Google Using Pre-Katrina Imagery on Google Maps

Thirdsin writes "CNN reports that images of lands devastated by Hurricane Katrina have been replaced on Google's map service with pre-Hurricane Katrina imagery. Now a subcommittee from The House Committee on Science and Technology has asked CEO Eric Schmidt for Google's motivation behind the imagery switch. '[Congressional subcommittee chair Brad] Miller asked Google to brief his staff by April 6 on who made the decision to replace the imagery with pre-Katrina images, and to disclose if Google was contacted by the city, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey or any other government entity about changing the imagery. "To use older, pre-Katrina imagery when more recent images are available without some explanation as to why appears to be fundamentally dishonest," Miller said.' It is worth pointing out that images from Google Earth have not been changed."

Comments

Congress: STFU.

[faedle]

.. as opposed to all the wonderful help provided by the US Congress to the hurricane victims.

It's pretty pathetic that Wal-Mart did more to help the victims of Katrina than the US FEMA did, in the terms of cash and donated goods.

Re:Congress: STFU.

[slughead]

I don't understand: I have chosen to live in a place (Arizona) with no major natural disaster issues aside from possibly wildfires and flooding.

Why should my tax dollars go to people who have chosen to live in disaster-prone areas?

Seriously: it's nice that we're trying to help out the "needy", but you're helping out people who are victims of their own folly, and you're doing it with my money. It's not charity if you're taking money against someone's will to pay for it. I'm living in this hot-ass desert called Phoenix year after year while these coastal homeowners are getting federal money to rebuild after the cyclical storms wipe out their houses.

Where's my government check for not being a burden on the rest of the country? Hey, just give me half what you gave those Katrina people and I'll STILL be saving you money. My bills are higher anyway so I can pay for my A/C.

I think it's wonderful Wal-Mart helped out the Katrina victims. It's their money, they can do with it as they please. It's probably a stupid idea to give to people just because they did something stupid, but their hearts are in the right place (probably focusing on their own PR).

Some people say that blaming Katrina victims is like blaming a rape victim for walking down that scary dark alley in the first place... But it's a little different. Imagine if there was a big sign in front of the alley that said "WARNING: Periodically, the rape squad raids this alley and rapes everything in it" and the person went ahead and built a freaking house there. That's what it's like. Rape squads; think about it.

What gave them the right to demand it?

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I remember way back in Music Match V6.0 something that allowed mp3 file encoding from line in. I was using it to encode my old cassette tapes into mp3 to get them into my hard disk. Almost all my friends wanted to do it and when they downloaded the latest vestion of it, some V6.x, it had been taken out. Luckily I had not yet deleted the old ftp'ed zip file and I gave them to my friends. Despite all the hassles I never thought I had the right to demand MusicMatch to put back the line-in encoding functionality. It is their product, they do what they think is the best for them. How did that congress critter convince himself that one has the right to demand google to do this and not that?

What next? Would the congress demand Intuit to put back the QIF file import capability in Quicketn 2007. (They took it out in 2005). Demand Toyota to go back to using 18 spot welds on the spare tire well of the Camry instead of the 12? Would they demand Pittsbugh Plate Glass to go back to making 0.5 inch thick windshields instead of the present 0.25 inch thick ones? Today's Car Talk mentioned it.

Isn't the refrain, "They dont make it the way they used to" goes back a long ways? I dont know about google and toyota and PPG, but definitely in congress, they dont make them the way they used to. It looks like.