Melting Glaciers, Sprawling Cities: the Google Project

Melting Glaciers, Sprawling Cities: the Google Project

What Are These Strange Barcode-Like Images Visible in Aerial Pictures of the U.S.?

theblaze

By Liz Klimas

Many might not know it, but there are dozens of large, barcode-like paintings across the United States. Just how long have they been there though and what do they do?

Fort Huachuca in Arizona. (Image: Google Earth/Center for Land Use Interpretation)

You might remember the strange structures spotted via Google Earth in China’s Gobi desert a couple years ago that were ultimately thought to be satellite calibration structures. According to a recent report by the Center for Land Use Interpretation, these two-dimensional structures in America perform a similar function.

A target in Maryland. (Photo: Google Earth/ Center for Land Use Interpretation)

They’re aerial photo calibration targets, most of which were put in their current locations in the 1950s and 60s by the Air Force and NASA and some are still in use today.

Here’s more about the targets:

The targets function like an eye chart at the optometrist, where the smallest group of bars that can be resolved marks the limit of the resolution for the optical instrument that is being used. For aerial photography, it provides a platform to test, calibrate, and focus aerial cameras traveling at different speeds and altitudes. The targets can also be used in the same way by satellites.

Eglin Air Force Base, Florida (Photo: Google Earth/ Center for Land Use Interpretation)

The report stated that most of the targets fall within restricted groundspace: Eglin AFB, Florida; the Nevada Test Site; St. Inigoes, Maryland; and Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio; Travis AFB, California; Beaufort Marine Corps Base and Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

The Center for Land Use Interpretation reported the largest concentration of the barcode targets — 15 in a 20 mile range — falls within Edwards Air Force Base.

Edwards Air Force Base (Photo: Google Earth/ Center for Land Use Interpretation)

“There is some variation in the size and shape of the targets at Edwards, suggesting updates and modifications for specific programs,” the report stated. “A number of the targets there also have aircraft hulks next to them, added to provide additional, realistic subjects for testing cameras. Some of these planes are themselves unusual and rare military jets, officially in the collection of the base museum, despite being left out on the range.”

The ones in the Mojave desert, the report stated, have been used to calibrate A12, SR-71 and U-2 planes. Drones also could use these targets to calibrate their surveillance cameras and sensors.

Most of the targets, CLUI stated are on concrete or asphalt consisting of black and white paint in a 78 foot by 53 foot pattern of parallel and perpendicular bars at different sizes.

The CLUI stated that it picked out images of the barcode-like calibration targets from The Art of Citizen Space Exploration, which is running at the University of California Riverside Sweeney Art Gallery from January 19 to May 18.

What Are These Strange Barcode-Like Images Visible in Aerial Pictures of the U.S.?

North Korea and Cuba: Not so different

babalublog

By Alberto de la Cruz

Sophie Schmidt, the daughter of Eric Schmidt, one of Google's founders, accompanied her father and Gov. Bill Richardson on a trip to North Korea. She took some amazing photographs and amongst her many observations documented on a site she created, this one in particular sounds eerily familiar:

It's impossible to know how much we can extrapolate from what we saw in Pyongyang to what the DPRK is really like. Our trip was a mixture of highly staged encounters, tightly-orchestrated viewings and what seemed like genuine human moments. We had zero interactions with non-state-approved North Koreans and were never far from our two minders (2, so one can mind the other).
The longer I think about what we saw and heard, the less sure I am about what any of it actually meant.

Sounds a lot like those "people-to-people" contact Cuba vacations made possible by the Obama administration, doesn't it?

Here's another observation:

Looks great, right? All this activity, all those monitors. Probably 90 desks in the room, all manned, with an identical scene one floor up.
One problem: No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared. More disturbing: when our group walked in--a noisy bunch, with media in tow--not one of them looked up from their desks. Not a head turn, no eye contact, no reaction to stimuli. They might as well have been figurines.
Of all the stops we made, the e-Potemkin Village was among the more unsettling. We knew nothing about what we were seeing, even as it was in front of us. Were they really students? Did our handlers honestly think we bought it? Did they even care? Photo op and tour completed, maybe they dismantled the whole set and went home.

