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Google is creating gaming concept that brings us back to our childhood. Do you remember those games where you had to guide a marble through a maze by tilting and adjusting the game board? Google is creating virtual version of this where you guide a “digitized” marble through the streets and avenues on Google Maps. The as-yet-to-be-named game will launch next month and, of course, will be on Android-powered devices. Be sure to check out the video about this new game in this post.

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Did you ever visit the Epcot Center in the 1980s when it first opened up? Many of their interactive rides showcased what the future would be like in the 2000s. And, yes, it was a George Jetson-like futuristic vision that had us living on other planets and robots were the norm. We would all have an ever helpful robotic maid named Rosie and work at Spacely Sprockets. Well, it’s 2011 and things are pretty much the same as they were in the 1980s with the exception of our addictions to the Internet, iPads and other mobile devices. However researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania and the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory is changing all of this with the creation of tiny robots that can map the inside of a building.

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Welcome to the Friday’s Food for Thought post from got geoint? Yesterday, we ran one of our most popular posts about how, way back in the day, spy satellites dropped exposed film via a parachute. Since that post caught on like wildfire, we thought this week’s FFFT post can be all about spy history. Our dedicated readers and members of the “FFFT fan club” may recall our GEOINT history post last year, which focused more on geographic history. For this post, we are trying to dive a bit deeper and expose some interesting, bizarre and entertaining facts about the history of spying. We hope you enjoy! Oh, and for all you hip, young GEOINTers, just a reminder that March 17 is the deadline to apply to be on the USGIF Young Professionals Group (YPG) Board of Directors. Click here for more information and don’t miss out on this opportunity.

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Welcome to the Monday Morning News Kick Off post from got geoint? We hope everyone had a restful weekend and is ready to get back into the thick of the weeds this week. This weekend marked a major U.S. historical moment that changed how we look and interact with the world — and it is something that we will never forget. The 9/11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda upon the United States on September 11, 2001. Our editorial staff has friends who worked in the financial district that day, and lost many friends. We can safely stay that the wounds of 9/11 are still very raw for these folks – even on the 9th anniversary. All we can say again is never forget. Welcome to Monday.

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For most, the PowerPoint can be a mind-numbing thing in an office setting. Often people make them too cumbersome with too many bullets and a long PowerPoint presentation can drive any executive to the brink. Well, it seems that PowerPoint has made its mark on the war front. The New York Times today ran a front page story that features the PPT slide below that maps out the complexity of the war in Afghanistan. And, complex it is. According to the article, the slide has since bounced around the Internet as an example of a military tool that has spun out of control. Like an insurgency, PowerPoint has crept into the daily lives of military commanders and reached the level of near obsession. And, the amount of time expended on PowerPoint in the military has made it a running joke in the Pentagon and in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have included the actual slide in this post, and please let us know if you can make sense of it.

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More than a year and a half after a massive flood left a huge swath of eastern Iowa underwater, the tiny farming community of Oakville is clinging to survival. Many of the town’s 400-or-so residents moved on after the June 2008 disaster, leaving local leaders desperate to lure new faces to the community. But they say their efforts are being harmed by an ambitious government initiative to update and digitize the nation’s flood plain maps. The Federal Emergency Management Agency started the $200 million-per-year project in 2004 as a way to utilize advances in mapping technology to better identify areas susceptible to flooding. FEMA officials say the new maps — some of which have won final approval and others which are still in their preliminary stages — will allow for better zoning and help prevent future catastrophes like the flood in Iowa, which caused an estimated $10 billion of damage. Read the full ABC News Story here.

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Welcome once again to the official Friday’s Food for Thought post. We hope you all had a productive work week. Unfortunately, for many in Haiti, it was not a good week by any stretch of the imagination. The island nation experienced the worst earthquake in 200 years in the Caribbean. And, we covered extensively the role that GEOINT has played in humanitarian efforts. When a disaster of this magnitude strikes, we can’t help but reflect on how fragile the human existence is and how important it is to help out others. And, we are seeing this happen in real life, as many people are donating funds to help those in need in Haiti. So, always be thankful for what you have and help out others in need. Read on and happy Friday!

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Following is an exclusive USGIF Member Podcast with ERDAS, a pioneer in the geospatial information sector. The company has many exciting things going on, as well as a marketing campaign that “rocks.” Listen to our exclusive podcast with Mladen Stojic, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Marketing, ERDAS.

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We were fortunate enough to sit in on the GEOINT 2009 press conference with Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) who delivered a keynote address this morning. For those not familiar with Congressman Ruppersberger, he is the Chairman of the Technical and Tactical Intelligence Subcommittee. One key item he addressed was that he believes America is in danger of losing its preeminence in space. The Congressman’s speech highlighted important changes that need to be made to American space policy to recapture American dominance of the skies.

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They say that American is a sinner’s paradise. Although we are still steeped in our puritanical ways, we still like to do bad stuff and engage in the seven deadly sins. This was made ever apparent by a recent Wired magazine story about how a team at Kansas State University who developed a series of maps of sin created by plotting per-capita stats on things like theft (envy) and STDs (lust). So, as you can expect greed runs rampant in Southern California and the Northeast. Most violent crimes and STDs are in the south. Man, we live in a twisted country…how could you not love it. Read the full article here.

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