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The USGS upgraded the Hector Mines Quake to a 7.1 after reviewing more data.

If you felt it, even a little, go to this questionaire and fill out the form.

-Lung

I think this is just heightened news sensitivity.
This site tells me there were 1183 earthquakes in California this week.

In my (informed) opinion the overwelming consesus amongst climatologists and biogeographers is that climate change is real - and this is backed up by both modelled and experimental data - see Myneni et al, Nature 386 (1997) for some convincing evidence from our group.

Of course, you are perfectly welcome to download a GCM such as CCM3 and go through it line by line to see whether it is "real science" or not.

If you want to discuss what is "real science" or not email me or if you're in the Boston area, come round - my work address is on my web page.

Nick

Most satellites used for remote sensing (ie, looking at the earth) are either in geosynchronous orbits or polar orbits. The ones in polar orbits have a regular repeat cycle. For example, the NOAA AVHRR satellites have a daily repeat while the Landsat TM sensors have about a 14 day cycle (more often at the poles). The general rule of thumb is the higher the resolution, the longer the overpass cycle.

This satellites has a polar orbit. They are really intended to be an alternative to aerial photography for planners, foresters, and farmers. They provide regularly updated imagery but not continuous coverage.

The specific of the ikonos satellite, including orbit info, can be found here on the Space Imagine Inc. Home page .

This applet shows the orbit and ground track for ~100 different satellites. It's really useful for visualizing the orbits.

A quickie check of the USGS's mapping sites reveals that the magic spot isn't quite in Langley, and doesn't even seem to be near any roads. I've got GIFs saved of the finest grain info I could get without paying cash to the USGS; I'll prolly forward them either to the folks doing the crypto breaking or put them on a website somewhere.

Also, yes, they probably DID use the magnetic field to hide it. Specifically, a compass. :) The only USGS maps available of that fine grain are typically topographic maps used by hikers and engineers, or county maps. Most of the topo maps also have magnetic declination marked (how far off magnetic north is from real north) because they're meant for use with a compass and landmarks.

Of interest to those searching--the magic spot seems to be located in Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC along the Virginia/Maryland border. For those ordering maps, the Washington West or Falls Church maps seem to be best bets for finding general area.

I'll also see what other stuff I can dig up with various mapping sites on the net, too (to get road names and whatnot).

As for the bits on getting rid of debris and hiding it underground...that sounds suspiciously to me like it could have been hidden in a cave or possibly an abandoned mine (yes, abandoned mines are fairly common in this part of the country). I wouldn't be at all shocked to see that the key was hidden in a mineshaft...

Good luck!

i went to cedar lane (just graduated in jan. actually). this school had about 100 people in it and was for people w/ learning disabilities, emotional problems, etc. it's in fairfax county, one of the riches school districts(sp) in the country. we didn't even have stalls in the boys bathroom, just a toilet in the corner. we did have a 56k compressed leased line (which was plenty) and shiny new overly equiped dells(iirc) and a bunch of 486's that were donated. also we got a dual 300 p2 compaq server (one of the ones w/ the little lcd status display) w/ 9gig cuda's(iirc). what did this server do? it ran nt and did nothing but log logins so they could tell when people changed the screen saver password and try to figure out who was logging in as admin (which requiered no passwd). i WAS lucky enough to get a p/75 with a 2gig hawk scsi drive and a very nice sony 17sf monitor (my favorite) to do some development on. they didn't offer any programming classes, but i got to code anyway, thanx to the teacher. if only i could have installed linux or freebsd (or any other *bsd, for that matter) i could have set it up to be a school wide file server, web server, and mail server. actually one of those 486's could have done it.
i HATE magnet schools. they're just not fare. why should one group of kids get all that stuff and others be screwed? the magnet school in fairfax county is herndon high. they have multiple t1s, switched 100baseT lans, cd towers, top of the line servers w/ huge raid arrays, etc, etc. then there's the "smart" school for the "GT" ("gifted and talented" kids) who get all sorts of sparcstations and cisco routers to play w/ till their hearts content. when i was in the library at cedar, i was told to stop downloading a quicktime plugin for netscape (i installed tons of software on many different computers throughout the school). i stopped, did as i was told, and then found out that the teacher had gone and written me up behind my back; i found out the next day i wasn't allowed on the computers for a week. the next year, someone changed the passwords on some of the library's win95 boxes. so who do they blame? you guessed it, ME. after i had helped admin their network, assign ip's, install software, fix problems, help students and teachers with things on the computers, etc. they asked me if i did it and i said no; they didn't believe me. they believed i was a "hacker". it made me wish i had never done anything for them. in the end, they decided to be nice and "let me off" cuz they couldn't prove anything. another incident w/ the assitant princible, was in the computer lab one day, when the teacher's kid was sick. she was subbing for my period until he returned. the first (warning bell) rang and she thought it was the final late bell. i told her there was still 10min left and she said "don't tell me what time it is, boy." that wasn't all, the school was full of pregnant 16 year olds (some i even tried to talk out of getting pregnant w/ their boyfriends) and girls who dated guys in their 30's and 40's (unfortunetly the age of consent in virginia is 16, last i heard). i could go on, but i think you get the idea, it sucked.

