If you liked this week’s story on the ‘undiscovery’ of Sandy Island, between Australia and New Caledonia, then be sure to check out Google Maps Mania’s follow-up post, which talks of the man responsible for falsely ‘discovering’ it in the first place – way back in 1876.
Civilian mapping is about to be declared illegal in Pakistan, with all mapping duties having to be undertaken by the Survey of Pakistan, “which supposedly reports to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), but effectively takes its orders and cues from the General Head Quarters. Consider that the Surveyor General of Pakistan is often a serving or retired General, who leads the organisation that is not open to scrutiny by the civilian authorities.” Dawn.com has the details.
In the UK, Nestle are running a ‘we will find you’ promotion, where certain candy bars are stuffed with GPS receivers that will activate once the wrapper is opened. Nestle will then hunt you down locate you and give you a cheque for £10,000. It’s equal parts amazing and terrifying.
The OGC blog has a post describing the final stage of the augmented reality standard, ARML2.0. Go, standards!
GIS Lounge has a post noting that China’s redesigned passports have upset a number of China's neighbours with the map produced on the inside pages. Those watermarked pages show a map of China that includes areas of the region under dispute by several neighbouring countries. Vietnam, for instance, are refusing to stamp the passports, instead issuing Visas on separate pieces of paper.
Google Maps Mania has a peculiar post that points readers to a map showing the number of injuries and deaths caused by flat panel televisions. I knew that watching a lot of TV was hazardous to your health (and brain), but I’d never considered that it might be common to get crushed by one.
For a quick chuckle, Very Spatial have posted a comic from the always wonderful (and fantastically nerdy) xkcd on heat maps that are just population maps.
LiDAR News has an informative, if long, introductory video to LiDAR. Handy if you want to know a little more about this important technology, or know someone that needs an introduction to it. It’s hefty at 27 minutes, but informative and well thought out.
