Some other amazing Google Earth extensions

My love for Google Earth is no secret. Here are two new items.

First cool Google Earth item:

fboweb.com, a fixed base operator website, has a nice kml file which lets you track individual flights or all inbound traffic for certain United States airports, e.g. LAX, JFK, SFO. Pretty wild stuff. I'm not sure what you'd really use it for though. (My first thought involved stinger missiles... {Also, on that tip, check out this.}) I guess you could use it to plan to fly over some specific landmarks for nice "through the window" shots.

Second cool Google Earth item:

Moving Past Push Pins, a blog by a company making software for Google Earth and other Geo-related applications, has a great post about mashing up data in the form of heat maps:

Below is a screen shot from Google Earth of 600 bars (rated between 1 and 10) in NYC and the location of single women by census block.

Essentially they demonstrate its use to find bars filled with single women.

It's not yet live, but when this stuff is available as KML links and you can mashup your myspace.com data to find heat maps of all the single or swinging bisexual women in your city of choice, well, to borrow a line from Dennis Miller: "that's gonna make crack look like Sanka." (btw, does anybody drink Sanka anymore?)

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google earth flights heat maps crack sanka

NFL Divisional Round Playoff Predictions continued

My predictions yesterday were 3 for 4 in terms of spread an O/U, you know, what counts. Let's see how I do today.

1:00 pm Seattle at Chicago -9.5
O/U 37

Chicago wins by 3 on a last minute FG by Robbie Gould, 17-16, Da Bears!

4:30 pm New England at San Diego -4.5
O/U 46

LT scores 2 TDs and a two point conversion. San Diego lights up the Pats, 31-21.

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NFL Seahawks Bears Patriots Chargers

NFL Playoff Predictions

4:30 pm Indianapolis at Baltimore -4
O/U 42

Ravens intercept Manning at least twice and Baltimore gets to fly to San Diego next week, 24-17.

8:00 pm Philadelphia at New Orleans -5.5
O/U 48.5

This is a tough one. I'd like Philly to win, but I think the Saints will win in a nailbiting shootout, 34-31.

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NFL Ravens Colts Saints Eagles

Recreating photos in Google Earth

Others have done this before* , but with the new Google Earth 4 now out of beta, I thought i'd mention it.

Here's a photo I took in Tokyo near the moat around the East Imperial Gardens.



And here's a recreation using Google Earth to find almost the same vantage point and angle of viewing with 3D building added:




If somebody could add the textures to those buildings, it would be very very close, all that would be needed after that would some vegatation layer. How long before Google adds that?

Here's the kmz file if you'd like to see it for yourself.

* pressure under fire?

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google earth photography tokyo imperial gardens

Nanophilosophy

Keeping up with all things nano, here's a nice little exploration of nano-philosophy. The pdf is only two pages and contains gems like:

Metaphysics
- What is the sound of two hands clapping?
- Is there something rather than nothing?
- Is the universe made up wholly of Leibniz’s gonads?
- Is this the best of all actual worlds?
- Which came first, the chicken or the omelette?

Comet McNaught and how to find it this evening

The brightest comet in the past 31 years, Comet McNaught, is visible this evening and next (and I'm not sure for how long in total). Here's how to find it, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere. (Don't worry if you're in the Antipodes, it'll be down there soon.)

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comet mcnaught astronomy

The Perfect Gift For Any Dallas Cowboys Fan

Check out this Tony Romo action figure on ebay. Available while supplies last! Hats off to the designer of that, but I'd hardly spend $210 on it.

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Dallas Cowboys ebay Tony Romo

They should've had these on Survivor.

My roommate just made this. Isn't it great? They should've had a few of these on the island the first Survivor was on. That would've made it more interesting.

Personally, I've always been disappointed that king crabs aren't similar in proportion to, say, the Chesapeake blue crab. Imagine king crab legs in a blue crab body type. The body would probably be close to a meter wide. It'd be so sweet to release a crustacean tank onto a crowded beach and watch beachgoers flee in panic.

Roger will probably make some comment about Flemish Giants now.

Compare and Contrast

Wall Street Bonuses Flood NYC's Economy

Bonuses are expected to generate $1.6 billion in tax revenues for New York state and another $500 million for New York City. For every job created on Wall Street, three other jobs are created in the city and suburbs.

"Wall Street jobs create jobs," said Ken Bleiwas, deputy comptroller. "Why? Because they are pumping money into the economy. They're going out to restaurants, they are purchasing all kinds of consumer goods."

vs.

Nothing New Here -- And That's the Point In California, 10 Friends Eschew Consumer Culture to Live Secondhand

Attention holiday shoppers! These people haven't bought anything new in 352 days -- and counting. These 10 friends vowed last year not to purchase a single new thing in 2006 -- except food, the bare necessities for health and safety (toilet paper, brake fluid) and, thankfully, underwear, and maybe socks (they're still debating whether new socks are okay).

The words "naked", "crack", and "gator" in the same sentence just can't end well.

Take a look at this article about a naked crackhead attacked by a gator.

Also, I know '80s German synth had some weird videos- I mean, remember Alphaville's "Forever Young" vid?- but this video of a song called "Andromeda" by Silicon Dream is the worst I've seen yet. The lead singer looks like a gay pedophilic Ronald McDonald(okay, more so). The dancers do not coordinate, move strangely, and leer at the camera.

Truly, the world is strange.

Hugo Chavez

Hugo Chavez may have won reelection, but whatever happened to Freeze?