A large being resides in Fern Ridge Lake, nearly two miles tall.
It’s not a Nessie-style monster: it’s a drawing of the fictional Japanese pop idol Hatsune Miku on the website wplace, which invites users to “Paint the world” by drawing on top of a global map updated in real time.
The technology news website The Verge said the website is “like Google Maps plus MS Paint.” It has grown so quickly since launch, The Verge notes, that its servers struggle to keep up with demand. (It’s inspired by a recurring Reddit feature, r/place, where users add to a collaborative work of pixel art; r/place doesn’t have a map and is only open for a few days at a time.)
Each pixel is one point of color, forming an overall image in a digital version of the art technique pointillism. Artists can either work collaboratively, pooling together their pixels to make one image, or individually over time while hoping no one draws over their work…