“If you can’t keep track of all the Muslim protests erupting across the globe, you’re not alone. The uproar over a 14-minute anti-Islam YouTube video has sparked furious protests from Somalia to Egypt to Sudan to Tunisia to Libya to Bangladesh to Indonesia to Pakistan. With new reports of protests surfacing every minute, we’ve compiled the latest reported incidents into this handy interactive Google Map. Click the locations and embedded links for more details about each incident.
In the name of technological advancements and information sharing your privacy is on Show.
Please watch the Film ‘Enemy of the State’
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Spy planes able to photograph sunbathers in their back gardens are being deployed by Google and Apple.
3 D Mapping service
The U.S. technology giants are racing to produce aerial maps so detailed they can show up objects just four inches wide.
But campaigners say the technology is a sinister development that brings the surveillance society a step closer.
Google admits it has already sent planes over cities while Apple has acquired a firm using spy-in-the-sky technology that has been tested on at least 20 locations, including London.
Apple’s military-grade cameras are understood to be so powerful they could potentially see into homes through skylights and windows. The technology is similar to that used by intelligence agencies in identifying terrorist targets in Afghanistan.
Google will use its spy planes to help create 3D maps with much more detail than its satellite-derived Google Earth images.
Apple hopes its rumoured mapping service for the iPhone and iPad will overtake the hugely popular Google Maps
Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, warned that privacy risked being sacrificed in a commercial ‘race to the bottom’.
‘The next generation of maps is taking us over the garden fence,’ he warned. ‘You won’t be able to sunbathe in your garden without worrying about an Apple or Google plane buzzing overhead taking pictures.’
He said householders should be asked for their consent before images of their homes go online. Apple is expected to unveil its new mapping applications for its iPhone and other devices today – along with privacy safeguards. Its 3D maps will reportedly show for the first time the sides of tall buildings, such as the Big Ben clock tower.
Google expects by the end of the year to have 3D coverage of towns and cities with a combined population of 300million. It has not revealed any locations so far.
Current 3D mapping technology relies on aerial images taken at a much lower resolution than the technology Apple is thought to be using. This means that when users ‘zoom in’, details tend to be lost because of the poor image quality.
Google ran into trouble when it emerged that its Street View cars, which gathered ground-level panoramic photographs for Google Maps, had also harvested personal data from household wifi networks.
The GeoEye-1 satellite is capable of capturing details as small as a dustbin as it hurtles past our planet at 17,000mph – and its creators have hand-picked views that show off the majesty of our planet.
Here in India, to introduce a scrolling message for the Name of the Station in Trains is a Policy Decision ans the Indian Railways do not seem to know that it costs very little.
India is a country with a host of languages needs this service immediately.
There was some talk of having introduced this in some train.
This seems to be a well kept secret.
Refers to:
The new update to Google Maps shows you clearly any disruptions on the Underground that are happening at the time you need them most. To view the new London Underground Alerts simply click on a station in a timetable or in the public transport directions results.
As well as adding real-time London Underground service alerts, Google have also included planned engineering works for the weekends in the journey planner as well.
“When planning a trip for the coming weekend, we will show you the relevant subway alerts as part of the directions results. You can plan a trip for the weekend by changing the departure time in the ‘Get directions’ tab. Should there be planned engineering works for your route, you won’t run into any surprises on the day of travel.”
Last week, violent protests surged throughout the north African country of Libya, as protesters clashed with security forces in an attempt to end Muammar al-Qaddafi’s 42-year rule. Qaddafi has respondedwith far more violence than any of the other embattled Mideast autocracies. Human Rights Watch has tallied at least 233 protester deaths from regime security forces so far; Al Jazeera is reporting that another 250 have been killed on Monday alone. Despite a media blackout, reports are emerging on Al Jazeera and elsewhere that fighter jets and helicopters are attacking demonstrators in Tripoli and Benghazi.
Like similar uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt — which are said to have inspired the people of Libya — the internet and social media have played their roles in the unrest. Websites like Facebook, Twitter and news provider Al Jazeera have been intermittently blocked, and on February 18 internet access in the country was blocked entirely. Six hours later, the web was mostly back.
Protesters in the country are now taking full advantage of their restored connectivity by posting reports and accounts on Twitter. Arasmus takes the most pertinent, and trustworthy, reports and places them on a Google Map on the country. So far, the map shows reported gunfire, killings, mercenary sightings, helicopter slayings and electricity disconnections.
The map isn’t dynamically generated from Twitter reports, but that’s for safety reasons rather than technical ones, says Arasmus. “The danger of an automatic map is that you will reveal too much information too soon and put protesters in danger,” he said on his Twitter account.
It should also be noted that none of the reports and accounts can be verified because Libya has a stringent lockdown on independent reporters in the country. With violence at a huge scale (Human Rights Watch says the death toll passed 100 after just four days of protesting), undercover reporting isn’t sensible, saysBBC World News editor Jon Williams.
As a result, observers have to rely even more closely on first hand reports and social media accounts than any of the other recent Middle East revolutions.
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