Of course, the communist propaganda favorite; The Potemkin Village. We have plenty of those in Cuba as well.

Read Sophie Schmidt's entire report HERE.

North Korea and Cuba: Not so different

Google releases detailed map of North Korea

By Chico Harlan/

Until Tuesday, North Korea appeared on Google Maps as a near-total white space — no roads, no train lines, no parks and no restaurants. The only thing labeled was the capital city, Pyongyang.

This all changed when Google, on Tuesday, rolled out a detailed map of one of the world’s most secretive states. The new map labels everything from Pyongyang’s subway stops to the country’s several city-sized gulags, as well as its monuments, hotels, hospitals and department stores.

Screenshot: Washington Post

(See a before and after map comparison of North Korea.)

According to a Google blog post, the maps were created by a group of volunteer “citizen cartographers,” through an interface known as Google Map Maker. That program — much like Wikipedia — allows users to submit their own data, which is then fact-checked by other users, and sometimes altered many times over. Similar processes were used in other once-unmapped countries like Afghanistan and Burma.

In the case of North Korea, those volunteers worked from outside of the country, beginning from 2009. They used information that was already public, compiling details from existing analog maps, satellite images, or other Web-based materials. Much of the information was already available on the Internet, said Hwang Min-woo, 28, a volunteer mapmaker from Seoul who worked for two years on the project.

Screenshot: Washington Post

North Korea was the last country virtually unmapped by Google, but other — even more detailed — maps of the North existed before this. Most notable is a map created by Curtis Melvin, who runs the North Korea Economy Watch blog and spent years identifying thousands of landmarks in the North: tombs, textile factories, film studios, even rumored spy training locations. Melvin’s map is available as a downloadable Google Earth file.

Google’s map is important, though, because it is so readily accessible.  The map is unlikely to have an immediate influence in the North, where Internet use is restricted to all but a handful of elites. But it could prove beneficial for outsider analysts and scholars, providing an easy-to-access record about North Korea’s provinces, roads, landmarks, as well as hints about its many unseen horrors.

Screenshot: Washington Post

In the country’s northeast, for instance, Google has labeled what it calls the “Hwasong Gulag.” One street, called Gulag 16 Road, cuts through it. And at the end of Gulag 16 Road is a train station. Beyond that, little else around the gulag is marked.

The map’s publication comes just weeks after the visit to North Korea of Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, who toured the country in a series of highly staged encounters that included a stop at a computer library, which Schmidt’s daughter later described in a blog post as the “e-Potemkin Village.” Schmidt’s visit was unrelated to the map roll-out, a Google spokesman said.

Google, in its blog post about the new North Korea map, acknowledged that the information is “not perfect.”

Keep reading on washingtonpost >>

Google releases detailed map of North Korea

Google Bamboozled by North Korea?

pjmedia/ Claudia Rosett

huffingtonpost.com

As if there isn’t enough trouble in the world, the executive chairman of Google Inc., Eric Schmidt, has taken it into his head to visit North Korea. Schmidt is touring the world’s leading totalitarian state as a member of a private group led by a former U.S. congressman, cabinet secretary, United Nations ambassador and New Mexico governor rolled into one, Bill Richardson — whose previous trips to North Korea have served mainly to dignify the Pyongyang regime.

Richardson’s current roadshow, with Google’s Schmidt in tow, seems to have generated some excitement at North Korea’s state propaganda organ, the Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA. KCNA has revamped its web site, including a new gmail contact address (though the address apparently doesn’t work) and more colorful variations on the same old propaganda, including a special section on North Korea’s recent
ballistic missile test   “Successful Satellite Launch.” The site also features such classics as an account of the launch in Ecuador of the works of third-generation dictator Kim Jong Un, glorifying the revolutionary accomplishments of his late father, tyrant Kim Jong Il, and his grandfather, the Stalin-installed founder of the North Korean state, Kim Il Sung. On this same retooled KCNA web site, the private visit led by Richardson is heralded as “Delegation of Google Corp. of U.S. Arrives.”

