Archive for the ‘Netherlands’ Category
Google Maps Bike Route Reporting System
This Google Maps Mashup wins the Longest Name of the Year Award. Luckily it also qualifies for the award for most useful Google Maps Mashup for Dutch Cyclists.
Meldsysteem Bewegwijzering Fietsroutenetwerken is a Google Maps based system for reporting problems on bicycle routes in the Netherlands. The map uses shape files from the Landelijk Fietsplaform (National Bicycle Platform) to automatically determine where a report should be sent. When a user makes a report the right maintenance authority will get the report. The authority can also use the system to report when/if the reported problem will be fixed.
It is possible for any website or blog to embed the system using an embeddable widget.
The reporting system was created using GeoStart a product of SWIS.
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Airport Emergency Training Locations
As a moderately frequent flyer, I enjoy looking out for fire and emergency training locations at airports. It’s fascinating because, for anybody who is even vaguely nervous about flying, the sight of a twisted and charred fuselage is probably the last thing they want to see as their plane accelerates down the runway! Here are a few of the best that I’ve been able to find on Google Maps.
Glasgow airport in Scotland have their fire training centre conveniently located next to a road, giving us a great look at it from Street View.
From this we can clearly see that, while some airports may use abandoned or decommissioned planes for training, in many cases it is merely a ‘plane-shaped object’ that can withstand repeatedly being set on fire – though convincing enough to upset a nervous flyer, particularly if it happened to be ablaze as you taxied past! Nearby is a small collection of old and wrecked cars – perhaps used to practice extractions?
At Zurich Airport there is an old DC-8 which looks to be in relatively good shape, so is probably used for evacuation exercises rather than fire training (which likely happens at the smaller object just to the east).
Another ‘plane-shaped object’, complete with a couple of fire trucks can be found at Leeds-Bradford Airport, a mere 150m from a runway!
The sprawling airport in Denver has 4 fire stations and the impressively titled Denver International Airport/Denver Fire Department Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) Training Academy, with a full-size plane mockup.
A similar training school can be found at Durham Tees Valley Airport which has a veritable array of old planes and ‘plane-shaped objects’.
Recently, the trend has been for airports to invest in expensive training systems that can challenge firefighters with a range of different situations. At Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam there is a full-size mock up of a 747, in an area clearly marked Fire Training, which has 20 computer-controlled fire training settings. There is also a very similar system at London’s Gatwick Airport.
Manchester Airport has a high-tech system from a different manufacturer, that also resembles the front two-thirds of a 747.
We previously covered some of these “Fat Planes” back in 2006, but let us know what other training locations you can find on Google Maps or Street View. Bonus points if you can find one that is actually on fire!
(I shall now sit quietly and wait to see if spending a couple of hours browsing maps and street views of airport security perimeters has attracted the attention of the government’s online monitors).
Locations: Colorado, England, Netherlands, Scotland, Switzerland / Categories: Aircraft, Street Views
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2010 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
Google Street View uncovers death, idiocy, incompetence and supernatural powers
Last week newspaper websites across the world published a story about a young girl who appeared to be lying dead on the pavement of an English street, proving that the worldwide fascination with Google Street View continues unabated.
Fortunately the girl, who must have been slightly taken aback when the world’s media1 turned up at her door asking if she was dead, was in fact perfectly all right.
A fact that any of the reporters could have been assured of if they’d moved down the street one step, from where you can see the girl is clearly playing with a friend.
Perhaps this will spark a new trend however, as presented with the Google car, some less playful people continue to get up to their old tricks…
As Google’s cars have covered even more ground around the world, there have been some interesting things to learn about the human condition. For example, apparently some girls are rather adept at something the world’s men thought they had all to themselves.
Although it does appear that not all women have mastered the art of peeing standing up quite yet.
Not to be outdone, men have gone one step further and LEARNED TO FLY. Yes ladies, you heard us right. (Although we can only do it momentarily, and it helps to be over a deep bit of water).
We hope that wider knowledge of Street View provokes more interesting responses from people when they see the car – there was another media frenzy recently when someone was spotted multiple times on the streets of Aberdeen, wearing a horse’s head. Suspiciously the images have all been removed now, so instead here’s a real horse, wandering through traffic on the way to the local Tesco.
Of course, if we all started lying down in the street, or donning interesting masks at the first sign of an approaching camera then, in an attempt to keep the controversy alive, the international press will have to start making up stories about politician’s homes being removed from Google’s services.
Sorry, I forgot, we debunked that particular story the week before last.
So have you been captured on Street View?2 What did you do? And if you haven’t yet, what do you plan to do to gain international notoriety when your time finally comes?
Locations: England, Italy, Netherlands, Saskatchewan, Spain / Categories: Street Views
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2010 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.
3D Satellite View with Google Maps
Netherlands Google Maps Round-Up
Street View Comes Indoors
EEC Funding on a Google Map
Dessert Week
In Western culture dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, and usually consists of of sweet food.
Common desserts include cookies, pastries and ice cream, although the ice cream isn’t normally this big.
Desserts are often eaten with a dessert spoon, intermediate in size between a teaspoon and a tablespoon (we’re pretty sure this is a dessert spoon).
One of my favourite desserts is cake (although I usually like my cakes without freaky papier-mâché models popping out of them).
Fruit may also be eaten for dessert…
…but the healthier options can be easy to ignore when presented with giant bars of chocolate.
Some strange people prefer to have a cup of coffee instead of dessert. Weirdos.
…
Erm… what? Desert week?
Don’t be so ridiculous, I’d have noticed.
Locations: Georgia, Germany, Iowa, Minnesota, Netherlands, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah /
You're reading an entry from Google Sightseeing, which is copyright © 2010 Alex Turnbull & James Turnbull and must not be reproduced without permission.