i went to cedar lane (just graduated in jan. actually). this school had about 100 people in it and was for people w/ learning disabilities, emotional problems, etc. it's in fairfax county, one of the riches school districts(sp) in the country. we didn't even have stalls in the boys bathroom, just a toilet in the corner. we did have a 56k compressed leased line (which was plenty) and shiny new overly equiped dells(iirc) and a bunch of 486's that were donated. also we got a dual 300 p2 compaq server (one of the ones w/ the little lcd status display) w/ 9gig cuda's(iirc). what did this server do? it ran nt and did nothing but log logins so they could tell when people changed the screen saver password and try to figure out who was logging in as admin (which requiered no passwd). i WAS lucky enough to get a p/75 with a 2gig hawk scsi drive and a very nice sony 17sf monitor (my favorite) to do some development on. they didn't offer any programming classes, but i got to code
anyway, thanx to the teacher. if only i could have installed linux or freebsd (or any other *bsd, for that matter) i could have set it up to be a school wide file server, web server, and mail server. actually one of those 486's could have done it.

i HATE magnet schools. they're just not fare. why should one group of kids get all that stuff and others be screwed? the magnet school in fairfax county is herndon high. they have multiple t1s, switched 100baseT lans, cd towers, top of the line servers w/ huge raid arrays, etc, etc. then there's the "smart" school for the "GT" ("gifted and talented" kids) who get all sorts of sparcstations and cisco routers to play w/ till their hearts content. when i was in the library at cedar, i was told to stop downloading a quicktime plugin for netscape (i installed tons of software on many different computers throughout the school). i stopped, did as i was told, and then found out that the teacher had gone and written me up behind my back; i found out the next day i wasn't allowed on the computers for a week. the next year, someone changed the passwords on some of the library's win95 boxes. so who do they blame? you guessed it, ME. after i had helped admin their network, assign ip's, install software, fix problems,
help students and teachers with things on the computers, etc. they asked me if i did it and i said no; they didn't believe me. they believed i was a "hacker". it made me wish i had never done anything for them. in the end, they decided to be nice and "let me off" cuz they couldn't prove anything. another incident w/ the assitant princible, was in the computer lab one day, when the teacher's kid was sick. she was subbing for my period until he returned. the first (warning bell) rang and she thought it was the final late bell. i told her there was still 10min left and she said "don't tell me what time it is, boy." that wasn't all, the school was full of pregnant 16 year olds (some i even tried to talk out of getting pregnant w/ their boyfriends) and girls who dated guys in their 30's and 40's (unfortunetly the age of consent in virginia is 16, last i heard). i could go on, but i think you get the idea, it sucked.

What part of SD is known as Silicon Prairie? Is this a term that someone made up since I moved from there in '95? I know Gateway was located in N. Sioux City, but calling that Silicon Prairie sounds kinda lame to me. I'd rather be working here.

