The Earth Is Square

I know we have seen the latest and greatest and how it will be the best… but I honestly do not think the crowd sourcing traffic information is the best option out there.

It just depends on too many variables to fall into place, and people needed the right phone/application.  I can’t say for others… but I am not going to run out and get an iPhone for something that may or may not work well, or even be accurate.

What would be a better option though?  Well, the best one I have seen is the 511 system that many states are adopting.

America’s Traveler information number, 511, allows you to instantly access road updates from the convenience of your phone. This handy number allows you to obtain updated road and weather conditions, traffic information, and construction reports for specific routes, regions and cities. Some state systems, such as Georgia’s 511, even provides airport and train information.

This information is gathered by police reports, traffic cameras and other traffic monitoring systems.  All of which are more reliable sources.

Maybe if both were combined together, then you would have a very powerful tool.  But still limited to only certain phone users that way.

Huge image release for September on the HRISE site this month, this month alone has a release of over 1500 images that will give you an “Airplane Like View” of the Martian surface.  The reason for the view is that the angle of the camera was not straight down, but at an angle of 22 degrees to give better views of features such as craters, slopes and valleys.

With a resolution of ~ 1 meter you will not be able to pick out landing craft and rovers though.  But still, the imagery is amazing to see.

Read a small AP story in today’s paper about a thief that got caught because the phone he stole had a GPS built into it and the owner used that to locate said thief and he was arrested.

With the number of phones with GPS built in increasing.. I wonder if this will shortly be one area that will see thefts drop because the criminal could be more easily located.

I tried to find the AP story online to link to it.. but no luck yet.

No GIS geek should be without one of these.. an Earth Globe for your garden.  Made of blown glass, it looks pretty spiffy.  And they say it even glows at night (though the reviews I have read say otherwise).

A CNN video news story about a truck that was 13’ in height hitting a tunnel that has a 12’ max height limit.  He passed by several signs that said the max height is 12’ (as a truck driver you better darn well know how high your load is) he even ignored a flashing warning light that was telling him his load was too high for the tunnel.

So, what happened?  Well, what you would expect to happen.. he wrecked the trailer and got himself stuck.  But WHY did he go down such an obviously well marked road that was telling him he shouldn’t?  “My GPS said I should go this way.”

Was looking around at some local locations today, and I noticed that there are some new Bird’s Eye images of the local area (yet my location is still old imagery o.0) but what is interesting to see is a ghost town with a Bird’s Eye view.

Centralia, Pennsylvania has a unique reason why it went from a bustling town of over 1000 people down to 12 residents.  In 1962 a garbage dump fire ignited left over coal and that fire has since burned underground and is still burning to this day.

Centralia in 1962

Topo map of the town before the move out

You can see how Centralia looks now on the Bing maps here.

 
The center of town

Old and new Route 61