In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Here's the recent Google-related geonews. I'm pretty certain most of you learned of the major 8.9 magnitude Japan earthquake near Honshu that happened a few hours ago. We'll share news of it when related maps and geospatial news will be available. You're always welcomed to contribute.

From the official sources:

• Google announced new 3D imagery of central London’s buildings and trees in Google Earth
• Japan's Hiroshima Peace Memorial in now available in Street View and the GEB mentions other new Street View imagery in Japan
• Google is encouraging Latitude adoption with check-in offers in Austin, Texas
• Google Maps now allows you to find electric vehicle charging stations
• A few days ago, Google shared post-earthquake images of Christchurch, New Zealand
• The Photos layer from Google Maps is now available to Maps API developers

From other sources:

• The GEB mentions another way to build 3D building models using satellite imagery via a stereographic pair
• The GEB has an entry on using Google Earth to map all facilities in Haiti that need Internet access
• The GEB mentions a detailed Shaker village modeled in Google Earth, head to Wikipedia to learn who Shakers are

Here's the recent geonews that haven't made it into an individual story in batch mode.

From the open source / open data front:

• While we mentioned it indirectly in the past, we never specifically mentioned the existence of OpenCycleMap.org, based, of course, on OpenStreetMap
• The "open" MapQuest maps now support worldwide pedestrian and bicycle routing along with transit routes
• An article in Scientific American is using OpenStreetMap data to map the local 'food desert'
• The OpenGeo Suite Enterprise Edition 2.4.0 has been released

From the ESRI front:

• ESRI released their ArcGIS API for JavaScript version 2.2
• A third entry on useful ArcGIS Explorer add-ins III

In the everything-else category:

• GeoCurrents offers an informative serie of entries on Libyan maps: Libya’s Tribal Divisions and the Nation-State, Libya’s Geographical Divisions and the Challenge to National Unity, Libya’s Fezzan: A Bulwark of the Gaddafi Regime
  , Gaddafi’s Saharan Farming Schemes and Libyan Agricultural Hexagons. On the same topic, TMR shares an entry on the Libya Crisis Map
• Rememer that GPS positioning in the U.S. is in danger because of LightSquared? APB shares a followup including the mention of the 'Coalition to Save Our GPS'
• Following the earthquake in New Zealand, there's fresh imagery of Christchurch
• Google and Microsoft have teamed together to sue a patent troll who sued 397 companies over a geotagging patent
• Microsoft offers an entry on modular design and client side clustering with Bing Maps V7
• O'Reilly offers an article on location privacy named Privacy law needs a reboot
• A followup on a previous story, Slashdot discusses a student suing the FBI for planting a GPS tracker on his car. On this topic, SpatialLaw offers an entry named Government's Use of Tracking Technology: More Than A Constitutional Issue?
• It seems the FAA now allows iPad as an alternative to aviation charts
• TMR links to a review of Casio's geotagging camera
• APB mentions that Turtles Use Earth’s Magnetic Field to Determine Longitude
• In a perspective entry, SS asks Is it time for an impartial auditing board on spatial data accuracy?

In the maps category:

• TMR shares a map of the index of potential unrest, on this topic, some claims Google Earth as a Factor in Middle East Unrest
• TMR shares a map of internal U.S. migration flows