I don't mind the cold, either. It's not as bad as people seem to think. What I think is really funny is seeing people in the South practically wearing parkas in the winter when it's maybe 30-32 degrees F. That's about the time I zip up my windbreaker.

VMAP from the USGS is about $100. (I.e. distribution cost. You can give it away once you buy it).

Interestingly, the TIGER data forms the basis for a *lot* of data being sold by big companies. Most street level data of the US is derived from TIGER and then cleaned up/enhanced by those companies.

There was a thread on comp.infosystems.gis a while ago about starting a free data movement. And don't foget, somewhere in the past there was (don't know if it still exists) an "Open Content" movement.

There's a nifty worldwide data set called VMAP (formerly Digital Chart of the World) on 4 CDs available from the USGS.

But back at the ranch, there are some Open Source (tm) mapping systems, none of which handle TIGER as far as I know. In fact, OpenMap(tm) is one that we released just before Christmas. I'd invite the OS community to dive in and write an OpenMap LayerBean that handles TIGER data. OpenMap does handle VMAP but there's always room for improvement...

Interestingly, the TIGER data forms the basis for a *lot* of data being sold by big companies. Most street level data of the US is derived from TIGER and then cleaned up/enhanced by those companies.

There was a thread on comp.infosystems.gis a while ago about starting a free data movement. And don't foget, somewhere in the past there was (don't know if it still exists) an "Open Content" movement.

There's a nifty worldwide data set called VMAP (formerly Digital Chart of the World) on 4 CDs available from the USGS.

But back at the ranch, there are some Open Source (tm) mapping systems, none of which handle TIGER as far as I know. In fact, OpenMap(tm) is one that we released just before Christmas. I'd invite the OS community to dive in and write an OpenMap LayerBean that handles TIGER data. OpenMap does handle VMAP but there's always room for improvement...

The US government makes a whole lot of mapping data available free.

Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) are scanned USGS quadrangle maps. They're great big TIFF files--the one map one has of a section of Wyoming is 7.4M--but very nice-looking, and usable by Mayko's xmap. Some are available free; others you need to pay for, at the rate of $45 per CD-R plus $1 per file you stick on it.

The USGS also offers Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Digital Line Graphs (DLGs), and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data, at varying scales.
DEMs are elevation data at regularly spaced points.
DLGs are vector data for topographic lines, hydrography (flowing and standing water and wetlands), roads, trails, railways, pipelines, transmission lines, and state, county, city, and other borders. Names are included.
LULC files "describe the vegetation, water, natural surface, and cultural features on the land surface." This includes such things as residential/commercial/industrial urban areas, types of cultivated land, 7 variations on 'barren land', and glaciers.

This NOAA site has much the same information as the DEM files on a global scale, also including bathymetric (elevation descriptions of undersea areas) data.

The Great Lakes Data Rescue project has bathymetric data for the Great Lakes.

And if Bruce is listening, one'd really like a set of these CDs... see, there's this project one's working on to make an open-source browser for any data conceivably represented geographically, like weather maps, airline flight tracking, and so on...

Taper.

The US government makes a whole lot of mapping data available free.

Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) are scanned USGS quadrangle maps. They're great big TIFF files--the one map one has of a section of Wyoming is 7.4M--but very nice-looking, and usable by Mayko's xmap. Some are available free; others you need to pay for, at the rate of $45 per CD-R plus $1 per file you stick on it.

The USGS also offers Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Digital Line Graphs (DLGs), and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data, at varying scales.
DEMs are elevation data at regularly spaced points.
DLGs are vector data for topographic lines, hydrography (flowing and standing water and wetlands), roads, trails, railways, pipelines, transmission lines, and state, county, city, and other borders. Names are included.
LULC files "describe the vegetation, water, natural surface, and cultural features on the land surface." This includes such things as residential/commercial/industrial urban areas, types of cultivated land, 7 variations on 'barren land', and glaciers.

This NOAA site has much the same information as the DEM files on a global scale, also including bathymetric (elevation descriptions of undersea areas) data.

