In what's becoming as common a story in the local paper as "NAVTEQ/Tele Atlas driver our city's streets" comes another "paper map company to shut down." This time the story that includes the terms "typewriter" and "buggy whip" is from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The 62-year-old company expects to close its doors by the end of February, as it sells out the last of its street guides and wall maps. Too many customers are turning to GPS devices and Internet maps, instead of what Metro Graphic offers.

- MLive.com

Earthmine won in its category of "Best technology innovation / achievement."

The blurb:

Earthmine picks up where Google Earth leaves off, bringing deep semantic data to 3D panoramas of the real world. Earthmine’s system can keep track of the objects found in the real world and attribute information to each of them, such as latitude, longitude, elevation, and other attributes.

- Techcrunch

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BlinkGeo suggests we vote for UpNext ("UpNext is the new and exciting way to explore and discover your city.
Rather than sifting through pages and links of data, UpNext enables you glide around your city, virtually. Exploring has never been easier") in the Crunchies, the latest Web popularity contest. This one's put on by a few sites you might have heard of: GigaOm, Read/WriteWeb, VentureBeat and TechCrunch. I read the first and last on the list now and again.

The awards have quite a range - nominations totalled 82,000 (!) and were cut down to 100 - five competitors in each of 20 categories. I don't have time to check them all out to vote intelligently (here's the list) and I suspect only a few mere mortals will have heard of them all. Unfortunately, there's no blurb on the site explaining what the nominated companies do or how they do it - you must visit the sites and do your own "homework."

That said, the lists are interesting and include other geo-orgs than just UpNext. I saw: Zillow (twice) and earthmine. Oh and Justin.tv is in there - that company was one of finalist from the Amazon startup contest.

I couldn't find what (if anything) winners "receive" - perhaps its just PR? Why mention this? I thought readers might find some useful information by looking over companies in categories like Best business model or Best user-generated content site.

I hadn't heard of E. Ann Berman, who died of breast cancer earlier this month until I read her obituary. She was 60 and the president Tri-Space Inc., a engineering and consulting company in McLean, VA, where she lived. But her career before that reveals key early work in remote sensing systems.

Among her accomplishments:

- "served as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy where she served as a meteorologist and a specialist in remote sensing devices."

- "designed software and image-processing systems that are used in national security, communications, aviation and space technology and the maritime industry."

- specialized "in hyperspectral imaging, a method of using infrared techniques to map and measure the Earth's surface with vivid clarity. The technology is widely used in developing weaponry and communications systems for the military."

- "designed the software of the WinSat navigation system, which uses Global Positioning System technology and has become popular with recreational sailors and fishermen worldwide.

- "developed a prototype infrared image-processing system to prevent aircraft collisions on airport runways."

- published in 1992 ""Exploring the Environment Through Satellite Imagery," a high school textbook that uses satellite imagery to teach environmental science."

- "served on a National Research Council steering committee on developing the infrastructure for GPS technology."

- Washington Post

Pennsylvania's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources' PAMAP will soon be part of Google Eath, thanks to a cooperative agreement with USGS.

- PennLive

Specifically, neuroscientists (not geographers) at University College London point at two parts of the brain that work in tandem: the hippocampus stores landmarks and specific brain cells called grid cells manage our sense of space and distance. Trianing one or the other may increase wayfinding ability.

The findinds are part of an exhibition at London's Giomple Fils Gallery and are funded by the Wellcome Trust.
- Telegraph

Canadian MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates agreed to sell its Information Systems and Geospatial Services operations to US-based Alliant Techsystems (ATK) recently.

ATK's core businesses is conventional munitions and rocket motors. That's what bothers Paul Cottle; he resigned from his job of three years at MDA last week. He had helped develop satellite technology for the company and posits that Canada as a signatory of the 1997's Mine Ban Treaty can't sell of a tax-payer funded company to a company that makes landmines, even if they are treaty-compliant.

- CTV.ca