Hurricane Gustav - Extremely Dangerous

"Extremely Dangerous" - that' what a majority of news outlets are reporting about Hurricane Gustav. Latest reports on Hurricane Gustav is that it is now a Category 4 storm with wind speeds up to 145 miles. Here's a look at the storm track + YouTube videos (tagged with "Hurricane Gustav") on Google Maps.

more on Hurricane Gustav at Google Maps Mania and Google Earth Blog

Major Calamity in India - A river changes course

The Kosi river, a tributary of the Ganges in the Indian State of Bihar did something earth shattering this monsoon season. It burst through its banks to flow into a channel it had abandoned more than 200 years ago. The flooded channel swept over a region not accustomed to flooding and forced more than a million people from their homes.

These images below explain what exactly happened:

Here's a Google Maps View of The Kosi River during normal times:


Here's another image from NASA Earth Observatory taken on August 8th, 2008 (before the disaster)


Here's a image from Nasa Earth Observatory taken on August 24th, 2008 showing River Kosi changing its course and flowing through the channel which was abandoned 200 years ago. Looks like more water is flowing through this channel.

A swarm of earthquakes off of British Columbia Coast

Just saw this breaking news on CNN that "A Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake has rocked Vancouver Island, Canada". CNN did not have more details so I checked out Google News and came across this from Winnipeg Sun:

There’s a whole lot of shaking going on off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Here's more info from US Geological Survey website:

All the latest Earthquake information (Google Maps Mashup)

Who is Joe Biden?

Joe Biden outside of his home state of Delaware might not be well known. But now with Barack Obama picking Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate, lot of people are getting to know Joe Biden. Joe Biden is a extremely good speaker and its going to be fun watching the debates.

I have put together a Google Maps Mashup of Joe Biden's journey from his birth place in Scranton, Pennsyania to possibly Dick Cheney's current residence at Number One Observatory Circle in Washington DC. I have also embedded a YouTube video in lower right hand corner where you can see Joe Biden's speaking abilities.

(Joe Biden )

Democratic Convention - Latest Videos from the Denver Area

A quick Google Maps page I put together with YouTube videos from the Denver Area tagged with "Democratic Convention" and also videos tagged with location information.

Krispy Kreme bacon cheddar cheeseburgers

This whopper of a artery buster meal (Krispy Kreme bacon cheddar cheesburgers) was served at Latitude: 40.7417 and Longitude: -74.0038. I wonder if it came with ZOCOR!! at the side. (Source: Flickr). The description at Flickr states

This was lunch at Google NYC's cafeteria to celebrate the birthday of the head of the cafe staff...

America's Hard Drinking Cities

Forbes is out with its annual list of "America's Hard Drinking Cities". Topping the list this year is Austin, Texas. For a look at the Forbes's 15 most drunk cities in United States check out this Google Maps Mashup. For each of the 15 cities I have also provided links for

• Pubs near that city, in case folks want to bump up the city ranking for next year
• Alcohol related searches on Google since 2004 in and around that city

Related:
Alcohol Related Searches in your State. (for eg: who is searching for "Scotch" in California, New York, Michigan, Texas, Florida etc...

Here's a screen shot from - Alcohol related searches in California:

Google Maps helps you find Clean Toilets in New York City

Planning a visit to New York City? or if you are already in New York City and have an urgent need to do your thing then check out "Diaroogle.com" on your mobile device. Key in your location and if your are in luck you might find "CLEAN" toilets in the vicinity.

Diaroogle.com will help you find the nearest toilet based off its user-generated database. (via CNET)

VEEPSTAKES - Who will Barack Obama and John McCain choose?

I wonder if the VP selection committee at both Obama and McCain campaigns, have made use of Google Trends to help them narrow the list of candidates.

I have put together a Google Maps Mashup of Google Trends + Possible VP Candidates which might provide some help. This mashup shows the top 10 cities in United States where the search is originating for a given candidate. This list can be filtered by date and individual US State. The mashup also shows you links to news articles which caused a spike in search.



What about folks who just don't care? Looks like folks in Syracuse, NY don't care about anything :)

Google Hell bent to solve Energy crisis.

Google has thrown itself into the energy debate. Instead of looking offshore for energy, Google is looking deep underneath your feet. This from FORBES

Deep underneath your feet is a hellish stone soup, kept hot by a torrent of radiation from poisonous isotopes of uranium, thorium and potassium in the earth's superheated mantle. This is the heat that helps cause volcanoes, geysers and hot springs. And it is the heat that powers a modest number of electricity generators around the world, from Iceland to Indonesia.

This from Google.org

Today, as part of our Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal initiative, Google.org announced more than $10 million in investments and grants in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) technology. EGS expands the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. The traditional geothermal approach relies on finding naturally occurring pockets of steam or hot water. The EGS process, by comparison, replicates these conditions by fracturing hot rock, circulating water through the system, and using the resulting steam to produce electricity in a conventional turbine.

Check out the massive US Geothermal resource in Google Earth, Google Maps

Here's a Google Maps View of West Ford Flat Power Plant which is one of the 21 power plants located at Geysers. The Geysers, a geothermal power field located 72 miles (116 km) north of San Francisco, California, is the largest geothermal development in the world (source wikipedia).

