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[Cross-posted on GeekDad.]

Layering content on Google Maps has been far into geek territory up until yesterday, when Google released its new My Maps feature. No need now to know anything about KML, Google Maps API, or coding. You can now create your own maps using drag and drop tools right on Google Maps interface. Placemarks (virtual pushpins), lines, shapes, embedded photos, and videos can all be added to your map. All maps have a URL that can be shared with your friends, and if you choose to make the map “public,” the content you have created will be included in search results for queries on Google Maps.

I tried the thing out yesterday to plot all the Geekdad destinations in the San Francisco Bay Area (from here and here). Elapsed mapping time: 20 min.

As Google put it in announcing the feature, it’s “so easy a caveman could do it,” which means kids ought to be able to figure it out. Take a second to think about the possibilities of involving a kid in creating and sharing these sorts of maps. Plotting fun spots around town for sharing with their friends, tracing vacation routes, using it to take geographically tagged notes on schoolwork (or pleasure reading, if they’re trully geeked out)….

Geography education just got a whole lot more fun.

It’s also interesting to think what will happen if (when) Google adds the time dimension into this space. Imagine assigning not just a physical location but also a time and duration to each item. With a pan control across the time dimension, you could watch the historical events you just read about in your history book unfold visually in front of you at whatever temporal resolution you would like. As a visual thinker, I would have had a much easier time remembering my history if I had had something like this.

Now, unless I’m missing something, the major downside of My Maps in its current incarnation is that it cannot…yet…be configured to allow a group of people to collaborate in creating a single map. (Listening, Google?) In the meantime, I’ll be updating the map with the other locations referenced in Geekdad postings as they come in.

Think bottled water is cleaner and better? Think again.

The Environmental Law Foundation has sued eight bottlers for using words such as “pure” to market water that contains bacteria, arsenic and chlorine. Bottled water is no bargain either: It costs 240 to 10,000 times more than tap water…. Just supplying Americans with plastic water bottles for one year consumes more than 47 million gallons of oil, enough to take 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere…

From Feb. 18, 2007 San Francisco Chronicle

A couple of months ago the Manly Men’s Book Group^TM read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This is quite possibly the best non-fiction book we have read. Pollen examines four different approaches to food in the U.S. — conventional corn and soybean based industrial, industrialized organic, local “slow food” organic, and hunter/gatherer.

While Pollan has clearly come to some conclusions regarding the relative merits of each, he is able to acknowledge the attractions of the other approaches. Less a polemic and more a nuanced exploration of what we tend to take for granted, this book is a must-read.

If you’re pressed for time (aren’t we all?), and are wondering whether reading the book is worth the time commitment (or loved his book so much that you google “Pollan” regularly), check out his essay Unhappy Meals in last week’s New York Times Magazine. While not a summary of Omnivore’s Dilemma, it’s a variation on a theme and an excellent read.

And if you’re really really short on time, yet have somehow managed to get this far in this post, here’s the thesis — and opening sentences — of his essay:

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

I have tickets to hear him talk at City Arts and Lectures in May. I can hardly wait.

And you thought electric cars were underpowered enviro-geek gear?

HA! Tesla Motors begs to differ. Zero to 60 in 4 seconds. 250 mile range. Styling designed by Lotus.

Yummy.

Wired ran an article about the genesis of this silicon valley automaker in August.

Start saving your pennies, though — it’s base price is $92,000. But at only 1-2 cents/mile, it may pay off…eventually.

Dad, this link is for you. (In case you missed the article in yesterday’s CS Monitor).