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August 28, 2008

Links: Panoramio Contest, Lunar Challenge, Fire Detection

• Panoramio Contest Winners - Winners of the June Panoramio Photo Contest are announced. Just upload photos to Panoramio to be entered to the monthly contest. Winners get ATP PhotoFinder prizes.

• Lunar Challenges - The Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge has a KML file showing information on the teams and the location of the contest. via Space Prizes blog.

• Fire Detection - Someone called 'CRPSM' put together a KML file which dynamically shows current fires (or suspected fires) around the Mediterranean. See the post. See also this global fire data visualization based on data from NASA.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:55 AM | Comments (0)

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August 27, 2008

Google Earth Shows Cows Magnetic? Really?

For the past couple of days I've been seeing the reports of a scientific study about cows conducted using Google Earth. The results from this study sound like a hoax. German scientists studied hundreds of herds from around the Earth found in Google Earth, they say that cows seem to align themselves with the magnetic north when lying or grazing. See Los Angeles Times story. This study was actually published in the proceedings for the National Academy of Science. It's been a scientific fact that birds and bees seem to navigate via magnetic fields. But, this is the first I've herd that cows can do it!

Naturally, I wanted to see if I could duplicate the scientists' results. So, I started looking for herds of cows in Google Earth and placemarked their locations. Here is a collection of cow herds found in a few countries. I used Barry Hunter's magnetic compass add-on for Google Earth (see post), so you can see the difference between true north and magnetic north in the GE compass.

Check out the placemarks and see what you think. Personally, I don't see any evidence that cows are aligning themselves more towards the north than any other direction. Is this study for real? In the attached screenshot, these cows are pointing north - but, they might have a reason for that - feed bins. There are a lot of cows in similar pens nearby aligned north/south or east/west - all due to feeding. If the scientists used those types of groupings for their statistics, I think they are pretty bogus.

The other possible explanation that occurs to me is that the scientists were looking at the shadows. The shadows of cows (and other objects) in Google Earth will generally point to the north/south because most of the photos will be taken as close to noon as possible to get maximum brightness.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:05 AM | Comments (7)

August 26, 2008

OgleSweden - Panoramas of Sights in Sweden in Google Earth

Stefan Geens, who writes the tech-savvy Google Earth-oriented OgleEarth blog, has just spent a little over two weeks traveling throughout Sweden recording interesting sights. Naturally, he chose to create a special "OgleSweden" blog and map his trip and use a special camera rig to take some excellent panoramic photos. He says he used the Google My Maps feature to map each segment, and you can view the entire route in Google Earth with links to the panoramic photos. I wish he had included a small version of the panoramas you could view in each placemark, but the photos are definitely worth viewing in a browser where you can see more details. I think the tool he is using to view the panoramas requires an <iframe>, which isn't supported in placemarks. Make sure you read Stefan's posts as well, as he provides some interesting perspectives on each site and the culture and history of Sweden. Great work Stefan! Here's a sample of the panoramas:

Extremely high resolution version

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:28 AM | Comments (2)

August 25, 2008

Sailing Passage From Exuma to North Carolina

On August 13, we picked up our new sailboat in Exuma, Bahamas and sailed it to North Carolina - just a few days ahead of what was soon to be Hurricane Fay. Helping me crew were my long-time friend Fred Burke, and my daughter Trisha. We had just enough time the evening before to put fuel and provisions on the boat. Fortunately, the boat came with pretty much everything you need to conduct a blue water passage. You can download this KML file to see GPS tracks (colorized by speed) with placemarks identifying significant events (such as raising sails, fishing, being boarded by the US Coast Guard, etc.). Read on after checking out some photos and video clips (these pics are also geo-tagged in the KML file):

The winds were forecasted to be light most of the anticipated 4 day passage. The calm before the storm. This proved to be mostly true, although we did manage to sail a fair bit and used the sails to enhance our motoring speeds for most of the trip. A catamaran has two engines, but you only need to use one engine to maintain a good rate of speed - a little over 8 knots on our new boat. With light tail winds, it was very hot the first day. We trolled a fishing line in the water and actually caught a couple of barracuda - but, no fish we could eat (barracuda can cause ciguatera illness).

