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Submission + - Google Maps Blamed for Invasion of Costa Rica (google.com)

Submitted by longacre
longacre writes: A Nicaraguan military commander is blaming Google Maps for accidentally leading his troops across the border into neighboring Costa Rica for a river cleanup operation. The official maps of both nations agree that Calero Island is within Costa Rican territory, but commander Eden Pastora inexplicably used Google Maps to plan his operation, in which Nicaraguan troops allegedly destroyed a Costa Rican forest, scooped sediment out of a river and dumped the sludge on Costa Rican land. SearchEngineLand notes that use of Bing Maps would not have resulted in an international incident.
Google

Submission + - Travel Sites Go to War Against Google-ITA Deal (nycaviation.com)

Submitted by longacre
longacre writes: On Tuesday, the online travel powerhouses Expedia, Kayak, Sabre and Farelogix launched an alliance to lobby the Department of Justice--and the public--against Google's purchase of ITA, arguing that the deal would give Google an unfair influence over the air travel market. Not only could Google's own flight search detract from how these sites attract travelers on Google, but they fear Google could limit access to ITA products and services while keeping them for their own use. The alliance's website, FairSearch.org, details a number of their interests in the market, and their concerns based on Google's previous brushes with anti-trust regulators. They are also pooling their resources to put lobbying boots on the ground in Washington.
The Military

Submission + - Pentagon Selects Companies to Build Flying Humvees (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by longacre
longacre writes: "The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected two companies to proceed with the next stage of its Transformer, known as TX—a fully automated four-person vehicle that can drive like a car and then take off and fly like an aircraft to avoid roadside bombs. Lockheed Martin and AAI Corp., a unit of Textron Systems, are currently in negotiations with DARPA for the first stage of the Transformer project, several industry sources told Popular Mechanics at a robotics conference here in Denver. DARPA has not announced the official winners yet."
Technology

Submission + - Why Alaskan Pilots Refuse Safe-Flying Technology (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by longacre
longacre writes: Primitive technology and a cowboy mentality might have been to blame for the deaths of former Senator Ted Stevens and now the legendary Alaskan bush pilot John Graybill. Jeff Wise writes: "What makes it especially bitter is that technology exists which could make flying much safer, if only pilots would use it. Unfortunately, the frontier mentality so prevalent among bush pilots is often resistant to relying on technological solutions. ... The major killer in bush flying is "VFR into IMC," short for visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions--in other words, a pilot who is navigating by looking out the window suddenly finds himself in clouds. ... Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, ADS-B, is a new technology that can prevent crashes. It relies on GPS receivers in each aircraft that broadcast their location to ground controllers and to other aircraft."
Games

Submission + - Why NASA's New Video Game Totally Misses the Point (popularmechanics.com)

Submitted by longacre
longacre writes: Erik Sofge trudges through NASA’s latest free video game, which he finds tedious, uninspiring and misguiding: "Moonbase Alpha is a demo, of sorts, for NASA's more ambitious upcoming game, Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond, which will feature more destinations, and hopefully less welding. The European Space Agency is developing a similar game, set on the Jovian Moon, Europa. But Moonbase Alpha proves that as a recruiting campaign, or even as an educational tool, the astronaut simulation game is a lost cause. Unless NASA plans to veer into science fiction and populate its virtual moons, asteroids and planets with hostile species, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to suffer through another minute of pretending to weld power cables back into place, while thousands of miles away, the most advanced explorers ever built are hurtling toward asteroids and dwarf planets and into the heart of the sun. Even if it was possible to build an astronaut game that's both exciting and realistic, why bother? It will be more than a decade before humans even attempt another trip outside of Earth's orbit. If NASA wants to inspire the next generation of astronauts and engineers, its games should focus on the real winners of the space race—the robots."

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