Schmidt has been secretive about what exactly he hopes to accomplish on this trip. Richardson, who wants to meet with an American that North Korea, as part of its chronic shakedown racket, is now holding hostage in its prison system, has hinted to the press that Schmidt is tagging along to North Korea because he is “interested in some of the economic issues there, and the social media aspect.”

If anything here sounds like the beginning of some glorious new era in which North Korea is about to throw open its digital gates to the world wide web, and invite the starving inmates of Kim’s gulag to post their personal opinions on Facebook, think again. North Korea’s regime loves technology — but on its own terms, for carefully restricted use, for specially selected purposes, which boil down to keeping the Kim regime in power. North Korean officials are expert at hornswoggling American dreamers who arrive in Pyongyang hoping to promote some peace-loving bargain, from former president Jimmy Carter in 1994, to the New York Philharmonic, which, between North Korea’s 2006 and 2009  nuclear tests, serenaded the Pyongyang elite in 2008.

Keep reading >>

Google Bamboozled by North Korea?

Detained American, Internet freedom on agenda as Google boss visits North Korea

Kim Kwang Hyon / AP

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is interviewed by journalists after arriving at Pyongyang International Airport in North Korea on Monday.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

Google Executive Chairman Eric E. Schmidt and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson arrived in North Korea on Monday to begin a controversial private mission that includes an effort to secure the release of an imprisoned American tourist.

The prisoner, Kenneth Bae, is a 44-year-old Korean-American who was detained last month. He was in a group of five tourists who visited the northeast city of Rajin, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said last month, citing a report by the Kookmin Ilbo newspaper. Bae entered North Korea on Nov. 3.

North Korea: Detained tourist 'admitted his crime'

Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has made numerous trips to North Korea. Before Monday's trip, he said: "We are going to ask about the American who's been detained -- a humanitarian private visit."

David Guttenfelder / AP

Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, center, arrives at Pyongyang International Airport in North Korea for a controversial visit on Monday.

"We'll meet with North Korean political leaders," Richardson told The Associated Press. "We'll meet with North Korean economic leaders, military. We'll visit some universities. We don't control the visit. They will let us know what the schedule is when we get there."

The former governor also said the delegation would try to "lay the groundwork for him coming home," the AP reported. "We're going to try to inquire about the status. ... I heard from his son who lives in Washington state, who asked me to bring him back. I doubt we can do it on this trip."

US cool to Schmidt's trip to North Korea

Schmidt did not respond to requests for comment. But Richardson gave at least a hint about Schmidt's purpose for the trip to the country where the Internet, like most other things, is strictly regulated.

"This is not a Google trip, but I'm sure he's interested in some of the economic issues there, the social media aspect," Richardson told the AP. "So this is why we are teamed up on this." He did not elaborate on what he meant by the "social media aspect."

The trip comes a month after North Korea launched a rocket to put a satellite into space. The reclusive state continues work on its nuclear testing facilities, according to satellite imagery, potentially paving the way for a third nuclear bomb test.

Keep reading on NBC >>

Detained American, Internet freedom on agenda as Google boss visits North Korea

Government Surveillance on Citizens Rising

Nic Halverson 

As the inferno of the David Petraeus scandal continues to burn, the latest Google Transparency Report shows government surveillance is starting to heat up.

"This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise," Dorothy Chou, Senior Policy Analyst, explains on Google's blog.

Between January and June of this year governments from around the world filed 20,939 requests with Google to access data on 34,614 accounts. According to company data, during that same time frame last year, governments made 15,744 requests on 25,342 accounts.  More >>

Government Surveillance on Citizens Rising

The U.S. Government's Growing Appetite for Google Users' Data

Searching suspects: Data Google holds on its users is increasingly being requested by - and given to - law enforcement and government agencies.

Tom Simonite

U.S. government and law enforcement agencies are increasingly asking Google to hand over data on its customers to help with investigations.

The search and ads company today released figures revealing that it was asked to hand over user data 7,969 times by US agencies in the first six months of 2012 - an increase of 26 percent over the previous six months. That continues a long established trend in the figures released in Google's twice-yearly transparency report and charted above. The 7,969 requests asked for data from a total of 16,281 user accounts, and ninety percent of the requests were complied with.

