Here’s the recent geonews in batch mode, covering most of September up to today.

On the open source / open data front:

• It’s there now, announcing the release of The Book of OpenLayers 3
• Be ready, within a year we’ll have all SRTM-DEM Level-2 (30m) data for the whole world, NGA Releases Hi-Res Elevation Data
• Here’s the Heron Mapping Client, a open source web mapping  that works with GeoExt and OpenLayers that we never mentioned before
• An entry on WebGL and the Babylon.js globe code
• Good news, Canada’s City of Montreal gave an exception to allow its data to be used for OpenStreetMap [in French]
• OpenStreetMap shines in less accessible places, OpenStreetMap data in Syria
• Natural Resources Canada updated its Canada-wide free vector dataset to CanVec+, now with frequent data updates, the most up-to-date data and the best available data resolution
• In Europe next year, FOSS4G-Europe will be in Como, Italy, July 14-17
• It may be just a bug fix release, but GDAL/OGR being everywhere, it matters, GDAL/OGR 1.11.1 released
• Another minor update for a popular software, PostGIS 2.1.4 Released
• Getting ready for the next release, upcoming to QGIS 2.6 – tons of colour improvements

On the Esri front:

• More is good, ArcGIS Open Data September release: charts, updated admin, and CSV support
• Users can now generate contours dynamically with a new raster function
• The Elevation Analysis Geoprocessing Services are officially released
• New version, CityEngine .1 released
• A summary, What’s New in ArcGIS Online (September)
• An upcoming free webinar, Learn How to Leverage ArcGIS Platform and the Cloud with Your Data

Geospatial stories discussed over Slashdot:

• AR sand maps, Marines Put Microsoft Kinect To Work For 3D Mapping
• Getting closer to the holodeck, Microsoft’s “RoomAlive” Transforms Any Room Into a Giant Xbox Game
• Planned, GM To Introduce Hands-Free Driving In Cadillac Model
• But, Once Vehicles Are Connected To the Internet of Things, Who Guards Your Privacy?
• Win-win? Surprising Result of NYC Bike Lanes: Faster Traffic for Cars
• Wearable drones in development, Nixie Wearable Drone Camera Flies Off Your Wrist
• Drones in the cold, Drone-Based Businesses: Growing In Canada, Grounded In the US
• Nothing new there, Drones Reveal Widespread Tax Evasion In Argentina
• More UAV, FAA Clears Movie and TV Drones For Takeoff
• And California Governor Vetoes Bill Requiring Warrants For Drone Surveillance
• Privacy, Treasure Map: NSA, GCHQ Work On Real-Time “Google Earth” Internet Observation
• Phone tracking, Before Using StingRays, Police Must Sign NDA With FBI
• Know where to not go, London’s Crime Hot Spots Predicted Using Mobile Phone Data
• Sad news thanks to remote sensing, Aral Sea Basin Almost Completely Dry
• They forgot the vikings, Maps Suggest Marco Polo May Have “Discovered” America
• The brain and location, Nobel Prize For Medicine Awarded For “Brain GPS” Research

In the everything-else category:

• Why standards matter, a U.N. Guide to the Role of Standards in Geospatial Information Management
• Harvard says so too, Where Location Analytics Can Save Corporations from Drowning in Big Data
• Wow, we’ll have such 3D visualizations in a few years, Euclideon Teases Photo Realistic Voxel-Based Game Engine
• Becoming a spy & DIY, Arduino-Based Vehicle Tracker With GPS+GPRS
• Planned for next week, a free webinar on Forensic GIS - Investigation, Litigation and Using GIS in the Courtroom
• HERE’s still here, another free webinar in two weeks, HERE Mobile SDKs for Business: Add location services to native applications
• MapQuest launched “Commute”: The Simplest App For Information About Your Daily Drive
• Looking for a list? JavaScript for Geospatial applications: An Overview
• A generic Wired article on hyperspectral remote sensing, An Algorithm That Decodes The Surface of the Earth
• On the technical side, how to drastically reduce the size of GeoTIFFs, GeoTIFF tile de-duplication
• Also from Wired, with a map, How Global Shipping Could Change Our Understanding of Biodiversity
• Remote sensing, DigitalGlobe introduced the PERSPECTIVES Magazine
• Beautiful, Exploring Ocean Tectonics from Space
• For those looking for a change, Boundless still provides a list of jobs, The Spatial IT Job Board
• Geo for everything, Mapping Your LinkedIn Connections in skycrapers
• A useful comparison of Google My Maps vs Google Maps, which both were recently updated
• Indoor mapping, With iPhone 6 and iOS8 Apple starts to be serious about indoor location
• Monitoring all items in a store, Passive RFID is passé … Not so fast my friend
• There’s a few MapBox announcements, Introducing the Surface API, the Walking directions API and the Introduction of the Mapbox Studio
• How the ground moves, First InSAR deformation maps of Sentinel-1A from the recent Napa Valley earthquake

In the maps category:

• Nice for gifts or other, Fantasy Maps of U.S. Cities
• Crazy, Great Britain in Minecraft 2.0 by the Ordnance Survey
• Design matters, map of the Highways of the United States of America by Cameron Booth
• Birds too have to adapt, New Maps Show Where Birds Will Fly as Earth’s Climate Changes
• Mapping the underworld, Hidden Archeology of Stonehenge Revealed In New Geophysical Map
• Interesting maps of geniuses in Europe from 1400 to 1950, The Geography of Genius
• Maps and infographics are useful to understand the world, Who likes whom in the Middle East? Key players & relationships
• Politics, Scottish Independence Referendum, Election Maps in QGIS
• Interesting, a map of The Fragility of the State Fragility Index
• Interesting from an historical perspective, Uncovering Hidden Text on a 500-Year-Old Map That Guided Columbus
• Not certain if we already shared that one, FlightRadar24, live air traffic on a map
• It’s dramatic and efficient map visualizations, Three Ways to Visualize Our Melting Northern Ice Cap