Pretty snazzy distraction methinks.


*Sorry, I find myself in essay mode.