The second day we considered stopping in the Abacos for fuel, but the dock did not answer our hail by radio. So, we decided to cross over to Grand Bahamas and get fuel by the end of the day. We had a great afternoon sail - our first real sail of the passage. We got in to Grand Bahamas Yacht Club just one hour before they closed at 7 PM - got fuel and some quick provisions, and left within an hour. We saw very little boat traffic both days in the Bahamas. The fuel dock told us that business has been very slow due to the high fuel prices. At $6.22 per gallon for diesel, I could see why! That evening, we continued around Grand Bahamas and headed out to the Gulf Stream where we hoped to catch the current for faster speeds northward.

At 1:30 in the morning, just outside the Bahamas waters, Fred noticed a radar signal of a boat - but, could not see any lights. He was looking for it with binoculars when suddenly he was blinded by a floodlight. The radio burst on with "This is the US Coast Guard". They asked us some basic questions (name, origin, destination, type of vessel, how many on board, etc.). Normally that suffices, but it was a calm night with a full moon. They "suggested" they would like to board our vessel to check for "safety compliance". They both checked our papers, and thoroughly searched the vessel (I'm guessing in case we had "extra" visitors or "goods" on board). Very nice and professional guys - even if they were carrying weapons (and lots of ammo). They gave us a certificate that we met all safety regulations, and let us continue our way (by the way, they let us maintain speed and course the entire time). It essentially kept us from having a boring night of motoring with no wind - and kept us awake of course.

We did manage to catch the Gulf Stream for a good solid day which added nearly 35% more speed to our boat for a good 24 hours. But, we lost the current when it turned to the east - earlier than expected. We had a few sightings of cargo vessels along the way, and even had a couple of visits from dolphins (see the video in the slideshow). We got to fly the spinnaker for a couple of hours, and we had stronger winds at the very end - unfortunately, on our nose. We tacked our way for a few hours towards Beaufort, but ultimately motored the last hour or two into the harbor entrance. As a final touch, the tide was going out, so we had 3 knots current against us on the way in. Each night we had calm winds, so we had pretty straightforward night watches. The full moon made it easier to see the horizon and water surface - but, also spoiled what would have been some great starry nights. We had no storms or squalls cross us the entire way.

We arrived after 4.3 days and 862 nautical miles at the Beaufort Docks. Look at the KML file above for lots of details. I used GPSVisualizer to colorize the track according to speed. The photos were geotagged using Google Earth. If there were more photos, I would have used some other tools. Turn on the "Waypoints" folder to see all of the placemarks.

Special thanks to Virgil of EarthNC, who provided me with electronic charts I could use in Google Earth to help provide perspective as we went along. I cached imagery for our intended route so I could use Google Earth off-line. Virgil also shared some Bahamas charts he's been working on. Which came in handy when we did the approach for fuel in Grand Bahamas. EarthNC has some great tools and data for boaters turning Google Earth into a rich chart plotter.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:52 AM | Comments (6)

Links: Burning Man, Earth API, GlobalMapper, Hazards Database, X-Prize

• Burning Man 2008 - Today marks the start of Burning Man 2008. Burning Man is the outrageous ultra desert party/art exposition held each year in the Black Rock Desert in Nevada for one week. Basically a wide variety of people build a city in the desert. There is art, music, drinking, and much more. There are basically few rules (except for safety). People build things and destroy things. They play, they party, and they even work. When the event is over, the entire city is dismantled leaving just the desert behind again. According to the web site, you really can't explain it except by going there. Read "What is Burning Man?". You can see the 2006 Burning Man in Google Earth - an aerial photo was taken. Last year there was a 3D map of parts of the "city". This year, the city will be moved over a couple of kilometers to reduce environmental damage. There is talk of providing an online map, more aerial photos, real-time tracking, and social networking for this year's event. More to come.

