Dec

31st 2006

Civil War Maps

Filed Under Cartography, Mapping, United States | Leave a Comment

If you are looking for Civil War maps, you can find a collection online by visiting “The Civil War Home Page” which has some linked from the home page: http://www.civil-war.net/

Dec

31st 2006

Get Google Maps on your cell phone

Filed Under Google Maps, Internet, Map Servers | Leave a Comment

Google Maps MobleDid you know that you can access Google Maps on your cell phone?  Visit http://www.google.com/gmm/index.html through your cell phone’s browser to access Google Maps Mobile.  If you have a Treo, you can now also download Google Maps to your device.  To find out how and to download visit http://www.google.com/gmm/treo

Dec

30th 2006

New Perspectives on Urban Land Use Change

Filed Under United States | Leave a Comment

br>News Release

U.S. Department of the Interior
U.S. Geological Survey

For release:  December 27, 2006
Contact:  Jonathan H. Smith, 703 648-4516, jhsmith@usgs.gov        

As Population Grows, So Do Urban Areas

New Perspectives on Urban Land Use Change

Over 300 million Americans have to live somewhere. And, of course, we do. Nearly 80 percent of the growing U.S. population resides in urban areas while the land area dedicated to urban use continues to expand.

A new USGS publication – Rate, Trends, Causes, and Consequences of Urban Land-Use Change in the United States (Professional Paper 1726) – studies the change in land use associated with increasing urbanization and its impacts at local, regional, and national scales. Based on the broad view of satellite imagery, the twenty scientific contributions that make up the publication examine urban land change in the United States from many perspectives – historical, geographic, economic, and ecological. Together the analyses provide new insights into critical issues of concern for both science and society.

“The knowledge of how and why urban land-use change occurs coupled with a projection of its direction and likely effect can be helpful in informing local, regional, and national decisions about land use,” said Barbara Ryan, Associate USGS Director for Geography. “These public decisions will not only shape communities, but will substantially affect citizens’ lives and livelihood, the economy, and the environment for years to come.”

As part of its mission to describe and understand the Earth, the USGS systematically monitors land surface change by observing the Earth with remote sensing satellites, studies the connections between people and those changes with geographic analysis, and provides individuals and society with relevant science information they can use to manage the consequences of those changes.

An online version of Professional Paper 1726 is available at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/pp1726/ .
Printed copies are available on request from USGS for $16 plus a $5 handling fee.
Telephone:         1-888-ASK-USGS
Mail:                  USGS; P.O. Box 25286; Denver, CO  80225  

The USGS serves the nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; minimize loss of life and property from natural disasters; manage water, biological, energy, and mineral resources; and enhance and protect our quality of life.

To receive USGS news releases go to www.usgs.gov/public/list_server.html

**** www.usgs.gov ****

Jennifer LaVista
Public Affairs Specialist
U.S. Geological Survey, Office of Communications
703-648-4432
Email: jlavista@usgs.gov

Dec

30th 2006

Pushing Postcards From the Edge Into Oblivion

Filed Under Travel | Leave a Comment

There are web sites called travelogue that allow you to create a virtual set of postcards from your travels that you can share with friends.  Washington Post travel writer Anne McDonough reviews some of the more popular travelogue web sites in her article.  If you’re planning on traveling and want to virtually document your trip afterwards, check out this review article. 

Read the article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122900434.html

Dec

29th 2006

Uh, Sidney’s not in Australia

Filed Under Australia, Travel, World | Leave a Comment

Tobi Gutt, a 21 year old German tourist made an 8000+ mile typo when he went on the Internet to book a flight to Australia to spend a four week vacation with his girlfriend.  A sense that something was wrong tickled the traveler when he boarded the flight to the United States but it wasn’t enough to stop him from flying all the way to chilly Montana in his light summer clothes.  Gutt told German magazine Bild, “I did wonder but I didn’t want to say anything, I thought to myself, you can fly to Australia via the US.”  It wasn’t until he was about to board a commuter plane to Sidney did it finally occur to Gutt that he might be on the wrong path.  His family back home in Germany sent him the 600 Euros needed to buy a ticket to continue on to the correct destination of Sydney, Australia. 

Dec

28th 2006

LinuxWorld Names Google Maps API as Top Application

Filed Under Internet, Map Servers, Mapping | Leave a Comment

In their article titled “Ten Web 2.0 APIs you can really use”, LinuxWorld has named Google Maps API their number one pick:

http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2006/121806-web-20-apis.html

Dec

28th 2006

Liechtenstein has grown

Filed Under Europe, Mapping | Leave a Comment

Liechtenstein, the sixth smallest country in the world has gained a smidge more in geographic area thanks to revised calculations from surveyors.   Times Online reports that the Office of Economic Affairs has announced this increase in the size of Liechtenstein to 160.475 km.  Thje gain in land mass wasn’t enough to bump up the ranking of this small European country.

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