Google maps mashup of heavy rain in Mumbai - Comments Off
Hindustantimes released yesterday a google map mashup of heavy rain in Mumbai. This map has been built with thanks to quikmaps. It is a very interesting map but at least it lacks a legend.
Technorati:
India, Maps, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Google Maps
Google Maps API for India - Comments Off
A long awaited Google Maps update is now available since the Google Maps API (Via Google Maps Mania) gives anybody the opportunity to develop free geocoding solutions for India. As far as I know, this is the only free geocoding solution for India. This is a great improvement for Google Maps API users and for Indians as well.
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All our posts related to Google Maps and India.
And some pre-update Google Maps mashups for India: Mumbai and Maharashtra terror attacks.
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Great online map of Mumbai - Comments Off
The Collective Research Iniative Trust (CRIT) project has developed some beautiful webmapping solutions for New York, Boston and, above all, Mumbai. Based on Openlayers, you can see a demo map of Mumbai online. Such a project is highly valuable for there are few free GIS data available for India.
CRIT is trying to fill the gap in order to give local communities an opportunity to fight predatory urban and industrial development :
In spite of this increased awareness and concern with urban spaces, basic information on housing, land, infrastructure and environment — the right of citizens — remains largely inaccessible, because of bureaucratic obstacles and vested interests. This asymetry of information has given rise to predatory classes of builders and speculators, whose privileged access to information is transformed into “development rights” for construction, eroding accountability to local communities and urban stake-holders, and the planning policies meant to uphold their rights.
Such a project might set the tune of the Kalam roadmap for cartography improvement in India (via All Points blog and Ogle Earth).
See also:
All our posts abut GIS, Mumbai, India, Cartography and Google Earth.
Technorati:
India, Maps, Mumbai, Google Earth, GIS, cartography.
Pakistan behind Malegaon blasts - Comments Off
According to Hindustan Times, the Mumbai police officers in charge of the last Malegaon blasts inquiry has come to the conclusion that Pakistani activists were behinf the terror attacks which killed 31 people and hurted many more on september 8:
“In all, 15 kg of RDX was delivered at Malegaon by Mohammad Ali and only two kg was used to trigger the four blasts. Investigations are on to trace the remaining RDX,” Pasricha said.[…]
ATS sleuths said the Pakistanis could belong to the LeT or the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). “The terror pattern nowadays was to involve specialists from different outfits,” said the officers who declined to be named.”
See also :
All our posts related to Maharashtra, Mumbai and India. Our Google Map of Maharashtra terror attacks.
Technorati:
India, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Pakistan Terror.
We recently reported how Google Earth has been helpful and a decisive tool to improve emergency droppings in Surat flooded areas. Moneycontrol tells us another story about how Google Earth can help Indians before the flood too. According to this news website, some Maharashtra farmers 1′0 kms east of Mumbai used Google Earth to seek better compensations for their soon-to-be-flooded arable land:
“We used Google technology to prove to the authorities that the land is fertile,” says Shivkar. He says initially state authorities claimed that only a small portion of the earmarked land is fertile and that some parts of it is submerged by salty creek water. That means lower compensation for the farmers.
This area is meant to become a new SEZ (Special Economic Zone) and farmers in the area are in the middle of the expropriation and compensation process.
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All our posts about Google Maps, Google Earth, India and Mahrashtra.
Technorati:
India, Maps, Maharashtra, Environment, Google Maps, Google Earth, GIS, cartography
We posted yesterday mapping resources for the latest North-Korean nuclear developments.
Google Maps Mania and Ogle Earth are both linking to attempts to track these nuclear tests.
While Ogle Earth offers a “DIY” way to monitor North Korean nuclear tests via Google Earth and a KMZ file. Based on seismic activities reports, this KMZ file is quite impressive and links the 4.2 magintude quake which occured yesterday to the North Korean nuclear test. Stefan Geens at Ogle Earth points out that these locations has to be taken cautiously: “Of course, there is room for doubt as to whether the quake was caused by a proper nuclear explosion.”
See also:
All our posts about nuclear issues.
Technorati:
China, North Korea, nuclear, cartography, Maps, Google Maps, Google Earth.
The French newspaper “Le Monde” has published a map of ballistic range of nuclear missiles in the aftermath of the “successful” North Korean nuclear test alledgedly carried out earlier today.
The Washington Post is providing a complete timeline of North Korea’s nuclear program since early 1990’s and informations about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal.
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According to Mosnews, US Congress as smoothly voted saturday a law allowing US government to implement economical sanctions against countries selling high-tech and military related supplies to Iran in an effort to curb Iran’s stance on nuclear issue and weaken international underlying help to this country. The law has been passed into law yesterday by George Bush who stated that:
“We are engaged in intense diplomacy alongside our allies, and have also undertaken financial measures to counter the actions of the Iranian regime,” he said.
But such sanctions are likely to target Russia first. Russia indeed has long been involved in trading sensible technologies to Iran, including Air defence missiles and the building of a new nuclear power plant in Bushehr. Though the text doesn’t seem to explicitly target any country, Republican Senate Majority Leader underlined clearly that Russia was under US scrutiny in this case:
“This act also provides important new authority for the administration to block financial transactions related to Iran’s weapons of mass destruction programs and encourages the administration to use all available leverage over Russia to gain Russian support for multilateral sanctions against Iran,” said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Does leveraging a partner in difficult negotations ease the way to find out a common ground ? We dont think so. Especially when one party is not directly committed to directly talk.
See also:
All our posts about Russia and Iran.
Technorati:
nuclear, Middle East, Russia, Iran, geopolitics, USA
Yesterday, officials accused Pakistan Intelligence service (ISI) of being the mastermind behind the 11/7 Mumbai blasts. Pakistani information Minister rejected the claim and asked India to show evidence of such accusations (IHT):
“We reject this allegation, and demand that India should provide us any evidence, if they have,” Azi told The Associated Press.
According to the Mumbai police commissionner, Mr Roy, 15 alleged terrorists have been arrested, including 11 Pakistani. Moreover, the last unidentified body of passengers killed by the blasts have been identified has a Pakistani bomber who failed to get out of the wagon before the bomb he had plugged there exploded (Mumbai Mirror).
According to Reuters, the newly appointed Indian Foreign Secretary, Mr Menon has expressed India’s intention to provide Pakistan evidence of such accusations (Reuters):
“We will judge them not by immediate reactions or verbal statements (but) by what they actually do about terrorism,” Menon told reporters after taking office.
“It seems to me logical that the mechanism has to deal with this kind of evidence,” he added, referring to a bilateral agreement to set up a joint agency to tackle terrorism.
This case will be a crash test for the new bilateral anti terror mechanism agreed by MM. Musharraf & Singh in Cuba few days ago.
See also:
All our posts about Mumbai, India and Pakistan.
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Mapz, a GIS librarian from Austin university, and a must-read blog on GIS issues is reporting an educational experience. Google Maps is used by the University of Texas in Arlington to map Afghan experience in United States. Have a look at it. It is a valuable experiment for Google Maps use with student and for mapping a minority in US as well.
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All our posts related to maps.
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