The Great Lakes Data Rescue project has bathymetric data for the Great Lakes.

And if Bruce is listening, one'd really like a set of these CDs... see, there's this project one's working on to make an open-source browser for any data conceivably represented geographically, like weather maps, airline flight tracking, and so on...

Taper.

The US government makes a whole lot of mapping data available free.

Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) are scanned USGS quadrangle maps. They're great big TIFF files--the one map one has of a section of Wyoming is 7.4M--but very nice-looking, and usable by Mayko's xmap. Some are available free; others you need to pay for, at the rate of $45 per CD-R plus $1 per file you stick on it.

The USGS also offers Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Digital Line Graphs (DLGs), and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data, at varying scales.
DEMs are elevation data at regularly spaced points.
DLGs are vector data for topographic lines, hydrography (flowing and standing water and wetlands), roads, trails, railways, pipelines, transmission lines, and state, county, city, and other borders. Names are included.
LULC files "describe the vegetation, water, natural surface, and cultural features on the land surface." This includes such things as residential/commercial/industrial urban areas, types of cultivated land, 7 variations on 'barren land', and glaciers.

This NOAA site has much the same information as the DEM files on a global scale, also including bathymetric (elevation descriptions of undersea areas) data.

The Great Lakes Data Rescue project has bathymetric data for the Great Lakes.

And if Bruce is listening, one'd really like a set of these CDs... see, there's this project one's working on to make an open-source browser for any data conceivably represented geographically, like weather maps, airline flight tracking, and so on...

Taper.

The US government makes a whole lot of mapping data available free.

Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) are scanned USGS quadrangle maps. They're great big TIFF files--the one map one has of a section of Wyoming is 7.4M--but very nice-looking, and usable by Mayko's xmap. Some are available free; others you need to pay for, at the rate of $45 per CD-R plus $1 per file you stick on it.

The USGS also offers Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Digital Line Graphs (DLGs), and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data, at varying scales.
DEMs are elevation data at regularly spaced points.
DLGs are vector data for topographic lines, hydrography (flowing and standing water and wetlands), roads, trails, railways, pipelines, transmission lines, and state, county, city, and other borders. Names are included.
LULC files "describe the vegetation, water, natural surface, and cultural features on the land surface." This includes such things as residential/commercial/industrial urban areas, types of cultivated land, 7 variations on 'barren land', and glaciers.

This NOAA site has much the same information as the DEM files on a global scale, also including bathymetric (elevation descriptions of undersea areas) data.

The Great Lakes Data Rescue project has bathymetric data for the Great Lakes.

And if Bruce is listening, one'd really like a set of these CDs... see, there's this project one's working on to make an open-source browser for any data conceivably represented geographically, like weather maps, airline flight tracking, and so on...

Taper.

The US government makes a whole lot of mapping data available free.

Digital Raster Graphics (DRGs) are scanned USGS quadrangle maps. They're great big TIFF files--the one map one has of a section of Wyoming is 7.4M--but very nice-looking, and usable by Mayko's xmap. Some are available free; others you need to pay for, at the rate of $45 per CD-R plus $1 per file you stick on it.

The USGS also offers Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), Digital Line Graphs (DLGs), and Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data, at varying scales.
DEMs are elevation data at regularly spaced points.
DLGs are vector data for topographic lines, hydrography (flowing and standing water and wetlands), roads, trails, railways, pipelines, transmission lines, and state, county, city, and other borders. Names are included.
LULC files "describe the vegetation, water, natural surface, and cultural features on the land surface." This includes such things as residential/commercial/industrial urban areas, types of cultivated land, 7 variations on 'barren land', and glaciers.

This NOAA site has much the same information as the DEM files on a global scale, also including bathymetric (elevation descriptions of undersea areas) data.

The Great Lakes Data Rescue project has bathymetric data for the Great Lakes.

And if Bruce is listening, one'd really like a set of these CDs... see, there's this project one's working on to make an open-source browser for any data conceivably represented geographically, like weather maps, airline flight tracking, and so on...

Taper.