Google is unusual amongst Web companies in that it shares information about the number of such requests it receives. Social network Facebook is likely subject to a similarly high volume, for example, but does not disclose any information on their number or origin. Google started reporting the number of requests for its data in 2009, and the number of affected accounts in 2011. Since January 2011, U.S. authorities have requested data pertaining to a total of 39,581 accounts.

Law enforcement and government agencies see Google and other companies as valuable sources of data that can help with criminal and intelligence investigations, such as the one that led to the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus last week. Knowing what a person searched for, who they emailed, and which IP address they logged in from can provide evidence of a person's motivations, movements and much more.

Some privacy activists say that the ease with which U.S. authorities can extract information on users from Google and other companies suggests changes in the law, and company policies are needed to protect innocent users against the risk of unnecessary surveillance. Data can only be handed over by a company if it exists, and some campaigners think companies such as Google should reduce how long they retain some information. For example, Google currently stores search query details for 9 months before anonymizing them, a period some argue is too long. The main target of legal campaigning about data access is against the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which allows government and law enforcement to obtain data from Internet companies without a warrant if it is at least 6 months old.
-----------------------------------
But worldwide:

theatlantic.com

Google: 'Government Surveillance Is on the Rise' >>

The U.S. Government's Growing Appetite for Google Users' Data

How We Can Use Microeconomics to Describe System Interaction

GoogleTechTalks

How We Can Use Microeconomics to Describe System Interaction

Just Be Evil: The unauthorized history of Google

corbettreport

Just Be Evil: The unauthorized history of Google

Is Google spying on Americans for the NSA?

WND/ By Bob Unruh

A federal appeals court has ruled that the government can go dark – essentially conceal all of its information – regarding communications or operations involving the National Security Agency and Google Inc.

The issue arose following a January 2010 cyber attack on Google that the court said primarily targeted Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

At the time, Google confirmed it was “working with the relevant U.S. authorities” on the problem and the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post both reported that Google had contacted the National Security Agency “immediately following the attack.”

Further, NSA Director Mike McConnell then told the Washington Post that collaboration between NSA and private companies like Google was “inevitable,” according to the court.

The case arose, then, when the Electronic Privacy Information Center sought additional details of the agreement and cooperation between the NSA and Google.

The federal government refused, and when EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act Request the agency said it would neither confirm nor deny the existence of any such information.

That decision now has been endorsed by Judges Janice Brown, Brett Kavanaugh and Doug Ginsburg of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.

That ruling said a federal agency may “refuse to confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of responsive records if the particular FOIA exemption at issue would itself preclude the acknowledgment of such documents.”

The ruling continued, “An agency may issue a Glomar response [refuse to admit or deny existence of documents] when ‘to answer the FOIA inquiry would cause harm cognizable under’ an applicable statutory exemption. The agency must demonstrate that acknowledging the mere existence of responsive records would disclose exempt information.”

The judges said, “NSA need not make a specific showing of potential harm to national security in order to justify withholding information under Section 6, because ‘Congress has already, in enacting the statute, decided that disclosure of NSA activities is potentially harmful.’

“EPIC claims its request seeks some records that are not covered by [exemptions], specifically, unsolicited communications from Google to NSA, which would fall within the second category of information described in the request,” the court said.

But the court said if “NSA disclosed whether there are (or are not) records of a partnership or communications between Google and NSA regarding Google’s security, that disclosure might reveal whether NSA investigated the threat, deemed the threat a concern to the security of U.S. government information systems, or took any measures in response to the threat.  More >>

Is Google spying on Americans for the NSA?

Do you like Google? Announces privacy settings change across products, users can’t opt out

The Washington Post/ Cecilia Kang

Google said Tuesday it will require users to allow the company to follow their activities across e-mail, search, YouTube and other services, a radical shift in strategy that is expected to invite greater scrutiny of its privacy and competitive practices.
The information will enable Google to develop a fuller picture of how people use its growing empire of Web sites. Consumers will have no choice but to accept the changes.

