A day of hiking and birding after a long week of GIS

Embudo Canyon HikeAfter a long week at the computer, today I was able to get out and do some hiking in the Sandias! I started out early and headed up the Embudo trail. The trail was quiet and when I reached the seeps from Embudo Spring there were birds everywhere. The assortment of birds included some of the most colorful the Sandias has to offer. The highlights included a both Black-chinned and Black-throated Sparrows, a flock of Western Tanagers, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, an American Redstart, a Plumbeous Vireo and the ubiquitous Spotted Towhees.  Also heard were lots of Canyon and Rock Wrens.  Photos below.  NOTE:  I can't take credit for the bird photos.  I found redistributable photos off of the internet just to pass on the beauty of today's birding trip. 

American RedstartPlumbeous Vireo

Western Tanager

Black-throated SparrowBlack-chinned Sparrow

Will the real Osama Bin Laden compound please stand up.

In the hours after the announcement of Bin Laden's death people scrambled to Google Earth to find the location of Abbottabad, Pakistan and the compound. There were several incorrect guesses, like the example I found below, and posted Sunday night.

Part of the issue was that until yesterday the imagery Google had for the area was acquired in 2001, years before the compound had been built.  Yesterday Google updated their imagery to data acquired on June 14, 2005 (ZDNet).  In the 2005 data (below) the compound can be seen in an unfinished state.

Below is an image of the compound in it's current state from the CIA.

Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan is already on GoogleEarth!

Where to Live to Avoid a Natural Disaster

With all of the extreme weather and natural disasters occuring, where are the safest and least safe places to live? Here's a great set of maps from the NY Times showing risk levels nationwide. It looks like the Pacific Northwest wins, but Albuquerque is not too bad.