Google Adds GeoEye Layer to Earth, Zoo to Maps

If you are not familiar with GeoEye, it's the company behind the GeoEye-1 satellite. This is a satellite with a very high-resolution camera on it that takes pictures of the world, and Google uses imagery from that in Google Earth and Google Maps.

Back in September, GeoEye announced the one-year anniversary of the launch of the GeoEye-1. Since then, it had imaged every continent in the world, chronicled several noteworthy events (such as President Obama's inauguration and a North Korean missile facitlity before the launch of a long-range missle), collected about 54 million square kilometers of imagery, and taken over 200,000 images. That was months ago, and it's probably accomplsihed quite a bit more since then.

"While we're constantly adding such great imagery, what we've published to date represents only a subset of the available imagery from GeoEye-1, which is capable of collecting hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of imagery every day," says Google. "From this stream of GeoEye-1 imagery, we regularly receive images that we think would be of special interest to Google Earth users; some of these images are of interesting places, like Mt. Kilimanjaro or Las Vegas, and others relate to current events, like preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. However, it can take a bit of time for these images to be fully integrated into Google Earth and Google Maps given the processing time required, which includes image orthorectification and blending."

With that in mind, Google has now created a GeoEye Featured Imagery layer in Google Earth to showcase GeoEye imagery before it can be fully integrated into Google Maps and Google Earth. "Included within this layer are 20-30 Featured Imagery placemarks, including a thumbnail of the image, a link to view the image in full-resolution, and a wealth of information about the scene, including resolution, collection date, and a narrative about the location," the company explains. "Additionally, you'll find links to other images in the collection, and links to social networking sites, including Twitter, which allow you to share favorite scenes with others."



On a somewhat related note, Google is also now mapping interiors of places. Before you get too worked up, don't worry, they're not coming into your house), but they do have imagery up from within the San Diego Zoo (via TheNextWeb).



This imagery comes from the Google Street View Trike, which was designed to photograph tighter places where its Street View cars can't necessarily go. As other have pointed out, there are other companies out there starting to map internal imagery like this, such as Micello and PointInside. It will be interesting to see how Google competes with these or if they form any partnerships in the future.


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White House Releases iPhone App, Mobile Site on the Way

The White House has announced the release of the official White House iPhone app, as well as a plan to launch a mobile version of WhiteHouse.gov. With the app, iPhone and iPod touch users can access content from WhiteHouse.gov.

Content that is accessible includes live video streaming of events such as the President's upcoming State of the Union address scheduled for next Wednesday. Also accessible via the app are the White House blog and briefing room site.

"Mobile internet access is an important way Americans are staying informed. Mobile web usage grew over 100% in the last year in the United States and higher worldwide," writes Dave Cole on the WhiteHouse.gov blog. "As part of President Obama’s commitment to an open and transparent government, the White House App makes getting all the latest news and media from the White House easier than ever. And of course, we'll continue to look for new and emerging technologies to engage the American people and make information about the President and his administration easily available."

It seems like the White House's move toward mobile is a bit late, considering the website was changed nearly a year ago, but mobile accessibility is of growing importance to websites in general as more and more people spend less of their Internet time on their PCs and more on their phones.

There is no word from the White House on if they intend to release apps for Android, BlackBerry or other devices.

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The Internet is All Over Climategate While the MSM Sleeps

The mainstream media has its head in the sand again while one of the largest conspiracies the world has ever seen is exposed via Internet media. As most readers have heard by now, years of emails and programming code have been uncovered from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, which is run by the scientists whose research is the basis for the world's belief in man-caused global warming. Their science is also the backbone for a massive global tax proposal on industry which the Obama administration is pushing in Congress right now.

The emails and programming code notes clearly show that the science of anthropological global warming has been a fraud from the beginning. The CRU has routinely adjusted their own algorithm in order to provide the desired temperature result during certain time periods. View and search the raw emails here.

Within the global warming algorithm various programmers have written notes (which is pretty normal in programming code) that detail the deception. Here are some examples:

; plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to
; the real temperatures.

; Specify period over which to compute the regressions (stop in 1960 to avoid
; the decline

-- Here, the expected 1990-2003 period is MISSING - so the correlations aren't so hot! Yet the WMO codes and station names /locations are identical (or close). What the hell is supposed to happen here? Oh yeah - there is no 'supposed', I can make it up. So I have :-)

;mknormal,yyy,timey,refperiod=[1881,1940]
;
; Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!

The emails also show a pattern of deception at the highest levels of CRU scientists and illustrate their methods of discrediting other scientists who disagree with their warming orthodoxy. To top it all off the CRU scientists have only now admitted deleting all of their original data leaving just their massaged results which makes peer review impossible. 

Amazingly, the U.S. mainstream media including CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, New York Times and the Washington Post have hardly mentioned any of this! This lack of coverage by the MSM lets the Obama administration ignore the issue entirely and continue to push cap and trade legislation that is based on the accuracy of this very data. A week after the data fudging evidence was uncovered President Obama's climate czar, Carol M. Browner stated the Administrations position. "[The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has] been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real." 

Fortunately, the Internet media from Twitter to independent  news sites like Politico and RealClearPolitics are covering the issue with the vigor it deserves. The mainstream media has been displaced by the Internet as the discoverer of truth. Of course, the Internet includes mainstream media but it is not controlled by it, and thus no coverups will stay covered for long. 

The Internet is All Over Climategate While the MSM Sleeps

The mainstream media has its head in the sand again while one of the largest conspiracies the world has ever seen is exposed via Internet media. As most readers have heard by now, years of emails and programming code have been uncovered from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, which is run by the scientists whose research is the basis for the world's belief in man-caused global warming. Their science is also the backbone for a massive global tax proposal on industry which the Obama administration is pushing in Congress right now.

The emails and programming code notes clearly show that the science of anthropological global warming has been a fraud from the beginning. The CRU has routinely adjusted their own algorithm in order to provide the desired temperature result during certain time periods. View and search the raw emails here.

Within the global warming algorithm various programmers have written notes (which is pretty normal in programming code) that detail the deception. Here are some examples:

; plot past 1960 because these will be artificially adjusted to look closer to
; the real temperatures.

; Specify period over which to compute the regressions (stop in 1960 to avoid
; the decline

-- Here, the expected 1990-2003 period is MISSING - so the correlations aren't so hot! Yet the WMO codes and station names /locations are identical (or close). What the hell is supposed to happen here? Oh yeah - there is no 'supposed', I can make it up. So I have :-)

;mknormal,yyy,timey,refperiod=[1881,1940]
;
; Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!

The emails also show a pattern of deception at the highest levels of CRU scientists and illustrate their methods of discrediting other scientists who disagree with their warming orthodoxy. To top it all off the CRU scientists have only now admitted deleting all of their original data leaving just their massaged results which makes peer review impossible. 

Amazingly, the U.S. mainstream media including CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, New York Times and the Washington Post have hardly mentioned any of this! This lack of coverage by the MSM lets the Obama administration ignore the issue entirely and continue to push cap and trade legislation that is based on the accuracy of this very data. A week after the data fudging evidence was uncovered President Obama's climate czar, Carol M. Browner stated the Administrations position. "[The U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has] been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real." 

Fortunately, the Internet media from Twitter to independent  news sites like Politico and RealClearPolitics are covering the issue with the vigor it deserves. The mainstream media has been displaced by the Internet as the discoverer of truth. Of course, the Internet includes mainstream media but it is not controlled by it, and thus no coverups will stay covered for long. 

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