An explosion at French nuclear plant

There was an explosion at a French nuclear plant that took the life of one worker and injured a few others. Fortunately, no leak has been reported and things seem to be under control.

marcoule-blurred.jpg

However, a quick click of the historical imagery button reveals the full plant in high resolution, dated back to 2002.

marcoule.jpg

The plant first went operational in 1956, and while things may have changed slightly in the last 9 years, the aerial imagery from 2002 seems to closely resemble the shots being shown on sites like Yahoo news.

Here are a few thoughts/ideas:

1 — Google itself doesn’t blur imagery; only their providers do. With that in mind, it seems unlikely that Google would ever go back and blur historical imagery if it was provided to them in an un-blurred state at some point. Another potential complication is that the most recent imagery was provided by GeoEye, while the older (clear) imagery was provided by DigitalGlobe.

2 — Perhaps some construction at the site has been under way and things are different now than they were in 2002, or perhaps they are simply blurring the plant going forward to hide any changes that take place in the future.

3 — The imagery in Bing Maps is only slightly blurred; it’s still easy to see where the various buildings are located, though Bing doesn’t provide a precise date on their imagery.

Google Maps Mashups 6

A cool Google Map mashup  of two French guys journey

Phillipe and Josue are two French guys who have taken a year’s sabbatical and decided to travel around the world. To help the world follow their journey they have created a cool Google Map of their journey that they call, 11 (onze) Mois sans toi(t)

The map shows all the stops that the pair have made on their journey so far. The information for each window includes Tweets, Facebook updates and photographs taken at that location. The map also includes the option for users of the map to add places of interest around the world that they think the guys should visit on their journey.

Your Story with Google Maps

I’m sure everyone has a story to tell – and you can tell yours with this Google Map.

Stories Unbound was created for the Melbourne Writers Festival. It is a social media platform (website and iPhone app), that lets users write and geotag stories wherever and whenever the mood strikes.

You can read submitted stories by selecting a marker on the map. It is also possible to select a story from the slide-out sidebar, where you can also submit your own story by selecting a location on the map.

The Google Maps interface for Stories Unbound uses Google Map Styles to create a map which is in keeping with the Melbourne Writers Festival brand. The clean look of the map, with most of the map labels removed, also creates a clean interface, which encourages the user to explore stories by location.

Google Maps for Flash

Google has announced that the Google Maps API for Flash has been deprecated. This means that no new features will be developed, and only critical bugs, regressions, and security issues will be fixed in the API.

Google says that “use of the Maps API for Flash remains a small percentage of overall Maps API traffic, with only a limited number of applications taking advantage of features unique to the Maps API for Flash.”

Perhaps the one unique feature available in the The Maps API for Flash and not available in the JavaScript API is the 3DMap object. The 3DMap object allows Flash map developers to create oblique map views and rotate Google Maps. It does seems to be a unique feature that was used very little.

The only map that I can remember that used this feature was a really cool application that let you create your own weather map. However the application no longer seems to exist. Luckily I did manage to video the application when it was released, so you can view the 3DMap object put to good use in the video below.

Sadly for map developers the Yahoo Maps API is also on the way out. From September 13th Yahoo will no longer support:

  • ActionScript 2 & 3 (Flash APIs)
  • AJAX Maps 3.6, 3.7, 3.8
  • REST API (Map Image API)
  • Simple API – (No coding)
  • GeoRSS – Version 2

Google Geo Developers Blog

Ghostly International Live Map

The record label and art company Ghostly International has created a Ghostly International – Live Map so that you can follow all their currently performing artists.

The Live Map lets you select an individual artist from the map sidebar and view all their upcoming events on a Google Map. When you select an artist from the sidebar an information window opens with a brief bio of the selected artist.

45° Imagery for 24 cities

Google Maps has had another big update of 45° (bird’s eye view) imagery. 24 new cities, including Lausanne, Switzerland and Girona, Spain, now have oblique view imagery in Google Maps.

To mark the occasion I have put together this Aerial View Slideshow, to highlight some of the best of the 45° imagery now available in Google Maps.

Google LatLong

Local Events with Google Maps

WeGooo is a Google Maps based application for finding nearby events.

Once you enter a location WeGooo displays a Google Map of the location with a time-line of nearby events. You can browse the events in chronological order from the time-line or find events by location by selecting a venue’s marker on the map.

It is possible to change your location on the map by dragging the ‘That’s me’ marker to a new position. If you select an event from the time-line the map will also display a route from your current location to the selected venue.

Fun with Google Maps

The Art of Running – A Tribute to Steve Jobs

Apparently someone called Steve Jobs got a new job this week, news of which seemed to send the world reeling. The news certainly seemed to have a strange effect on Joseph Tame.

Using his iPhone and RunKeeper Joseph set out to create a giant geoglyph of the Apple logo by running around Tokyo.

Don’t Pass Gas

City Slogans is a Google MyMap of witty slogans that towns in the U.S. have invented to try to entice you to visit.

Amongst the gems on offer is Hooker, OK with “It’s a location, not a vocation” and Algona, IA with “Home of the World’s Largest Cheeto”.

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish

The Google Maps Street View trike has taken a visit to Seaworld Orlando. On his visit he took a number of photographs including this shot of the performing dolphins.

New book: Google SketchUp Workshop

When it comes to instructions for building your first house, or your first bench, or your first Google Earth model, there is no shortage of available materials. But what happens after you’re a SketchUp rockstar? Where are all the tomes full of delicious inspiration for those of us who have mastered inference locking and nested section planes and scene properties? It’s all fine and well to read about how SketchUp works, but real progress comes from peeking over our peers’ shoulders to see what they’re working on.

And that’s exactly the concept behind Laurent Brixius’ brilliant new book Google SketchUp Workshop. Translated from the original “Créer avec SketchUp” (originally published a few years ago in French) this full-color volume presents sixteen beautifully illustrated case studies authored by expert SketchUp users from a multitude of different disciplines. Each one includes high-level workflows, tips and techniques for using SketchUp in a different field of design. Architecture, urban design, engineering, process plant design, woodworking, theater set design and architectural graphics are all represented.

Our friends over at SketchUpArtists.org conducted a nice interview with Laurent (the book’s editor) before the English edition came out. An architect, architectural 3D artist and author from Belgium, he’s done an amazing job of assembling a collection of projects that are pure inspiration. This is a book that belongs on the shelf of every SketchUp aficionado.