Animaniacs Geography Song

Animaniacs Geography Song. Yakko Warner sings a song about the world. From the Animaniacs animaniacs

Giant penguins may have roamed Peru

Giant penguins as tall as 5 feet roamed what is now Peru more than 40 million years ago. Known mostly for their presence in Antarctica, penguins today live in many islands in the Southern Hemisphere, some even near the equator.

Now, researchers report in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that they have found remains of two types of penguin in Peru that date to 40 million years ago.

One of them was a 5-foot giant with a long sharp beak. [ ...more ]

How the Arctic Ocean was born

Some 20 million years ago, the Arctic Ocean was best described as a very large lake, whose fresh water leaked southwards through a narrow strait into the Atlantic.

Then, 18.2 million years ago, something happened. Drawn by shifting tectonic plates, the strait began to widen. Slowly, over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, salt water from the Atlantic began flowing into the Arctic turning it into the ocean we know today. [ ...more ]

5-second dropped-food rule debunked

In the interest of culinary science, student researchers at Connecticut College conducted exacting experiments in the dining hall and the snack bar to see how long it takes for food dropped on the floor to attract rogue bacteria.

According to lore and legend, dropped food that spends less than five seconds on the floor - the so-called five-second rule - is still safe to eat because rogue bacteria need more time to taint it.

I think my parents owe me an apology. [ ...more ]

Space Shuttle Lauch

Shuttle launch as seen from WB-57 High Altitude Research Aircraft [PIC]

Picture taken from the WB-57 research aircraft of the Atlantis Shuttle from the Kennedy Space Centre.

New York Unveils New Single Seat Car.

Interesting concept. A single user car is developed by Toyota. I'd like to see how this thing holds up on the BQE.

Google Maps: Invading Your Privacy? (Not Anymore!)

The famous picture from Google Maps Street View layer of the woman wearing a thong is now off of the Google system. Someone tattled and had the Google take down the image for being "inappropriate." [ ...more ]

Citarum River in Indonesia Full of Trash !

The Citarum River in Indonesia is so full of trash that the eco system around it is dying and the guys pictured above are fishing not for fish but for rubbish they can sell.

The author of this article makes a huge error, though, in claiming this river supplies Hydroelectric power to France, which is over 6,000 miles away. I assume he means a French part of Indonesia. [ ...more]

JetBlue Adding Real-Time Google Maps In-Flight

Low-cost American airline JetBlue announced yesterday they have struck a deal with search giant Google to provide the familiar Google Maps software on the seat-back screens to map the flight's route in real-time. Family and friends will also be able to pull up JetBlue.com and track any flight via the same Google Maps interface. [ ...more ]

Vermont GIS Links Updated

Vermont GIS links for GIS Pilot get a little dusting off and update. This state is the hardest state to find anything for GIS related links. It's hard to even find assessor data but I'm still plugging away at it to see if I can dig anything up.

• Vermont Geographic Alliance
• VERMONT National Resources Conservation Service GIS Data
• University of Vermont Geography - Great school

New Hampshire GIS Links Updated

Hello again. The updates continue with the GIS Pilot New Hampshire GIS links. We're rolling in a couple of GIS links for counties and updates for townships. It used to be that the assessor data on Vision was what made up the list but thankfully the GIS trend is hitting the budgets of almost every state and it's looks like New Hampshire is slowly adding some GIS sites.

• Gilford County, New Hampshire GIS
• New Hampton Town, New Hampshire Assessor
• Laconia County, New Hampshire GIS
• Dover City, New Hampshire Assessor

3-D Model of Watercrest Flood Verification on Google Earth

Watercrest Flood Verification at Papermill Center gets a little Google Earth 3-D model. This is where all the fancy FEMA Flood maps get done in high-tech style, kinda. Actually, it's just an uneventful strip mall but we call it home.

• Watercrest Flood at Papermill Center Download

iPhone Mapping Application

The iPhone features a cool mapping application which utilizes Google Maps and integrates it into the phone software. It's how mobile mapping should be. You can search the map for keywords and if you find what you are looking for you can then proceed to pull up the information of the subject and call them, all in a few taps of the finger.

iPhone - Calamari

Mississippi GIS Links Update

Mississippi GIS links used to be incredibly hard to find. However, the budgets must have allotted for some GIS features as I've added some more counties to the GIS PILOT Mississippi links list which has grown to a nice big pile this year. Here are the additions to the Mississippi GIS link list this week:

1. Hancock County, Mississippi GIS Link
2. Lafayette County, Mississippi GIS
3. Lawrence County, Mississippi GIS
4. Lee County, Mississippi GIS
5. Monroe County, Mississippi GIS
6. Winston County, Mississippi GIS

Singapore Waterspout - Hitting Ships (Close-up)

Singapore Waterspout - Hitting Ships (Close-up)

Google Maps Already Censored ?

Google Headquarters expecting the Street View Van?

Google Maps Street View is already becoming the hottest thing in our mapping world in quite awhile. The ability to find odd things along the mapping route has led to many unique finds already. I really enjoy the "candid" picture of the Google HQ (above)

Check out Streetviewr for more unique and odd findings on Google Maps. One of note is a possible police chase that today is taken offline. You can view the picture up to this point (below) and then it goes offline, saying "Picture not available." Looks like Google deliberately took this section off involving the crime.

Here's the best picture available coming the other way. You can make out the 3 cop cars and some officers standing outside the business. Hmmm...now I'm real curious.