The city's last privately owned island was sold to the federal government for $2 million. South Brother Island, a 7-acre island (just west of Rikers Island), will be turned over to the city's Parks and Recreation Department and will remain, as amNew York reports, "significant nesting colony for several types of shore birds, including Egrets, Cormorant, and Night Herons." According to the NY Times, the deal, which was "brokered by the Trust for Public......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Researchers at Purdue University released a simulation of a plane crashing into World Trade Center, which shows that fireproofing material was stripped from the building as the planes crashed into them. Professor Christoph Hoffman told the AP, "One thing it does point out... is the absolute essential nature of fireproofing steel structures. This is something that wasn't done originally in the World Trade Center when it was built. It wasn't code at that time."......

There's so much going on across the Ist-a-Verse that it's almost impossible to keep track these days. Fortunately, we do it so you don't have to! Londonist took a walk through Oliver Twist's London, thanks to a gorgeous map layer for Google Earth. They also caught up with modern-day fictional London, with the Fantastic Four and 28 Weeks Later. It was a week of insanity over at DCist. They started the week off with......

Kottke discovered that Google Earth has added part of the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection to their software. That means you can now generate cool images like the one he made above, with modern day NYC buildings projected above the old maps. Neat! You can download Google Earth for free-- check it out today. If you make a cool map, send it to photos (at) gothamist.com and we'll put it up.......

Based on all the reader responses on our last Shake Shack post, we figure that the image that Adam over at A Hamburger Today found might please some of you. Adam writes:I was just on Windows Live Local, Microsoft's answer to Google Earth, and typed in "Madison Square Park" to see if there'd be a satellite image of the line at Shake Shack. There's no line in the photo because THERE'S NO SHAKE SHACK.......

The internets are abuzz with Jason Kottke's "Manhattan Elsewhere" project. In it, he uses Google Maps and Google Earth to place Manhattan on the same map as other cities (Chicago, SF, Boston, Minneapolis, and the teeming metropolis that is Barron, Wisconsin!) The project is a loving remake of Bill Rankin's Errant Island of Manhattan project-- check that one out for LA and Philadelphia comparisons. Six years passed between the two projects, and it is......

Tomorrow is Earth Day, and there are a number of events in the city. Many are occuring at Grand Central Terminal, where there are exhibits, demonstrations, and musical perfomances with exhibitors like the Audobon Society, Google Earth and Recycle a Bicycle - check out Earth Day NY 2006. There's an Earth Awareness Festival tomorrow on Waverly Place, the events the Parks Department is organizing, and we are very partial to the events occuring at......

We've done tons of census race-data maps before, but this one at Webfoot is particularly well-built. One thing we learned right away: not too many Native American neighborhoods in the five-boroughs. There are, however, at least six high-density Asian spots. We've identified three-- can you name the rest? [Related: if you have Google Earth, Goth reader Phillip Gross suggests this cool census data overlay for similar information goodness.]......

Ooooh! If you enjoyed Saturday's post about Eyebeam's OGLE rendering, check out this 3D Atlantic Yards placemark for Google Earth. InvisibleMan built it using the information contained in the Atlantic Yards environmental impact statement. Once you download the program and install the placemark, you can move around the Atlantic Yards development in three dimensions-- it really gives you a sense of size and scale of the development. [Suggestion: InvisibleMan, hook up with Fruminator at......

Those crazy cats from Eyebeam are at it again! Last week we talked about their awesome LED graffiti project, which we're hoping to see on the streets sometime soon. This week the eyecandy comes out of their OGLE project, which is a tool they've developed to capture 3D data in Windows. Once the data is captured, it can be turned into awesome renderings and then printed out on the futuristic 3D printer they have......

Macintosh users rejoice! No longer will you have to be envious of your fellow Windows brethren. If you haven't heard the news, Google officially released their Google Earth client for Mac OS X on Tuesday and we can't be happier. Sure we had the beta that was leaked a few weeks back, but this is their final release. Go ahead and download it, it's addictive. Take the rest of the day off enjoying beautiful......