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As a further development of its acquisition of Keyhole (the first development was the addition of satellite photos to Google Maps), Google released Google Earth yesterday as a stand-alone application. Although somewhat similar to NASA’s World Wind software, Google Earth offers much more detail in many areas of the world and also allows you to overlay all kinds of details. Well worth a download; the application is free, but there are pay versions that offer more detail and some other features.
MonkeyFilter mourns the passing of Paul Winchell, “voice of Tigger AND Dick Dastardly [and Gargamel], ventriloquist, TV pioneer, inventor of the artificial heart (version 0.1) among other things, skillful teller of dirty jokes, frank autobiographer and father of Blog Goddess April Winchell.”
Tired of waiting for Adobe Acrobat Reader to load? Lifehacker’s recent download of the day was FoxIt PDF Reader, a free program that is amazingly fast compared to Adobe’s plugin-bloated application.
Lifehacker’s post also mentions how to disable Firefox’s default use of Adobe Reader, allowing PDF documents to open in FoxIt Reader instead: go to “Tools -> Options -> Downloads -> Plugins” and uncheck the box next to “PDF Document.” Once you’ve run FoxIt Reader once, the next time you click on a PDF link in Firefox, you’ll have the option to associate such links with FoxIt Reader permanently. Very nice…
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has finally authorized the restoration of two statues at the Department Of Justice Great Hall to their previous state:
After more than three years of being blocked by large blue drapes, two Art Deco aluminum statues of semi-nude figures in the building’s Great Hall can be seen again.
The “Spirit of Justice” and the “Majesty of Justice,” which loom over the stage in the Great Hall, were blocked from view by curtains installed by the department in January 2002, when former Attorney General John Ashcroft was in office.
About damn time; now we can return to looking at ironic photos like the famous one of Edwin Meese in the ‘80s. 😉
The UNESCO “seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.” The UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites contains an amazing array of places, and I hope that I can see but a fraction of them in my lifetime.
Brad Templeton has taken the time to create Google Map links for all of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, allowing you to view satellite images and maps for all of the sites, some of which allow you to zoom in with a good amount of detail.
The UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Panography and Virtual Reality Tours site has collected panoramic photos of many sites; QuickTime is required to see the full panoramic photos.
McSweeney’s presents the hilarious list Things Not Overheard at a Conceptual-Art Gallery Opening.
AskMen.com has a nice list of Unbreakable Sports Records:
Whenever the inevitable debate arises among sports fans concerning the record that is the least likely to ever be broken, many people are quick to cite Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hit streak.
But there are many other – perhaps lesser-known – achievements by athletes or teams that are likely to still be standing well into the future. Here are the Top 10 unbreakable sports records.
Glad to see that Cal made number one…
Beware of store video cameras, for they could be recording, and you could end up on the Internet for all to mock, as the example You Tha Man (embedded Windows Media Video) demonstrates. 🙂
The short video Tom Cruise Kills Oprah (direct link to QuickTime video) is funny. OK, so I’m easily amused… 🙂
BMT 216A: The James Bond Vehicle Library “presents almost every motorized vehicle in the James Bond films. It contains not only vehicles James Bond ‘drives’ or is a passenger in, but also vehicles with a major role in the history.” As of this post, there are 148 land-, 39 sea-, 53 air- and 1 space-based vehicles represented.