Plane dangles from high voltage power lines near Durach, Germany

BBC is reporting that

Two people have been rescued from a light aircraft which hit power lines near Durach, in southern Germany.

It took emergency services two hours to get the trapped occupants out of the plane which was left dangling 30 metres (100 feet) above the ground.

Rescuers on the scene believe the plane's undercarriage clipped the 380,000 volt power line shortly after taking off from a nearby airport.

Tropical Storm Fay makes its second landfall

After making its first U.S. landfall Monday afternoon over Key West, Florida; Tropical Storm Fay made its second landfall near Cape Romano, Florida (Google Maps View) on Tuesday morning at about 4:45am ET.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Florida Keys and the majority of Florida's Atlantic coast. All hurricane warnings have been discontinued. (via weather channel)

There are quite a few Google Maps Mashups which are tracking Tropical Storm Fay. The following Mashups were found at GoogleMapsMania

• Ibiseye
• Wunderground
• StormAdvisory
• flhurricane.com

Heavy Rains around Grand Canyon causes Dam Breach

Associated Press is reporting that

Days of heavy rains around the Grand Canyon created flooding that breached an earthen dam Sunday and forced helicopters to pluck scores of residents and campers from the gorge. No injuries were immediately reported.

The flooding came on a weekend during the busy summer tourist season, when thousands of visitors a day flock to the canyon for spectacular views, hikes or to raft its whitewater.

Google Earth/Maps view will follow soon. I had a incorrect view here. Sorry about that!

Here's what I found

Information on Redlands Dam is hard to find because of national security concerns. Links to dam safety web sites are limited to authorized personnel.

The link mentioned above states that "Redlands Dam" is located on "Cataract Canyon". So this might be the approximate Location - (Google Maps View)

Google Earth View:

Russian and Georgian Conflict on YouTube

Check out the latest videos being uploaded to YouTube on the ongoing Russian and Georgian conflict. This Google Maps Mashup shows the latest 50 geotagged videos.

Happy 62nd Independence Day to India

As India celebrates its 62nd Independence Day (August 15th), here's a list of India related Google Maps Mashups:

• Indian Celebrities
• Google Trends Live Mapping - India
• Google Hot Trends - India
• Indian Premiere Cricket League
• Find me a Indian Bride/Groom
• What About Me!!
• Indian Dining in United States
• Bollywood Filmfare Awards History
• News from the Indian Sub-Continent
• Indian Mashups Listed at Google Maps Mania

Data for Georgia was never on Google Maps in the first place

Blame everything or anything on Google!. Some in the media have pointed out that Google blanked out Georgia from Google Maps just as the conflict between Russia and Georgia got underway. These folks in the media never checked out what "Georgia" looked like on Google Maps before the conflict. Well Google LatLong Blog has responded

Data for these countries were never on Google Maps in the first place.

Here are some of the headlines claiming Google blanked out Georgia Maps

Georgia's Google vanishing act
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9515

Data about Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia removed from Google Maps after military operations began in South Ossetia
http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=86587

Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan disappear from maps
http://parramatta.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/georgia-armenia-azerbaijan-disappear-from-maps/1242067.aspx

Beijing Olympics - You Tube Videos

I have compiled a list of You Tube Videos from Beijing Olympics on Google Maps which are tagged either with location or Latitude/Longitude. This list pulls in the latest 60 videos:

Google Maps Street View catches Fire but where is the fire Hydrant?

Google Maps Street View captures a house on fire in Sherwood, Arkansas. If you go to Google Maps (Street View Mode) you can see Fire Trucks in front of the house. What is puzzling is that Google has removed one of the images but as of now there are still couple of more images which can still be seen. Here is one of them: (via DIGG)

But the interesting thing to note in this image is that isn't the fire hydrant a bit too far here? Look at the length of the fire hose in this image

Google News' embarrassing Google Maps graphics Gaffe!!

A Google Maps graphic accompanying a story about Russian incursions into Georgia shows a map of Savannah, Georgia. This has since been corrected. The image of the original story is shown below. (via slashdot).

The location shown in the 1st line of the story is "Java, Georgia". If you feed "Java, Georgia" into Google's Geocoding API the address returned is: "Java Pl, Savannah, GA 31401, USA" with the coordinates as -81.091239,32.061962,0. You can try it by clicking --> http://www.mibazaar.com/education/gzipproxy.php?location=java,georgia
So based on the geocoding API the map is correct however as it relates to the story it is not.

Live updates from Beijing Olympics on Google Maps

Those smart folks from Google have come up with a GREAT Google Maps Mashup of Beijing 2008 Olympics.(via Google LatLong Blog)

It's a one-stop shop for viewing live updates from the Games, including up-to-date medal counts by country, events by date, and results by sport.

Detroit Mayor in trouble and the world knows about it

The mayor of Detroit was sent to jail for violating the terms of his bond and now the world knows about it. I have created a quick Google Maps Mashup to show where in the world the mayor of Detroit is making news. This list is not complete. I will be adding more links.

Google Maps Street View Debuts in Australia and Japan

Google LatLong Blog reports that Google Maps Street View is now available for a number of cities in Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe) and Australia.

Here's a Google Maps Street View of Tokyo Tower (the tallest self-supporting steel structure in the world)

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...and here's a Google Maps Street View of Sydney Harbour Bridge
, Sydney, Australia.

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