Google is not trying to hide the roads in Georgia - At least that's what Googlers say on Google's Lat Long Blog. Google Product Manager Dave Barth writes that Google simply isn't satisfied with the quality of the street map data from Georgia to justify posting any of it to Google Maps. (Typing simply "Georgia" in Google Maps takes you to the Georgia in the southeastern U.S.. You have to type "Georgia Europe" to find the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia.) Satellite and terrain data are available, however, and we even found recent AlJazeera video of the Georgia-Russian conflict posted in the satellite map.

Gearthitecture - Semi-anonymous blogger Restless at Curbed.com posted an interesting collection of Google Earth photos of Manhattan skyscrapers. The photos were taken at various angles from the vertical, creating the appearance that the buildings lean into one another.

Climate studies of the "Great Shutdown" for the Beijing Olympic Games - While some people appear to be taking advantage of the distraction provided by the Beijing Olympics to fight a war, scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in LaJolla, CA and Seoul National University in South Korea are taking advantage of the government-imposed crackdown on pollution from industry and automobiles in Beijing to study the resulting changes in the regional atmosphere. V. Ramanathan, Director of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry, and Climate at Scripps, is co-leading the study which will use autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to study air pollution and cloud interaction. The study, called CAPMEX, will combine UAV data with satellite and ground-based measurements to obtain a comprehensive picture of how carbon-rich dust from East Asia traps heat and affects various biological and geochemical cycles in the region. More information can be found on the CAPMEX website.