It seems like 99 percent of the mail we send is electronic these days. The other 1 percent is letters and postcards that we want to postmark with our (usually enviable) location for the recipient. That’s why we dig these uber-accurate Google Maps envelopes. Now we can say Hello from 100 Holomoana Street, Honolulu, HI, 96815!
[Editor's note: I'm on xmas break so no posts this week but wanted to share this hilarious video on YouTube poking fun at ESRI and changing core technology snafus corrupting the core enterprise geodatabase. The video production is pretty slick, uploaded by lukewrogers. Thanks Tom!]
Adolf Hitler Furious at ESRI Software The tide of the war hinges on getting ArcGIS to union a few datasets in the Geodatabase and things aren’t going well…
Italian airline Alitalia has apologised after its in-flight magazine printed a map leaving off the Mediterranean island of Sicily.
The magazine’s editor blamed the error on a printing mistake, and pledged not to let it happen again. A passenger told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that she noticed Sicily was missing – while she was on a flight to the island. Smaller islands, such as Sardinia, were in the right place on the map.
Alitalia was re-launched earlier this year under private ownership. It had been a state-run company for more than 60 years before going bankrupt. One Italian Senator, Riccardo Villari, said it was unfortunate the big advertising campaign surrounding the re-launch had been followed by “unpleasant” errors.
The magazine editor, Aldo Canale, said: “We have run lots of editions on the beauty of Sicily and we would never dream of eliminating it from maps of Italy.”
[Editor's note: At first I thought this was pure humor but, for whatever reason, Google Maps does indeed now show detailed resolution at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, aka Cheney's secret hideout #1.]
Google Maps’ satellite imagery has shown us clear shots of the White House, the Capitol and even the Pentagon. But one thing it never displayed properly was Dick Cheney’s house. Until now.
The Vice President’s quarters, located at the Naval Observatory since 1974, have been pixelated ever since Google has given the public an easy way to check them out—coincidentally ever since Dick Cheney has lived there. This censorship wasn’t by Google but those supplying Google the source images, the U.S. Geological Survey.
Now on the same week of Biden’s arrival, we’re suddenly allowed to see the VP’s house as clearly as the President’s. Who knows the exact reason for Cheney’s extra security…maybe he’d been nervous about the public catching wind of his Mini Cheney clone farm, or maybe he’s just prone to gardening in his shorts despite being self-conscious about his varicose veins. [Valleywag]
[Editor's note: Helpful hints on how to go metric if you never had a science class in the US since the 1970s. I don't yet dream in metric but I ain't afraid of it Thanks Jo!]
Republished from XKCD: A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
The key to converting to metric is establishing new reference points. When you hear “26° C,” instead of thinking “that’s 79° F” you should think, “That’s warmer than a house but cool for swimming.” Here are some helpful tables of reference points:
Thanks Jo!] 
