We created Earth in Action to provide a lens into what's happening on our planet, as it happens. Whether it's something typical, like the current air temperature, or an extreme event like a major dust storm, we wanted to provide an opportunity for people to see them.
Viewpoints are structures designed for observing the landscape from elevated positions. They act as devices that organize the gaze and establish a direct relationship between the body and the territory.
Users can now choose to share their device location so ChatGPT can provide more relevant information, such as local recommendations, news, and weather. Sharing your device location is completely optional and off until you choose to enable it.
On February 28, ships navigating the Strait of Hormuz started appearing on tracking screens in places they couldn't possibly be. They appeared to be sitting on airport runways, parked on Iranian land, and clustered at nuclear power plants. More than 1,100 commercial vessels had their navigation systems scrambled in a single day following US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, bringing a waterway that handles a fifth of the world's oil exports to a halt.
The new Immersive Navigation mode introduces a detailed 3D map that includes buildings, overpasses, crosswalks, traffic lanes, traffic lights, and stop signs. Google bills this new mode as being the most significant update in over a decade to the app's driving experience. According to the American IT giant, the changes should help drivers stay focused and informed on the road, with Maps giving fresh, real-world information and natural directions.
Signals from Global Navigation Satellite Systems are quite vulnerable. They are exceptionally weak, meaning that any radio noise near their frequency, accidental or malicious, can interfere with reception. I am confident that there are people in every government who understand the problem. The challenge is getting leadership to both understand and act to reduce the risk.
While the data shows 80% of people live within walking distance of green or blue spaces such as a river, park or woodland, it also reveals a disparity between rural and poorer urban areas. In some areas of local authorities, fewer than 20% of residents live close to these spaces, according to data released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on Wednesday.
Earlier we did episode one of this with Grady Booch where we discussed the principled view of that what's changing and what remains unchanged, what is hyped and what is actually naturally coming with the AI changes. We also spoke about that what is the difference between the design and the architecture and what teams are focusing and what they might be missing.
We're introducing a new animated map engine built on top of ruby-libgd and libgd-gis. It allows Ruby applications to render real basemaps, draw GIS layers, and animate moving objects (cars, routes, planes) entirely on the backend - no JavaScript or WebGL required.
St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto will host Mappa Mundi: Mapping the Mediaeval World, an in-person symposium exploring medieval cartography and how people in the Middle Ages visualized and interpreted their world. The event will take place Saturday, April 11, 2026. Hosted by Jacqueline Murray, the symposium examines mapping from two key angles: how medieval societies conceptualized the globe - including spherical representations of Europe, Asia and Africa, as well as mysterious regions beyond the known world -
After writing about Google Maps for nearly 15 years, I've learned firsthand that it's packed with hidden settings, menus, and toggles. Many help you fine-tune the app to your liking, while others unlock new features you probably didn't know existed.
Across history, the relocation of capital cities has often been associated with moments of political rupture, regime change, or symbolic nation-building. From Brasília to Islamabad, new capitals were frequently conceived as instruments of centralized power, territorial control, or ideological projection. In recent decades, however, a different set of drivers has begun to shape these decisions. Rather than security or representation alone, contemporary capital relocations are increasingly tied to structural pressures such as demographic concentration, infrastructural saturation, environmental risk, and long-term resource management.
Cities around the world share a common goal: to become healthier and greener, supported by civic infrastructure that restores ecosystems and strengthens public life. The question is how to reach this. Global climate targets, local building codes, and municipal standards increasingly guide designers and planners toward better choices. Still, many cities struggle to translate these frameworks into everyday, street-level comfort and long-term ecological protection.
They were trying to get to the bottom of how to diminish catalogue distribution without having a negative impact on store and online sales. They were also keen to define the geographic areas where digital content would work best and how to profile those areas to classify digital purchase behaviour. Together with Analytic Partners they were able to uncover opportunities to eliminate 22% of catalogues with negligible sales impact and increasing digital support in high-performing topologies, preserving€ 294 million in sales.
The other day we were scrolling through r/meshtastic and someone asks: "Why does my device show 10+ satellites in view while my buddy's barely sees 8?" Good question. Really good question, actually. And it's about to take us down a rabbit hole that involves atomic clocks, Cold War competition, European independence, and why your Meshtastic node cares about all of this.
Between the lines: This isn't benevolence. It's customer acquisition. Mayors don't just buy "AI." They buy cloud, data modernization, cybersecurity, services, and long-term support - the tech stack underneath any serious deployment. In return, cities get tools that could fix long-standing challenges, Cris Turner, vice president of government affairs at Google told Axios last June when it first released its playbook.