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The New imagery of flooding near Council Bluffs

Since June of 2011, Council Bluffs, Iowa and the surrounding area has experienced record flooding along the Missouri River. Google has a data center in Council Bluffs, along with many employees that live in the city and surrounding region.

Along with our neighbors, we watched with concern as the Missouri River rose to a level not seen in decades. We are grateful for the extraordinary work of the City of Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie County, the Army Corps of Engineers and others who kept the city and much of the surrounding region safe. Our hearts also go out to those who have lost homes and businesses to the rising waters.

We recently worked with our satellite provider, GeoEye, to acquire updated imagery of some of the affected area. This imagery is now available as a KML file and will be live in the Historical Imagery section of Google Earth in the coming days. We hope that it will be of use to emergency responders and the general public.

Eppley Airfield and region to the north (before and after)

Area between Council Bluffs/Omaha and Blair, Nebraska (before and after)

The Beauty of Maps – BBC Series

This is the last chance you will get to view this series.

According to the new source (below) this will NOT be made available on DVD or BluRay .

“Seeing The Art In Cartography”
An amazing array of interesting cartographic maps spanning centuries of maps that changed the perception of the world we see today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/beautyofmaps/historical_maps.shtml#/psalter/intro/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/beautyofmaps/historical_maps.shtml#/desceliers/intro/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/beautyofmaps/digital_worlds.shtml#/digital-worlds/highlights/global-data-exchange/

Clips can be previewed (UK only? iplayer restricts uk only – advise foxyproxy & a uk proxy)
If you use get_iplayer with Tor (Tor, Polipo and Vidalia bundle) even better

*Can be seen on BBC Four in the coming weeks or on the BBC iPlayer

1/4. The story of the Hereford Mappa Mundi, the largest intact Medieval wall map in the world.
Next Monday 19th April, 20:30 BST on BBC Four
Medieval Maps – Mapping the Medieval Mind
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s2w83

Beauty of Maps main page
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/beautyofmaps/index.shtml

Also see ‘Animated History of European Mapmaking’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/map_making/index_embed.shtml

Look out for “Windows on the World” [starts Sunday 18 April 2010 21:00 BST BBC4 & HD]
“In a series about the extraordinary stories behind maps, Professor Jerry Brotton uncovers how maps aren’t simply about getting from A to B but are revealing snapshots of defining moments in history and tools of political power and persuasion.”

Join the League of Extraordinary #H4ckers at SXSW!

Heading to Austin, TX for South by Southwest (SXSW) this week? Good — so are we. And we’re planning what I hope will be a an event for the ages!

The festivities start at 1pm on March 13 with the opening of The League of Extraordinary Hackers followed by a very special SuperHappyDevHouse at 7pm at the Speakeasy on 412 Congress Ave in Austin.

Business by day, hacking by night

From 1pm to 6pm, we’ll be hosting a series of 15-minute rapid-fire API briefings focused on Google’s latest developer offerings including: Android, Chrome, HTML5, Blogger, Google TV, Google Maps, App Engine, YouTube, Web Fonts, Cellbots, and Fusion Tables. Immediately following each talk, the speakers will be holding court during office hours in Speakeasy’s open air rooftop lounge.

At the same time, we’ll be demoing Google TV and the YouTube Leanback experience in the Leanback Lounge on the second floor. And if you’re just looking for a place to chill, meet other Google developers, or grab free WiFi and juice for your devices, we’ve got you covered in that department as well.

Yes, this is one of our drink cards.

At 7pm, we’ll welcome the SuperHappyDevHouse community for a night of hacking, lightning talks, a LEGO^® MINDSTORMS^® sumobot competition (!), steampunkery, and Google TV and Xbox 360^® Kinect^™ tomfoolery. And if a soundtrack co-curated on Rdio weren’t enough to make your booty move, then come get loosened up with League-inspired elixirs concocted by Google’s own mixologist, Daniel “Gin not Vodka” Nadasi!

This event promises to be one-of-a-kind and a rare respite from the pure partying events at SXSW. Of course it wouldn’t be possible with a great cast of sponsors including Google, Windows Live, The LEGO Group, NPR, Sencha, Red Bull Creation, Twilio, and Rdio.