Trains.FYI is a real-time map of passenger trains in North America. Started out of frustration with constant delays from freight priority in Canada, trains.fyi has grown into the leading real-time train tracking website. Real-Time Train Statistics – These statistics are updated in real-time based on current train data. Select a city to view real-time train… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Transportation
Trump Orders Federal D.E.I Efforts to Shut Down by Wednesday Night
The New York Times [unpaywalled]: The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered that officials overseeing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts across federal agencies be placed on leave and to take steps to close their offices by Wednesday evening. In a memo from the Office of Personnel Management, the heads of departments and agencies were ordered to… Continue Reading
The Powerful AI Tool That Cops (or Stalkers) Can Use to Geolocate Photos in Seconds
404 Media: “A powerful AI tool can predict with high accuracy the location of photos based on features inside the image itself—such as vegetation, architecture, and the distance between buildings—in seconds, with the company now marketing the tool to law enforcement officers and government agencies. Called GeoSpy, made by a firm called Graylark Technologies out… Continue Reading
Allstate used GasBuddy and other apps to quietly track driving behavior
Ars Technica: “Texas has sued insurance provider Allstate, alleging that the firm and its data broker subsidiary used data from apps like GasBuddy, Routely, and Life360 to quietly track drivers and adjust or cancel their policies. Allstate and Arity, a “mobility data and analytics” firm founded by Allstate in 2016, collected “trillions of miles worth… Continue Reading
California wildfires map
The Los Angeles Times has this amazing interactive map, based on real-time open data provided by CalFire and the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination. See also Analysing satellite imagery of the Jan 2025 Southern California wildfires: “3.9 micron data from the GOES-16 East and GOES-18 West satellites on the January 2025 Southern California fires. We download the… Continue Reading
Inside the Black Box of Predictive Travel Surveillance
Wired – “Behind the scenes, companies and governments are feeding a trove of data about international travelers into opaque AI tools that aim to predict who’s safe—and who’s a threat… In Europe, at least four technology companies—Idemia, SITA, Travizory, and WCC—offer governments around the world software that uses algorithms on traveler data to profile passengers.… Continue Reading
Geospatial search for OpenStreetMap
Spot allows you to search for relations between entities in OpenStreetMap. Spot can analyse your prompt for entities, their relations and location and display the matching results on a map. Continue Reading
NATO Phonetic Alphabet Converter
This tool converts letters and numbers into the NATO phonetic alphabet, which is used to clearly communicate spelling over radio, phone, or in any situation where clarity is crucial. For example, “BAT” becomes “Bravo Alpha Tango”. This helps avoid confusion between similar-sounding letters like ‘B’ and ‘P’ or ‘M’ and ‘N’. Important: This is an… Continue Reading
Free wildfire app Watch Duty overwhelmed with new LA resident and firefighter users
Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Struggling to keep track of fast moving wildfires and the latest evacuation zones, residents of Los Angeles are rushing to download a free app called Watch Duty. The company said it had gained more than 1.6 million new users since Tuesday, the vast majority in LA County. It’s Apple’s most downloaded free… Continue Reading
Gigantic SUVs are a public health threat
Vox – Why don’t we treat them like one? “The anti-tobacco playbook could help turn the US public against their beloved oversized cars. With an annual toll of 40,000 American lives, the deadliness of secondhand smoke is now common knowledge. But it was only a few decades ago that puffing on a cigarette was defended… Continue Reading
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 4, 2025
Via LLRX – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, finance, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and… Continue Reading
SPOT – geospatial search tool
“SPOT is a geospatial search tool for OpenStreetMap from DW Innovation. It’s similar to Bellingcat’s OpenStreetMap search tool, except it allows you to submit a natural language prompt for a specific location type. For example, “Show me all shopping malls near a traffic light with a park within 300 meters in Nairobi.” Learn more in… Continue Reading
