Climate change in Google Earth

Check out this video of "Google Earth Climate Change Simulator" which shows effects of climate change. Its narrated by Al Gore. This video has been released to coincide with the upcoming UN climate change conference in Copenhagen. (via)

Related: Also check out my map of Effects of Climate Change on US Coastal Cities

Furthest point in United States from a McDonald's Restaurant

So what's the furthest distance you can be away from a McDonald's in United States. Blogger Stephen Von Worley has figured it out. The answer is you will never be more than 107 miles away from a McDonald's in United States.

"Between the tiny Dakotan hamlets of Meadow and Glad Valley lies the McFarthest Spot: 107 miles distant from the nearest McDonald's, as the crow flies, and 145 miles by car!"

(via Huffington Post)

Here's a Google Maps view of the "McFarthest Spot"

Who was the 1st President of United States?

Guess what, only 23% of the Oklahoma High School Students can answer that question (via Daily Kos). This was also reported by CNN.

Reading the Daily Kos article, I remembered the Google Maps Mashup I had created couple of years ago which lists all the US Presidents (including their spouses). This could be a very useful educational tool in schools. Here it is...

Mapping the Toxic Water Polluters near you

New York Times has come up with this great Google Maps Mashup which maps the facilities (200,000) in United States that have permits to discharge pollutants into the nation's waters. It also lists responses from states regarding compliance. You can search the map by city or zip code or by selecting a state. (via Google Maps Mania)

Related: Prescription Drugs in United States Drinking Water

Google Logo Today - Crop Circles?

Google's Logo today is - Crop Circles. Why? I got no idea. Take a look at Google's tweet (image shown at the end of this post). This Tweet's status has a Latitude/Logitude of 51.327629, -0.5616088 along with a twitpic image which when clicked takes you to the Google Logo Image.

Mashable states

The latitude and longitude that were tweeted out correspond to Surrey, England, where one enterprising soul noticed a “flying saucer” sighting by a family car on the 15th, back in 1985.

And now my finding: I found Latitude/Longitude in the tweet refers to Horsell, England (Google Maps). The Wikipedia entry for Horsell, England states

Horsell in Surrey is an ancient (pre-Domesday Book) village nearby to the more modern 19th. century Woking, probably best known because of its association with the story The War of the Worlds, written by H.G. Wells. (The War of the Worlds (1898) is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells describing an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians equipped with advanced weaponry. It is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth.)

Female to Male Participation in Labor Force

World Economic Forum has published "Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010" which features 133 economies. The report contains extensive section of data tables with global rankings covering over 100 indicators. One of table looks at "Female to Male Participation in Labor Force" which I mashed it up with Google Maps. Topping the list is Mozambique where for the ratio is 1.16 (I would have thought it would be much lower in Mozambique) and way at the bottom is Jordan where the ratio is 0.22. United States is ranked 39th.

LA Fires - Mapping the Tweets #lafires

I created the LA Fires Tweet Google Map sometime last year. I updated it last night with "auto play" feature. After every 8 seconds the map moves on to the next tweet (with keyword fire) around the Los Angeles Area.