• Earth API - The Earth API reference site was updated a couple of weeks ago. They added more sample code, and there is now a Earth API release notes page.

• Global Mapper - Global Mapper has released an update that includes support for Google Earth's SuperOverlay. via Mr. Minton.

• Natural Hazards Database - The NOAA National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) maintains a database of information about historical natural hazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions. They have created a KML file which lets you view the data which helps with planning for future events in areas like disaster recovery, disaster response, etc. But, it also helps you get a perspective on dangerous locations. This one is definitely worth a look. Posted at the GEC. Thanks to Gerardo for pointing it out.

• X-Prize - In support of the Google Lunar X-Prize, there are a number of KML files that show things like the locations of the teams vying for the prize, 3D Rockets, and educational files. Check them out here.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:05 AM | Comments (1)

August 24, 2008

Circumnavigation: The Boat - Part I

Last week I announced the plan to begin a 5 year trip to circumnavigate the Earth by sailboat - and to make use of Google Earth in many ways. There are a lot of details behind this trip, so I'm sharing elements of the plan over the next few weeks in posts here at Google Earth Blog. I'm looking forward to telling you about some of the cool ways I will be using Google Earth to share our trip - but, now is a good time to introduce you to our new home and mode of transportation. Since the trip is for five years, we will be selling our house and our boat will be our main home starting sometime next year. We had previously owned a nice sailing catamaran and found it to be the ideal boat type for cruising and blue water travel. I should point out that sailing is an incredibly "green" mode of transportation. The primary means of movement is wind - you can't get much greener than that!

We attended each of the Miami and Annapolis Boat Shows, did a lot of reading, and communicated with many boat owners during the last 4 years looking for the right boat. We ultimately settled on a St. Francis 50, by St. Francis Marine built in South Africa. South Africa has a reputation of building some of the best catamarans in the world. Our last boat was also built in South Africa. This boat has 4 queen-sized staterooms with a private head (bathroom) for each room (we plan to have friends and family visit along the way). There is a nice galley in one of the hulls; between the hulls there is a large salon area with a dining table suitable for up to eight people , a navigation station (and large desk area), and a TV entertainment center. There's also an outside dining area suitable for eight, and the helm station with instruments all protected by a large "roof" area (called a bimini) giving protection from the sun and ocean spray - and there are solar panels on top (another important "green" element). The boat has two engines for times when you can't sail, or while maneuvering in a harbor. And, it has a generator for charging the battery systems when solar power can't keep up. See specifications including floor plans.

The boat we've just purchased was used by the builder at the Cape Town Boat Show last fall, and then at the Miami Boat Show in February (where I first saw it). Then, it was taken to the St. Francis Resort in the Bahamas where their sales representative lives (which is why we went to the Bahamas back in June). Here is a Google Earth file which shows where the boat was built, and the approximate route it took to get to the Bahamas along with the two boat shows. The boat had nearly 8000 nautical miles on it when we picked it up as a "new" boat. But, that's often the case when a US citizen buys a South African boat. These boats are designed for long-distance travel. Here are some pictures of a St. Francis 50 from their web site (no, it doesn't come with the cheerleaders). And, here are some pictures of it under sail.

The next part of this series will talk about going to pick up the boat and delivering it from the Bahamas to North Carolina where it will be kept part of the time while we are preparing the boat for the trip. Included will be GPS tracks, how Google Earth was used, pictures, and some other details about what happened during the trip.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:10 PM | Comments (1)

August 22, 2008

iPhone Earth App Available Now

Last May I published a video demonstration of a cool iPhone application I saw at Where 2.0 which looked like Google Earth. The video demo was such a huge hit, Earthscape - the company who made it - quickly made it into a product you can now buy at the Apple store (available for $10). I purchased the app a couple of days ago and have just now had time to make a new video demo:

