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Knoxville is on the map!

Google has updated Streetviews to include Knoxville and 36 other new places. Pictures were taken around October. Expect to see Chattanooga added soon. Read more at KnoxBlab.

I’m a little disappointed at the zoomed in views. They seem intentionally blurred. I guess Google is trying to avoid those incidental upskirts (okay, that’s a thong showing not an upskirt), revealing marijuana plants, and preemptively avoiding privacy complaints of people claiming the car looked in their windows.

Things that will no longer be seen in Street View are:

Hi-resolution imagery
People’s faces
Previous Street Views of hi-resolution Street View.

Those things were giving Google lots of trouble, so all imagery is now lower resolution.

[Source, StreetViewFun]

That’s a shame. I hope the complainers are happy now. I really liked the high resolution zooms and Google had a process for fixing any "embarrassing" captures. I feel like the end-product is a little devalued now.

Update: John McNair says the servers are pretty loaded right now.

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No traffic signals necessary

Here’s a busy intersection in Hanoi with no traffic lights. I like the person at 0:58 seconds into the video who so casually walks into traffic.


Hanoi crazy night traffic from v!Nc3sl4s on Vimeo.

This further supports Hans Monderman’s concepts. Here is another video of an intersection without traffic lights. As a side note and reminder, letting people merge improves traffic flow (even if they cheated instead of waiting their turn).

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Orweillian of the Day

All those cameras and now "give us your keys."

People in the UK who encrypt their data are now obliged by law to give up the encryption keys to law enforcement officials…[Source]

Note: I have not confirmed the above against any other sources.

Per capita there are more surveillance cameras in the UK than any other country in the world…

The average city dweller can expect to be captured on film every five minutes…

Source, UK Something to watch over us, BBC News