Obama sells out NASA, Bolden dances.

Not content to sell out Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel and all the people in Iran who seek freedom, the current president asks NASA to take janitorial duty under the State Dept., cleaning out the diplomatic toilets by making Al-Quaeda feel good. Bolden actually states this in the video.

Such nonsense!

Presidents have made NASA a political tool in the past. In the 1960s, the space program was used to compete with the Soviet Union. The astronauts, all ex-military, bought into the competition, to beat the Soviets in every category and especially to the moon. But that was a noble, hard challenge, not namby pamby feel good duty like today.

To see Bolden "dance" for the president on al-Jazeera is too much for my eyes. It is a stain.

Curious Google Maps cybergap for Georgia road network

The Russians appear to be surrendering in the forward direction, taking up more real estate. But it is hard to see their position on Google Maps.

Georgian leader signs cease-fire, faults West as Rice looks on; will Russian troops leave? MATTHEW LEE and ANNE GEARAN Orlando Sentinel/AP 3:45 AM EDT, August 16, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) _ Georgia's president grudgingly signed a truce with Russia Friday, even as he denounced the Russians as invading barbarians and accused the West of all but encouraging them to overrun his country. A stone-faced Condoleezza Rice, standing alongside, said Russian troops must withdraw immediately from their smaller neighbor... Associated Press reporters had seen a convoy of some 50 Russian army trucks and armored personnel carriers roar without warning southeast from the city of Gori on Wednesday, some shouting they were heading to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. But they veered into a field outside the town of Igoeti and set up camp conspicuously within sight of the road. The Russians were still visible there Friday.

I read this and wanted to get an approximate location for the town of Igoeti in Georgia. Is it close to Gori or Tbilisi, and what are the directions? Naturally, I drop 'Igoeti, Georgia' into the Google Maps text entry box. No Igoeti. I drop 'Tbilisi, Georgia' into the box. No maps:

We are sorry, but we don't
have maps at this zoom level
for this region.

Try zooming out for a
broader look.

This was at the 500-foot scale setting, one notch below top scale setting. This seemed curious. When I zoomed out, as suggested, the country of Georgia looked like a desert: no road network, just empty white space. Yet Russia to the north and Turkey to the south appear loaded with road networks. To the south and east, the other small countries, Azerbaijan and Armenia are also roadless.

View Larger Map
That is the 50-mile scale. Yet the Google Maps service has adequate satellite and terrain information at the 50-mile scale. Click the "Sat" and "Ter" buttons to view the overhead satellite view and the relief map. Drag the map around to see nearby areas.

No maps of the Georgian road network.

This seems curious to me. Is Google fighting the Russians?

Here is a sequence of screen grabs of the curious maps business. Click the image for full size view.

1. 1000-foot scale
   


2. 2000-foot scale
   


3. One-mile scale
   


4. 50-mile scale, road networks in Turkey and Russia visible.
   

Putin, government and media

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is worried about the health of the Russian government. Secretary Rice is a Russian speaker, an expert on Russia.

Rice worried by Putin's broad powers Oct. 14, 2007 By MATTHEW LEE Associated Press Writer

"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma," said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament.

When Secretary of State Rice speaks of government institutions, she mentions media along with executive, legislative and judicial. I think that, even in America, the best country on Earth, many people act as if the media is a part of the government, yet they do not use the word "government" to describe the press.