geo2web.com

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Looks like it’s time to replace that rickety compass with a few hundred of your favorite cattle. Ok, not that you would - but according to a team of German zoologists and the research they did using Google Earth, apparently you could. Using Google Earth’s satellite imagery, these zoologists observed the grazing tendencies of thousands of cattle from hundreds of different herds around the world and concluded that the vast majority of these animals position themselves according to our planet’s magnetic poles, facing almost due north or south. The zoologists were looking for a way to study magnetisim in large animals, so they turned to Google Earth to, well, steer them in the right direction. You can take a look for yourself and see what you think — Frank Taylor at the Google Earth Blog was intrigued by this study, so he put together a KML of cow herds.

Posted by Aaron Stein, Lat Long Blog Team

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In this interview, we we speak to Dan Wardman, Vice President for Information Management Software and Frank Butt, Manager, DB2 for z/OS Query Runtime, tech search and spatial support for IBM. Our topic is “The storage and management of spatial data on an IBM System z Mainframe”. Spatial support is an important feature available for DB2 9 for z/OS as it provides the capability to store and retrieve spatial data from any application via standard SQL. We also discuss applications as well as IBM’s relationship with ESRI.
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Listen Now (to download, right click on the link at left and choose “save target as”)

For more information about IBM’s spatial solutions you can download a whitepaper on this topic or visit the IBM website.

Missed any podcasts? Want to subscribe via iTunes, Yahoo, etc? Here’s the index with all the info.

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So somebody wrote a press release yesterday about Google Earth Magnetic Cows, but it sounded so silly that I decided to go for celebratory end-of-panorama-trip cocktails instead of dirtying my blog with it. Imagine my surprise to see it hit the interwebs with a vengeance today, but the greatest surprise of all was that only one blog so far, The Earth is Square, has reported this “news” skeptically. [I just noticed Google Earth Blog is also skeptical:-)]

The bottom line: It’s entirely possible that cows have a magnetic sense, but we’re not going to find out about it by looking at Google Earth. What possible fallacies might there be? I came up with these in, oh, a few seconds:

• What cow? Have you ever seen a cow on Google Earth? Are you sure? Most of Google Earth’s imagery is not in high enough resolution to let you discern cow from car from tent from bear. And you certainly can’t tell which end is up, so to speak. In any case, your sample population of successfully found cows is bound to be miniscule compared to the total population.
• Now cow? The imagery in Google Earth is exclusively taken on cloudless days — or we wouldn’t have had the imagery. Are we sure the cows weren’t using the sun to align themselves, say to maximize solar exposure in winter and minimize it in summer? As the best satellite photos are taken when shadows are at a minimum, i.e. noon, that alone would lead to aligned cows.
• Stupid cow: Cows are walking stomachs. If they hit a fence while grazing, they will move along it. At most, this study tells us that fences have a slight preponderance to point North-South — and fences are even harder to see on Google Earth than cows.

So what happened? Either this story is an elaborate hoax, or it isn’t and these scientists are just not very good, or the story has been reported inaccurately. It’s a cow toss as to which of these explanations is the right one, but I suspect hoax, in part because of the study’s claim that it could discern a predispostition in cows for magnetic north over true north – a difference that is miniscule in most places on Earth. It doesn’t help that you have to pay the US National Academy of Sciences $10 to read the paper — that’s the price of a cocktail here in Stockholm, one which I’m about to go buy.

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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.

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Orange Unlit Tour

Over the last two years Unlit has toured the USA and the UK. The tour consists of free gigs which are open to anyone and take place in volunteer’s homes. The support acts on the tour are bands and acts who have become involved via MySpace.

Central to the tour is a Google Map mash-up which serves as a tour hub for singer-songwriter Jont and his sidekick film-maker Dave. The map uses the flash version of the API and pulls together videos from YouTube, photos from Flickr, updates from Twitter as well as blog posts.

Using the Flash version of the map API means that Unlit are able to include an animated welcome to the map and to customise the map controls. The map also includes a useful help window with tips on how to use the map.

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MONU - a magazine on urbanism - is a unique bi-annual international forum for artists, writers and designers that are working on topics of urban culture, development and politics. Each issue collects essays, projects and photographs from contributors from all over the world to a given topic.

In the latest issue In this issue the nice people behind Monu have taken the deliberate risk of making ourselves look ridiculous by focusing its theme on “the exotic”, which is often seen as some sort of worn out, utterly out of date topic, immediately evoking images of colonialism and imperialism.

Its got us intrigued and we are going to wander down to Art Data, 12 Bell Industrial Estate, 50 Cunnington Street, London W4 5HB to pick up a copy.

Take a look at http://www.monu-magazine.com/ for more info and international stockists…

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The Oil Rocks, 50km off the coast of Azerbaijan, is effectively a small city that has been constructed from interconnected oil platforms and residential areas, all sitting atop rocks, piles of sand and landfill.

Back in 1949, the Oil Rocks were the site of the world’s first successful offshore venture in oil drilling, and by the 1960s 21 million tons of oil was being extracted each year.

Of course, this level of extraction couldn’t continue forever, and the quality and quantity of the oil started falling in the 80s. With it, the upkeep of the platforms and interconnecting roads fell, and today about a third of the oil wells are either inoperative or inaccessible, and many of the connecting roads have become submerged.

Despite the conditions, the platforms still have a combined population of about 5,000 men, who work in week-long offshore shifts, and collectively they produce over half of the total crude oil output of Azerbaijan.

Several action sequences in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough are set and filmed on the Oil Rocks, where terrorists used a giant helicopter saw to cut the oil pipes. Obviously.

