Real-Time Global Bad News Map
March 17, 2007 10:14 PM Subscribe
The Global Trouble AlertMap
Are you curious about that chemical spill in Minnesota? Or how about the bio hazard situation in Honduras? The Havaria Information Systems AlertMap is updated in (near) real-time and the wealth of bad news is fairly astonishing. Plus they've got RSS feeds for whatever bad (or locationally relevant) news you want delivered. There are USA only maps, Europe only maps and Hungary too (slow day, just a fire). Previously (focused on bird flu tracking though several comments note how freakin' cool the map is)
Are you curious about that chemical spill in Minnesota? Or how about the bio hazard situation in Honduras? The Havaria Information Systems AlertMap is updated in (near) real-time and the wealth of bad news is fairly astonishing. Plus they've got RSS feeds for whatever bad (or locationally relevant) news you want delivered. There are USA only maps, Europe only maps and Hungary too (slow day, just a fire). Previously (focused on bird flu tracking though several comments note how freakin' cool the map is)
I knew there was gonna be a fire in Hungary today! And this site confirmed it!
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:44 PM on March 17, 2007
posted by flapjax at midnite at 10:44 PM on March 17, 2007
This looks quite interesting, but terribly incomplete. I'd like to see a similar map for human-caused trouble spots. Granted, that might require a great deal more work to update.
posted by bshock at 10:44 PM on March 17, 2007
posted by bshock at 10:44 PM on March 17, 2007
Great idea, and Hungarians invented it.
BTW.....I suspect that the earthquake information on this map comes from the USGS site. The info provided looks amazingly similar. A shame that a US government or UN organization can't host such a website. Wonder how much of it is aggregated from their online sources?
posted by metasonix at 12:01 AM on March 18, 2007
BTW.....I suspect that the earthquake information on this map comes from the USGS site. The info provided looks amazingly similar. A shame that a US government or UN organization can't host such a website. Wonder how much of it is aggregated from their online sources?
posted by metasonix at 12:01 AM on March 18, 2007
Click on the links, this appears to be a very well-done feed aggregator with a novel presentation. I'm surprised Google didn't come up with this themselves.
posted by onalark at 12:53 AM on March 18, 2007
posted by onalark at 12:53 AM on March 18, 2007
This looks really great.
A glitch - on the europe only map, clicking on the flashing aeroplane on the west cost of Ireland takes you to a Russian vehicle accident.
posted by algreer at 1:21 AM on March 18, 2007
A glitch - on the europe only map, clicking on the flashing aeroplane on the west cost of Ireland takes you to a Russian vehicle accident.
posted by algreer at 1:21 AM on March 18, 2007
This is wonderful! er... I mean...
It is fun to click on all the 'unusual' icons. What about that radioactive sign out in the pacific? And what is that 's' shape in Iran? Great resource!
posted by Catfry at 2:20 AM on March 18, 2007
It is fun to click on all the 'unusual' icons. What about that radioactive sign out in the pacific? And what is that 's' shape in Iran? Great resource!
posted by Catfry at 2:20 AM on March 18, 2007
Also, metasonix, down at the bottom on the main page you can se their data providers. And yes, USGS is one of them.
posted by Catfry at 2:23 AM on March 18, 2007
posted by Catfry at 2:23 AM on March 18, 2007
A glitch - on the europe only map, clicking on the flashing aeroplane on the west cost of Ireland takes you to a Russian vehicle accident.
Hmmm, maybe there's a connection.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:55 AM on March 18, 2007
Hmmm, maybe there's a connection.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 2:55 AM on March 18, 2007
It seems so obvious an idea for an aggregator that you know it has to have been done already. My guess is that there are similar applications already in place in various Emergency Ops Centers; they are simply not shared publicly. The cultural tendency for the Emergency Ops folks is to not put things out into the world at large like this.
Having said that, I plan to send this link to my state's Homeland Security Department IT manager. I'll be curious to see how he responds.
posted by mmahaffie at 6:00 AM on March 18, 2007
Having said that, I plan to send this link to my state's Homeland Security Department IT manager. I'll be curious to see how he responds.
posted by mmahaffie at 6:00 AM on March 18, 2007
It's interesting that the mouse-over text available for some of the incident icons is in (what I guess is) Magyar. And I wonder why not ll icons have mouse-over text.
I can see that I will be spending way too much time on this. "Hours of Schadenfreudean (sp?) fun!"
posted by mmahaffie at 6:08 AM on March 18, 2007
I can see that I will be spending way too much time on this. "Hours of Schadenfreudean (sp?) fun!"
posted by mmahaffie at 6:08 AM on March 18, 2007
"Whatta we got cookin on the big board? Nothin? Nothin at all?"
posted by grytpype at 7:16 AM on March 18, 2007
posted by grytpype at 7:16 AM on March 18, 2007
A good first attempt at aggregating this information. Compiling all of this and viewing in near real time would prove interesting, I would like to see (a better interface) this information captured and then play it over a year or decade.
A for effort....
posted by fluffycreature at 8:16 AM on March 18, 2007
Brilliant site, long overdue in the making. Great post, thanks. Plenty of stuff one doesn't hear about usually, like the outbreak of Avian Flu in Tibet. Yeah, it's definitely surprising there hasn't been something like this out there ages ago. Wish the site were a bit more sophisticated, that the descriptions and mouse-over info were more in English than a hodgepodge of English and Hungarian. Still, a very useful and interesting site.
posted by nickyskye at 11:38 AM on March 18, 2007
posted by nickyskye at 11:38 AM on March 18, 2007
fenrig,
Thank's for posting this, it'll go right at the top of my list of links to check daily. I'll also be watching for alternative sites showing problems, developing disasters etc. worldwide that may be created in the future. This link provides a quick summary of all manner of problems worldwide and just may give an opportunity for better preparedness for those of us who are disaster responders. It helps greatly to have the earliest possible awareness or what we may have to deal with.
posted by X4ster at 9:38 PM on March 18, 2007
Thank's for posting this, it'll go right at the top of my list of links to check daily. I'll also be watching for alternative sites showing problems, developing disasters etc. worldwide that may be created in the future. This link provides a quick summary of all manner of problems worldwide and just may give an opportunity for better preparedness for those of us who are disaster responders. It helps greatly to have the earliest possible awareness or what we may have to deal with.
posted by X4ster at 9:38 PM on March 18, 2007
I was sort of disappointed to find that the little airplane icon (that looked like it was in Providence, RI) turned out to be a plane with a bent wing in Beverly, MA. I suppose that's a little bit more of an emergency than, say, air traffic delays, but still...
I also find it interesting that the glowing biohazard in Texas turned out to be a stranded pod of dolphins. I wonder if this map has been noting the strandings of dolphins in MA over the winter as biohazards?
posted by nekton at 12:15 PM on March 19, 2007
I also find it interesting that the glowing biohazard in Texas turned out to be a stranded pod of dolphins. I wonder if this map has been noting the strandings of dolphins in MA over the winter as biohazards?
posted by nekton at 12:15 PM on March 19, 2007
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