Jul

22nd 2008

California No More in Russia

Filed Under General | 1 Comment

The village of California located in a Russian Volga province is no longer.  The deserted village has not contained residents since 1992.  The origination of the name is vague:

According to one version of events, the village was given its name in the 19th century by a landowner who had been impressed by a visit to North America. According to another account, the village had been called Kaliforovka, and the landowner renamed it after Russia sold Alaska to the U.S.

The article reports that according to the last census there are 13,000 completely deserted villages, and 35,000 with fewer than 10 inhabitants.

Jul

16th 2008

Google Maps Blurred

Filed Under Current Events, Google Maps | Leave a Comment

ITSecurity.com lists 51items you can’t see on Google Maps because they are blurred out.  Reasons for the digital erasure vary from sensitive government sites to privacy lawsuits.  The list is organized into categories containg government sites, sites removed for political reasons or due to litigation, nuclear sites and college and reasearch labs.  Based on some of the comments, the list’s accuracy is questionable with some of the commenters remarking that sites on the list are actually accessible on Google Maps. 

Jul

16th 2008

Town without waste

Filed Under Asia, Environment | Leave a Comment

The BBC reported on the Japanese town of Kamikatsu which has no trash pickup.  Residents have to composte their green waste and recyclables are sorted into 34 different categories at the recycling center.  Residents are responsible for disposing of all their trash.

Read: Living in a world without waste - BBC News

Jul

13th 2008

Starbucks Closures Mapped

Filed Under Google Maps, United States | 1 Comment

With the announcement of 600 Starbucks stores to close across the United States, it was only a matter a time before somebody took on the tast of mapping out the closures.  Apparently Starbucks is only announcing the closures in batches.  However, Starbuck employees are given a 30-day notice which is allowing the Seattle Times to post confirmed and rumored closures as they receive information.

Read more: Confirmed, rumored U.S. store closures - Seattle Times

Confirmed Starbucks store closures are noted by green pushpins and rumored store closures in blue.


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Jul

08th 2008

placeSpotting

Filed Under Games | Leave a Comment

Here’s a challenge to your understanding of zoomed in places around the world.  On placeSpotting.com a zoomed in view of an aerial is presented with up to four hints about the location.  Solving the challenge is done by zooming in on a world image below the clue to match the zoom and location presented.  The game is available in both English and German.

Visit: placeSpotting (seen via Catholicgauze)

Jul

08th 2008

New World Heritage Sites

Filed Under Current Events, World | Leave a Comment

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added nineteen new cultural and eight new natural sites to the World Heritage List.  There are now 878 sites in 145 countries on the list.  The latest 27 added sites include four new countries: Papua New Guinea, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, and Vanuatu.  Photos of the sites can be viewed here. Read more

Jul

06th 2008

Earth Live

Filed Under Climatology, Current Events, Education, Map Servers | Leave a Comment

The Discovery Channel has a fascinating and educational interface with their Earth Live application.  The site pulls in data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NAS0 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to allow viewers to see visualizations of the earth’s methane, atmosphere, earthquakes and other global datasets.  Users can also custom load from a list of available layers of global data and create their own stories.

The site was built with Adobe Flex technology and provides a 3D view of the earth.  Geographic data covering clouds, water vapor, temperature and rainfall is updated every 24 hours from NASA and NOAA.  A widget tool (accessed by clicking the “share this story” button) allows users to place the 3D globe onto blogging and Facebook pages.

Visit - Earth Live - Discovery

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