…starts with a nice morning walk in SF.
Microsoft’s Virtual Earth 3D still is an impressing technology, but Google’s catch up isn’t bad at all too.
Somehow it reminds me of Amazon A9′s ambitious street views, seen a couple of years ago. Unlike Amazon, who only had street views available if I recall correctly, Google can offer this nice feature, which definitely provides very helpful information for travelers finding a particular place in an unknown area, as addition to already existing mapping features. That way they can easily evaluate user acceptance and benefit of the new 3D-like feature and decide later if they’re going to extend it to more cities.
The main advantage over Virtual Earth 3D is probably that Google’s Street View doesn’t ask – assuming an available Flash plugin – for installing any additional program. [via TechCrunch]
Brazilian Amazon being cut down twice as fast
Loggers are cutting down trees in the Amazon rainforest at twice the rate of previous estimates, according to a new analysis of satellite images of the region. Earlier attempts to gauge the scale of deforestation were not sensitive enough to spot the occurrence of selective logging – the cutting down of individual trees without clearing the surrounding forest.
I know it’s kind of “presumptuous” telling a poor country like Brasil not to use it’s natural resources but something has to change. This problem has a global dimension, thus there can only be a global solution. But first we have to overcome our short term economic interests (like cheap soy food for our EU pig-farms) and become more aware about that problem. Even it’s located so far away on the other side of the planet. I’m afraid that our politicians currently don’t really care about developing strategies to protect nature and our planet. The Kyoto Protocol was an ambitious document, but is it put into action? Or are there even plans to do so? This powerlessness is not increasing my confidence in a bright future…