A couple of things to note: Earthscape has a 3D terrain model for the Earth, and they have high resolution satellite or aerial photos for some areas - especially in the US. But, you won't find as much high res data as Google Earth. They have included a "Wikipedia" layer which includes placemarks to places from Wikipedia which when clicked on provide a summary of the related site. In the earlier demo I saw last May, they had the ability to use the iPhone accelerometer to tilt and rotate. But, the released app doesn't include that feature. Tom Churchill, CEO of Earthscape, told me they found the UI was confusing to some people. But, they hope to put the feature in an update to the app in the future. Given the limited utility at this time (no KML support yet, no search capability, and no accelerometer support), I'm not sure how many people will buy it for $10. But, it is a cool app to see on the iPhone. I hope it inspires Google to port a version of Google Earth to the iPhone (if they haven't already been working on it for months).

Here is Earthscape's video demo of the new application.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 10:15 AM | Comments (3)

August 21, 2008

Spinning the Globe

Ok, I've been hinting on this blog in various posts I've been up to something. And, things have not been slowing down enough for me to write. So, let me at least explain in general terms what I've been up to and how Google Earth will be involved.

A few years ago, my wife Karen and I bought a sailboat and took our kids sailing around the Caribbean (see Google Earth visualization of that trip). My wife and I thought cruising and exploring by sailboat was such a great idea, we planned to do it again when our kids moved out for college. In fact, we decided we would sell our house, buy a new boat, and live and sail around the world for five years. Guess what? Our kids (who are twins) are starting college right now. And we just bought a new sailboat! I had to sail it from the Bahamas last week, that's why I had Mickey writing blog posts, the boat doesn't have satellite communications - yet.

Using Google Earth these past three years has only intensified our plans for the trip. First, to help us explore places we want to go. Of course, we want people to be able to see the places we go and will post Google Earth maps of our route and destinations. Since for three years I've been writing about the multitudes of different ways Google Earth can be used, plans have been made for some really cool Google Earth content coming from our circumnavigation. Real-time tracking, using Google Earth for nautical charts, geotagging photos, GPS tracks when we go ashore, aerial photography, and more (see a test run here). In the coming weeks, I will be sharing more about what is planned in those areas.

For five years, we will be geo-blogging our trip and leveraging Google Earth and many other tools to share our experiences. In addition to Google Earth Blog, there will be a new blog dedicated to the trip. The plan is to continue Google Earth Blog - although, I will get some help to keep the daily flow going. We won't be departing until sometime next year (originally it was going to be November 2009, but we may move that up a bit). We're very excited about this trip, and I'm also excited to share with you the plans I've been cooking up to leverage Google Earth to make following our trip an experience in itself!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 08:45 AM | Comments (14)

Google.org Visualizes US Geothermal Data in Google Earth

Google's environmentally focused non-profit has produced an excellent Google Earth visualization which shows information on geothermal energy available in the US. It's part of a web site Google has produced on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) which is being touted as a possible answer to long-term electrical energy needs on a vast scale - a Googol even. The resulting KML file is really excellent. It lets you view geothermal energies at several depth levels, choose 3D or flat presentation mode, and uses time animation to view the different depths. Placemarks link to more information as well.

In addition to Google Earth, the KML file they produced uses tools from other Google products like SketchUp, and the Google Chart API. And they have produced a video which uses Google Earth to present their case. Both the KML and the video are definitely worth viewing!

Posted by FrankTaylor at 07:05 AM | Comments (1)

August 20, 2008

Upcoming: KML Handbook

One of Google's documentation engineers, Josie Wernecke, has written a book which will be released this fall. It's called "The KML Handbook: Geographic Visualization for the Web". Notice the "for the Web" part - the book is not just focused on its applications for Google Earth - or even the new web-based Earth API plugin. It will be a guide to developers using KML for any applications of KML. The book will be published by Adison Wesley, and should be available in November. Here is O'Reilley's Rough Cut on the book.

Josie has been a writer of technical publications for graphics applications for a long time. I remember years ago when she wrote the book "The Inventor Mentor" which was a guide to using application tools for OpenGL while she was at Silicon Graphics.

via Let's push things forward.

Posted by FrankTaylor at 05:45 AM | Comments (0)

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