More technology and the California Wild Fires

There is an LA Times Twitter feed that is dedicated to news about the fire and it is accessible via your mobile phone at this URL. It seems to me that this is potentially a very valuable tool to anyone who is truly affected by this tragedy. Those living in the area and displaced by the evacuations may not have internet access but one would assume cell access is still available. Besides your typical news articles, the feed is offering information about closures and shelter locations. I'm only seeing a couple of hundred people following the feed at the moment, it will be interesting to see if that number grows over time.

Mapping the California fire zone.

I'm seeing a lot of TV and web news coverage of the California wild fires and, not having had the privilege of ever being in that State before, was wanting to put it all into perspective. It was timely that while I was listening to Buzz Out Load this morning the Buzz crew spoke of an interesting Google Maps mashup that maps the area of the fires and pinpoints some major points of interest. It's amazing to see the area affected by these fires and truly brings into scope the magnitude of this tragedy! There's also something much more compelling about being able to click on the map and move the image around as opposed to just seeing the area represented by a static image on TV. Though the video and stories presented by mainstream media is also very overpowering!