There’s a thorough history at window2baku.com, Wikipedia has a couple of choice facts, and there’s a photo of the interconnecting bridges at travel-images.com.

Thanks to Samir Aliyev.

Locations: Azerbaijan / Categories: Bridges, Movie Locations, Structures, Watercraft

View in Google Earth

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The ad is aimed at showing off the power of the iPhone: “The ad showed the internet navigation prowess of the iPhone, with images zooming in on a weather forecast for Cape Town and a map of how to get to Heathrow airport.”

The complaints, two complaints, questioned the voice over: “”You never know which part of the internet you’ll need … which is why all the parts of the internet are on the iPhone.” They claimed without Java and Flash support, this is not true. Apple responded saying it could not support ever possible 3rd party app and that it meant to suggest that access was available to websites, not to all functions. The Advertising Standards Authority felt it was misleading and ordered the ad removed. The sites shown in the ad, Apple confirmed, don’t use Java or Flash.

- Guardian (include video of the ad)

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Orange Unlit Tour Map

A Live Music Map Mashup.

“Unlit is a mixture of a gig and party, free and open to anyone, which takes place in people’s houses around the world.”

Very ‘Flashy’ Orange Unlit Map - Tour. Using flash and Google Maps to animate the tour so far, includes links to photos, videos, blog and twitter feeds.

The tour dates ranges from Aug 15 - Sept 15 2008.

If you want to take part…
http://www.i-am-everyone.co.uk/orangeunlit/takepart/

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Celebrity Owned Bars and Restaurants

Everybody knows that the best chefs are actors and musicians. Now if you are in New York and you fancy an overpriced burger you can quickly find a restaurant with Cityfile.com’s Celebrity Bars and Restaurants map.

The restaurants are tagged on the map with photographs of the celebrities and I’m sure the restaurants themselves are liberally splattered with images of their owners. Not that I’m suggesting that Justin Timberlake doesn’t cook the best southern fried chicken in New York.

Unfortunately the map doesn’t seem to include Steve Guttenberg’s Steak House:

Diaroogle

Any connection between this map and the previous map is purely coincidental. Diaroogle is a community submitted map of Manhattan toilets. The site says that is is for “the discerning, on-the-go defecator who is brave enough to use a public bathroom, but still demands a hygienic and private bathroom experience.”

Each mapped toilet tends to come with a general report on its cleanliness and occupancy levels. You can search the map by address, cross street, zip, Manhattan neighbourhood, landmark or park and probably most usefully can access the map from a mobile phone.

Best Parking

Apparently New York celebrity restaurants don’t come with celebrity valets so you may need the Best Parking map. The map helps drivers to find parking garages and lots, compare daily and monthly rates, and book “Reservations” and/or “Rate Guarantees” at participating facilities.

A search facility allows you to narrow your search to a particular New York City (Manhattan) neighbourhood or address and then view the best parking deals on both a map and a sortable list.

Best Parking is also available in Boston,DC and Philly.

PrimoSpot

Primo Spot is a map of free on-street parking spots in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The map markers are colour coded:

• The green marked spots have the longest time remaining on them
• Red spots are about to run out.
• The black markers indicate the spot has no parking any time, no standing, or is for commercial vehicles only.

Primo Spot is also available on mobile phones at http://m.primospot.com/. Once connected, you can type in a zip code, address, or intersection and check for public parking on the go. There is also an iPhone-optimized version at http://primospot.com/iphone.

StoopSales

StoopSales is a Google Map mash-up of all the moving out, fund-raising and spring cleaning sales in Brooklyn. It is possible to search the sales by time of day, date, and neighbourhood. Registered users can post their own sales, with photos.

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Ok, it is one thing to be an armchair archaeologist or geologist using Google Earth.. but I am sorry, I have to draw the line at archir scientist and pseudo-science. Not sure what I am talking about? What I am talking about is a “scientist” looking at imagery and going “Hmm, they seem to be pointed North all the time. So it has to be the Earth’s magnetic field doing it!”

Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen looked at thousands of images of cattle on Google Earth in Britain, Ireland, India and the USA. They also studied 3,000 deer in the Czech Republic. The deer tended to face north when resting or grazing.

And just by looking at imagery…

“We conclude that the magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the observed alignment,” the scientists wrote in an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

What they did was correlation, a very tiny part of a scientific study and not something to put a whole theory on. So, I REALLY hope this article just made it look like they just used Google Earth.. because of that is all they really did.. that is a sad state science is moving too.

For my insight into this “study”.. I grew up on a farm, there are dairy farms all around.. cows will face ALL directions when at rest and will roam anywhere.

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Ok, it is one thing to be an armchair archaeologist or geologist using Google Earth.. but I am sorry, I have to draw the line at archir scientist and pseudo-science. Not sure what I am talking about? What I am talking about is a “scientist” looking at imagery and going “Hmm, they seem to be pointed North all the time. So it has to be the Earth’s magnetic field doing it!”

Dr Sabine Begall and colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen looked at thousands of images of cattle on Google Earth in Britain, Ireland, India and the USA. They also studied 3,000 deer in the Czech Republic. The deer tended to face north when resting or grazing.

And just by looking at imagery…

“We conclude that the magnetic field is the only common and most likely factor responsible for the observed alignment,” the scientists wrote in an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

What they did was correlation, a very tiny part of a scientific study and not something to put a whole theory on. So, I REALLY hope this article just made it look like they just used Google Earth.. because of that is all they really did.. that is a sad state science is moving too.

For my insight into this “study”.. I grew up on a farm, there are dairy farms all around.. cows will face ALL directions when at rest and will roam anywhere.

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