Google Adds 1,000 New Locations From Asia, Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada To Street View

Google today launched a large update to Google Maps that adds more than 1,000 new locations from around the world to the service’s Street View feature. These include numerous locations that can’t be reached by car, including the cathedral of Seville, the canals of Copenhagen and the Singapore Zoo. Overall, it seems, this update focuses on locations from Asia, Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and Canada.

Google, of course, has long been expanding Street View’s reach beyond cities and rural streets, thanks to its backpack-like Trekker, tricycles and, most recently, its underwater Street View scooter. Today’s update, Google says, includes numerous historical landmarks and sports stadiums, but it’s also adding some ski slopes in Chile and other relatively unusual locations to its lineup.

Today’s large rollout hints at the fact that Google is speeding up its Street View imaging efforts. Until now, it would often announce some of these projects individually. Now, however, it’s adding a huge amount of locations from around the world in one launch, even though quite a few of them are probably a first for the Street View team.

All of this imagery, of course, is available on the web, as well as on Google Maps for Android and iPhone.

Planetary Resources hits $1 million Kickstarter goal to build space telescope 'for everyone'

Planetary Resources, the billionaire-backed asteroid mining company, has raised more than $1 million on Kickstarter to build a proposed space telescope that will be accessible by members of the public. The campaign has more than 12,000 backers and 10 days to raise even more money for the Arkyd, an exploratory telescope that is part of the fleet that will help Planetary Resources hunt for near-Earth asteroids. Extra funds will mean more capabilities that backers can take advantage of, including the ability to scan for exoplanets. Not that the deep-pocketed Planetary Resources needs any of this Kickstarter cash: the crowdfunded Arkyd is purely for publicity and "getting people excited about space." The Arkyd isn't launching until sometime after 2015. But once it does, expect to see a barrage of "space selfies" — photos taken by Arkyd's camera showing your picture on its screen with the Earth in the background — all over Instagram.

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