…so here’s the world’s largest QR code, according to TripAdvisor.
That’s kind of cool. Any idea what the QR code directs to? (I no longer have a QR code reader on my phone… that technology really didn’t take off.)
Until you get really zoomed out, most of what you see on Google Maps are photos taken from airplanes, not satellites. Unless things have changed recently.
And the name of the place is “devil’s mountain” (Teufelsberg)
What the hell is “finoizibar”? I tried Google Translator, and it said “Finoizibar” means “Finoizibar”.
I’ve read that it goes to the graffiti artist’s website.
It’s also the site of a cold-war era NSA listening post directed at the Russians. I started this thread during a TV program about the site; very odd seeing what appeared to be a QR code atop something that hasn’t performed its designated operations since at least '96 so I looked it up. The program didn’t show any other graffiti until later so I thought it might have been some structural element that happened to look like a QR code.
If Google wants to call it a satellite image, who am I to argue? 
Come to China - I haven’t used cash in months and pay for everything by scanning QR codes (including fruit and veg from local markets).
Unfortunately the one on the roof in the picture doesn’t seem to scan . . .
Here is something neat. I researched it and have written a summary of what I found out if you give up. Just take notice of the military grade barbed wire and the building that does not identify if you click on it. I live about 15 minutes away.
Dennis
I screencapped the image, cropped and rotated it, uploaded it to two different on-line readers. Neither one found a QR code in it.
I give up. What is it?
In looking around that area, I found this naturally formed lake:
What seems funny is that there is this big boathouse that at first looks like you could sail off into the sunset in a boat there. Then you zoom out and realize that the pond is hardly bigger than the lot. And the “boathouse” isn’t. Where is your summary? It seems like a lot of $ went into it.
What are you calling a pond? That body of water looks bigger than Jaquay LAKE just to the SW. 
OK, first, it is a very deep quarry, not a pond. Here is a 1969 aerial of it:
It was built by Clevite/Gould to develop the Mk 48 torpedo guidance system. When Gould and the government were done testing, they basically walked away. An HVAC company owns it today. I caught them with the gate open and drove in. A guy was loading stuff in a truck and I asked him if he knew what the floating building used to be. He looked around furtively and replied, “Would you believe cold war weapons testing”?
They were very receptive to an interview so I grabbed my camera and talked to the owner. He explained how they used to launch torpedoes from an underwater door beneath the floating facility. He dragged out an old box of photos, blueprints, and test reports they left behind. I copied a bunch of stuff. There is even a scale model of the entire facility including a cutaway section showing the quarry underneath and torpedoes in in.
I have it all written up and we will publish it on the Lorain County History blog probably after the first of the year. It is a great story. Photos of everything showing them rigging and launching a test torpedo through the large trapdoor in the floor. Much of what they tested there were test mules, But the photos clearly show real Mk 48s. And even though the purpose of the facility was to test guidance, there is a typical ordnance magazine buried into a hillside.
A company recently used the quarry to test their side scanning radar. There is still a torpedo down there! See, occasionally my history research gets exciting.
Oh, if you don’t hear from me anymore…
Dennis
Very cool! Thanks for sharing this story. I would’ve never guessed it from looking at the map. Please update this thread or start a new one once you get it published.
Yes, things have indeed changed. Most of the Google Earth/Maps imagery at detailed scales is now from satellites – most often, what used to be Quickbird but is now WorldView (a commercial remote sensing firm – typical spatial resolution is 70 cm).