Major League Baseball Geolocation Patent

I heard about this on Friday’s Buzz Out Loud, then received an e-mail about it from reader Matt. Here’s the deal:

MLB put out a press release last Thursday that confirmed MLB Advanced Media (MLB’s online media arm) had received a patent for using multiple electronic methods of geolocation (such as wi-fi, IP targeting, etc.) to determine location in order to block access to online video. The patent is #7,486,943 titled: “System and method for verifying access based on a determined geographic location of a subscriber of a service provided via a computer network “

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National Geographic asks…

Hello, do you know which of these countries has the northernmost capital city?

A. Iran
B. Japan
C. Norway

Knowledge of the Earth and everything on it is important,  but it’s essential for the 55 fourth-through-eighth graders getting ready for the 21rst annual National Geographic Bee this Wednesday.

You can test your geographic knowledge at our daily GeoBee Challengeand see how you do!

(And the answer is C. Norway)

- Sarah Clark, Director, Media Relations, Education and International Communications Division, National Geographic Society
 

Is Twitter the solution to hyperlocal selling?

Two pieces, one in AdAge and a second at C|net show that for several stationery and mobile food businesses Twitter is the way to go.

Google Tryke to enable StreetView on Footpaths

Crave has the story and images of the very long and I suspect very heavy vehicle meant to take the cameras onto footpaths in Italy, then later this year in the UK. It’s certainly a more environmentally friendly and social way to do the work. Besides, cars don’t always fit down the paths. And, based on my limited experience on UK footpaths, this behemoth won’t make it down them all either!

Found in the Wild: ArcGIS API for Flex

The website HealthLandscape.org uses ESRI’s ArGIS API for Flex to populate maps by county of various medical issues, including a map of confirmed cases of H1N1 virus in the U.S. The interesting part? When I right clicked expecting to see just the Adobe plug-in commands, I was pleased to see: About ESRI ArcGIS API for Flex and could find the build number. I see now, but don’t recall if I did before, the same thing in the Morris County NJ site.

I don’t know if this is something new from Adobe that allows such information to be put in the right click menu, or if this is simply something ESRI or the developer chose to implement for this app. In any case, this is effective branding, especially for map geeks who always want to know about the underlying technology!