The policy will take effect March 1 and will also impact Android mobile phone users, who are required to log-in to Google accounts when they activate their phones. More >>

Do you like Google? Announces privacy settings change across products, users can’t opt out

El visor 3D del cuerpo humano de Google vuelve como Zygote Body

Microsiervos

Google Body, la aplicación web que permitía indagar las interioridades del cuerpo humano en 3D y uno de los muchos servicios de Google que desapareció del mapa, ha vuelto renombrado como Zygote Body.
Zygote Media Group ha utilizado el código original de Google Body para construir Zygote Body, que funciona en Firefox y Chrome.
Mas >>

El visor 3D del cuerpo humano de Google vuelve como Zygote Body

Google da su brazo a torcer y aceptará apodos en Google+

Microsiervos

Google da su brazo a torcer y aceptará apodos en Google+

Google investing in conservative groups, lobbyists

They're trying to be more "bipartisan."  I guess doing good and surviving in GOP America don't go hand in hand.

But Google's investment in the infrastructure of the conservative movement goes much deeper than what's been reported this summer.

The company known for its progressive politics is now giving money to the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Republican Governors Association, the GOP firm The David All Group, Crossroads Strategies, the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Republican State Leadership Committee, among others. On Thursday, Google and Fox News cosponsored a Republican presidential debate.

In the last nine months, Google has hired 18 lobbying shops -- not 18 lobbyists, but 18 firms, a dozen of them since July, a head-turning torrent of hiring that also includes consultants not required to register as lobbyists.

AMERICAblog

Google investing in conservative groups, lobbyists

Google's Self-Driving Cars: Coming Soon to a Road Near You

Google's Self-Driving Cars: Coming Soon to a Road Near You

The Case for #Google PageRank: Perception vs. Economics

By David Jackson in Featured

In my previous article, Google PageRank: SEO Treasure or Fool’s Gold? What the Experts S…I argued strongly against the importance of PageRank and believing in it as a reliable metric. Among the many compelling expert opinions that I presented to bolster my argument, this statement by Google itself made the most sense to me:

“Don’t bother thinking about it [PageRank]. We only update the PageRank displayed in Google Toolbar a few times a year; this is our respectful hint for you to worry less about PageRank, which is just one of over 200 signals that can affect how your site is crawled, indexed and ranked. PageRank is an easy metric to focus on, but just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s useful for you as a site owner. If you’re looking for metrics, we’d encourage you to check out Analytics, think about conversion rates, ROI (return on investment), relevancy, or other metrics that actually correlate to meaningful gains for your website or business.” (Source: Google Webmaster Central FAQ).

Full story...

The Case for #Google PageRank: Perception vs. Economics

China paper warns #Google may pay price for hacking claims

By Miral Fahmy

(Reuters) - Google has become a "political tool" vilifying the Chinese government, an official Beijing newspaper said on Monday, warning that the U.S. Internet giant's statements about hacking attacks traced to China could hurt its business.

Full story...

China paper warns #Google may pay price for hacking claims

Top Secret Group Called "Google X"

Nicholas Carlson 

When his fellow Google cofounder Larry Page was made CEO earlier this year, Sergey Brin got a new job too.

Until now, that new job has been described to us as "head of special projects."

But yesterday, a source close to Google told us Brin's actual new role is "Head of Google X."

Much cooler, sounding, right?

Google X!

These "special projects" are top secret. The only one anybody knows about is Google's self-driving cars.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/sergey-brin-is-head-of-a-top-secret-group-called-google-x-2011-6?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=10%20Things%20In%20Tech%20You%20Need%20To%20Know&utm_campaign=Post%20Blast%20%28sai%29%3A%2010%20Things%20You%20Need%20To%20Know%20This%20Morning#ixzz1OLAntVd7

Top Secret Group Called "Google X"

Google launched +1 [Social Search]

Today, Google launched +1, a button that users can click on blue links in Google Search results to say, in Google marketing's words, "this is something you should check out."
When you click the button, Google tells your friends, family, and the rest of the world that you recommended the link.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/with-1-google-is-going-right-after-facebook-and-twitter-2011-3?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Business+Insider+Select&utm_campaign=BI_Select_033011#ixzz1I7jRgRDw

Google launched +1 [Social Search]