Here in New Orleans the party looks to be so good that the guests have all spilled out into the street!

It looks like they’re gathered around Joe’s House of Blues - and yet the giant red arrow outside clearly indicates they should be inside instead. So on the off chance Joe’s sound system isn’t all that loud, why else might all these people be hanging around outside?

Thanks to Joey.

In case you missed it, there was recently a spot of bother over the New Orleans images in Google Earth. Back in August 2005, just after Hurricane Katrina wrecked the city, Google updated Maps and Earth with images of the devastation.

Then, in September of 2006, the images were updated with higher-resolution shots of the city - images which were pre-Katrina. Nobody really noticed until the March 2007 image update, and suddenly everyone was up in arms over Google’s disrespect for those who suffered. In response Google provided new, high resolution, post-Katrina images of New Orleans.

Outside the newly updated area you can still see some of the devastation Katrina wrought here, like this derailed train, or these flattened houses just over the border in Mississippi.

Inside the updated area however, the images are very high quality, and the first thing that caught our eye was this fantastic shot of an F-15 fighter coming in to land at the New Orleans Naval Air Station.

We also wondered what was going on on the Bonne Carre Spillway Bridge?

Thanks: 2468Scotty and C.P. McDill.

Yes people, this pair of spermatozoon spermatozoa are each nearly half a mile long! At least, I think they’re sperm cells hugely magnified - it’s that or some sort of crazy elongated guitar art?

Thanks to James Bonnette

Perhaps the captain of this barge on the Mississippi has had a little too much to drink, as he appears to have crashed into the river bank. Whoops!

Thanks to Sam Phillips.

A large Geodesic Dome which formerly housed a train servicing and painting operation stands in a state of disrepair in Baton Rouge.

There are efforts to save the dome as architects consider it a fine example of R. Buckminster Fuller’s inventive dome design, which has also been used in the building of Disney’s Epcot Centre. Fuller also designed the Biosphere on Île Sainte-Hélène for Expo ‘67.

Further history of Fuller and the abandoned dome from Gambit Weekly.

Thanks: Cody, Michael & Trey

The Google Maps and Google Earth data has recently been updated with photos of New Orleans taken on August 31st at 10am and showing the extent of the damage to the city and flooding that was brought by Hurricane Katrina.

The most striking image is the extent of the damage to the Superdome, click on ‘Satellite’ to see the “before” shot. Here’s one of the breaches in the levee which has flooded the city, including Highway 610 where you can see the abandoned cars. There’s boats scattered all over the place from this harbour and light planes that have been thrown around at the Lakefront Airport.

Google hope that the imagery will be used in the development of relief websites but if seeing the damage has moved you enough to want to help then the Red Cross are looking for donations and volunteers.

Thanks: Luke Sleeman

Hurricane Katrina has torn through the United States causing untold damage and horrendous loss of life. Katrina has destroyed the eastern part of the I-10 bridge over Lake Pontchartrain (shown here before it was damaged), flooded 80 percent of New Orleans, and damaged the roof of largest domed structure in the world, the Louisiana Superdome.

The worst affected states, by this, the third most intense system to strike the United States in recorded history, are Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It is believed that Katrina is, (in monetary terms) the most costly hurricane to affect the USA, and sadly may yet also become the most costly in terms of human lives.

For more information about these events, I recommend the Wikipedia page on Hurricane Katrina, which is updated continually as information becomes available.

Here’s a great double bridge shadow in New Orleans. Weirdly, Google Maps labels both bridges as the Greater New Orleans Bridge, and they also both appear to carry the same highway. Does traffic only go one way on each perhaps?

Thanks: Andrew Harris.

Update: Jeff Richardson shared this brilliant info with us in the comments:

This will seem counter-intuitive, but the area on the left is called the “East Bank” and the area on the right is called the “West Bank.” Because the Mississippi river zigs and zags so much, there are areas on the East Bank that are actually west of the West Bank. If you zoom out enough you’ll see that this has to do with the fact that the river runs more or less West to East near New Orleans, even though the river obviously runs North to South across the country. Also, this is caused by the river’s S shape, which is the reason that New Orleans is called the Crescent City.

Thanks Jeff