Astronomy talks

Just been listening to a wonderful talk by Jill Tarter of SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) given at the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lectures. I recommend the talk. There are lots of other talks by very cool astronomical folks there too.

Last night I listened to the Contact audiobook again. It was as enthralling as last time I listened to it. Famous scientist, writer, and science communicator Carl Sagan wrote the book. His last wife, writer, and science communicator Ann Druyan condensed it for the audiobook. Jodie Foster reads the audiobook superbly. Jodie also played the main role in the movie, which was incidentally, based largely on Jill Tarter.

"Don't be evil"

That is the slogan used by Google.
Are they living up to it? We all remember how they bowed immediately to censorship in China. That was a big disappointment.
Now Georgia has disappeared* from GoogleMaps.

[*I've since been told Georgia was never on GoogleMaps, but this is no less puzzling than a recent disappearance would be. Maps of that region have been available for decades. What possible reason would there be for omitting such a world trouble-spot?]

http://twxr.us/1a5

or see on GoogleMaps itself:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=&ie=UTF8&ll=41.926803,44.648438&spn=4.119432,7.349854&z=7

Bummer.

Additional: There is a very nice 2,529 x 1,872 map on Wikipedia at
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Georgia_high_detail_map.png
in the article there on Georgia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_(country)