Google Maps, now helps us save a few bucks on a trip by adding to to its driving directions a new feature – “Avoid tolls”.
When you are getting directions, click the ‘Show options’ link and select the checkbox next to “Avoid tolls” and there you go, a new route with no tolls but you may end up paying more for gas to travel a few more miles.
Of the 20 cities listed, Tokyo, Nagoya and Kobe are the only ones in a first-world nation, Japan. Kathmandu, Nepal tops the list with a possibility of 70,000 deaths if struck by an earthquake of 6 magnitude.
I have put together a Google Map of the cities and the number of deaths that may result as reported in the article.
Alternatively, you can click on the image to view the map
Click here to view the map at Newscientist.com
As of now, the website is still in alpha release, with only 13 cities across the United States to search from. You could either type in a zip code, or the city followed by its state and get instant results. Refine your search by selecting the search radius miles, the maximum being 10 miles and from 21 different cuisines. Reviews of the search results are also available upon clicking the link in the info window upon the placemark.
There is also an option to register which enables you to add new restaurants and rate them for other to get a review. The website also quotes about receiving coupons and information on deals upon and new restaurants upon subscription.
This is a website worth checking out, but since it is relatively new and is still in alpha, lacks wealth of information. Don’t be surprised if some searches don’t produce any results. Who knows, may be there are no restaurants where you could get good food for less than $10.
If you are a Linux user and a terminal junkie, and one that would rather prefer to get things done via the terminal, including browsing articles in Wikipedia, there is this interesting command line application wikipedia2text that fetches entries from Wikipedia and displays them in the terminal.
There are several options that accompany the command such as colorizing the output, displaying only a brief summary or full content, getting the url, opening in a web browser, etc.. The command can also be configured by altering environment variables to set a default browser, language settings, use standard output or a pager. There are no requirements other than an active internet connection and only one search term (can be more than one word) is supported which can include special characters.
To install, issue the command:
sudo apt-get install wikipedia2text
There are several maps to choose from – countries, continents and the world.
KGeography comes with six different ways of learning Geography.
1. Browse Map – With this option, a click on the map identifies the country, or state (province) with its capital. In case, the feature clicked is a country, you are presented with its flag too.
2. Click Division on Map – Select the number of questions you would like to attempt, and identify the country or state that is asked for by clicking on the map. The results are displayed once you are done with answering all the questions.
3. Guess Division From Its Capital – Select the number of questions just like the one above, and this time you’ve got to select country / state of the four options provided, for capitals. The map interface does not show up for this section.
4. Guess Capital of Division – Similar to guessing divisions from capitals, but the other way round. Select the right capital from the options provided for the country being questioned upon.
5. Guess Division From Its Flag – A flag is presented, with four options. Select the country that the flag belongs to. This option is disabled when the map is that of a country as individual states (provinces do not have flags in most of the countries.
6. Guess Flag of Division – Identify the right flag out of four option with pictures of flags, for the country / state in question.
Installation: Fire up the terminal and issue the command
sudo apt-get install kgeography and you have an interactive geography learning tool
