Pretty Imagery in Google Earth and other Google Maps/Earth News

Google Earth 6.2 had a "prettier" version of its imagery. No, it's not new data just a new smoothing algorithm.

Today, we’re introducing a new way of rendering imagery that smooths out this quilt of images. The end result is a beautiful new Earth-viewing experience that preserves the unique textures of the world’s most defining geographic landscapes—without the quilt effect. This change is being made on both mobile and desktop versions of Google Earth. While this change will appear on all versions of Google Earth, the 6.2 release provides the best viewing experience for this new data.

- i Programmer

- Google Blog

The update of Google Maps on the Web now offers better bike route information via detailed rendering.

Since no bike path is the same, many users have requested an easier way to differentiate the different types of bike routes that are available. Starting today, a new legend feature can help you understand what the different colors on the bike maps symbolize.

- Google Lat Long Blog

The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Research Centre of Feng Chia University in Taiwan, has successfully completed Taiwan’s first municipal works cloud-based map platform, which will allow city government officials and policy makers to have a clear picture of the city’s major construction projects.

It's built on Google Earth Enterprise and is expected to be made public (no date yet).

- FutureGov Asia

GIS Among Safest (economy-wise) in UK and other International GIS News

The safest areas are likely to be software design and development, GIS jobs, networking and systems administration, software implementation analysis and database administration.

That's the word from Peter Sondegaard, head of research at IT research and advisory company Gartner predicts cloud services in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa). He told a recent analysts' European conference in Spain last week about the state of IT.

- Leader Live

A Jewish group in Jerusalem is using 21st-century technology to map every tombstone in the ancient cemetery on the Mount of Olives, a sprawling, politically sensitive necropolis of 150,000 graves stretching back three millennia.

The goal is to photograph every grave, map it digitally, record every name, and make the information available online. That is supposed to allow visitors to find their way in the cemetery, long a bewildering jumble of crumbling gravestones and rubble surrounded by Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem. Beset for many years by neglect, it is among the oldest cemeteries in continuous use in the world.

- AP

All bus operators in Taiwan will be required to install a geographic information system (GIS) in all their vehicles by the end of 2012 following the passage of an amendment to transport industry regulations, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) announced Thursday.

The goal is to let passengers know when the bus is coming. I like this announcement because normally it'd say GPS and ignore any use of GIS. Sadly, I'll bet the goal was really to cite GPS.

- Focus Taiwan

Addressing the first ever WikiConferencein India, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales here Friday said the representation of maps on the free encyclopedia was in accordance with the ideas of its readers and editors and the founders were not the only ones to control the content. 

As Wales spoke at Mumbai University's Fort campus, some Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) members staged a protest outside the campus, contending there was an "illegal" depiction of India's map on Wikipedia. 

- India Times

Taipei’s Integrated Crime Management Solution and other International GIS News

Police in Taipei have started using a combination of Global Positioning System, Geographic Information System and security cameras and satellite images to boost their anticrime efforts.

It'll cost NT$2 billion (US$68.94 million) and can "integrate information provided by GPS, GIS and the “110" hotline telephone reporting system, to pinpoint the location of an incident so police can be quickly dispatched there."

The data described includes images from more than 13,354 digital cameras in the road surveillance system; an additional 27,000 high resolution cameras will be added by 2014. There is no discussion of how satelite images are to be used.

- GMA News

China announced that its mapping scientists have finished a 1:50,000-scale map database which will provide essential geographic reference to China's economic and social development, per an official with National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation. There was even a press conference about it!

March Salmonella Outbreak Still not Sourced and other Health GIS News

"Despite an extensive investigation by FSIS and CDC to date, there is little epidemiological information available at this time that conclusively links these illnesses to any specific product or establishment," FSIS spokesman Neil Gaffney said Tuesday. "Without specific enough data, it would not be appropriate to issue a recall notice." Gaffney said the agency was committed to finding the source of the outbreak and then taking action to protect public health.

There just is not enough data to identify a source for a samenella outbreak that's spread US-wide since March. While there is a map of people impacted tying it to a specific plant or batch of turkey has proved impossible.

- AJC

Drawing upon recent research, NRDC [Natural Resource Defences Council] has now just launched a new site with state-level public health impacts currently being felt as a result of climate change--and what to expect in the future. 

- NDRC Blog

In the most recent volunteer mission, medical professionals from National Taiwan University Hospital and Changhua Christian Hospital studied the causes behind patients' diabetes and where they lived and then compiled the information in a simple map for the reference of health authorities.

8.5% of the island nation's popluation has the disease, meaning getting its limited health care resources to them is key.

- Focus Taiwan

International GIS Tidbits - 5/20/11

Singapore

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) added two new datasets to its OneMap platform. PropertyPrices shows the transacted prices of both private housing and Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats over the past year on a map. Space2Lease allows businesses to check for government properties available for rent by the SLA and HDB.

- Channel New Asia

Guyana

Students, history lovers and Guyanese on the whole will now be able to experience fragments of the Columbus era, as well as gain some insightful knowledge on Guyana’s heritage at the Map Room situated at the Guyana National Museum.

- Stabroek News

France

Officials have removed road signs that warn drivers of speed traps. They've also removed maps of the locations of speed traps from the Web. The argument: roads are safer without out them. Opponents suggest the opposite is in fact true.

- Pyrenee News

Taiwan

A geographic information system (GIS) designed exclusively for bicycle riders in the greater Taipei area was launched Friday as part of the government's efforts government's efforts to make Taiwan a "cycling island."

It's a layer in the GIS available online and on phones. There's a social aspect that allows riders to upload routes and photos. Here in Massachusetts today is the end of Bike Week.

- Focus Taiwan