Narwhal spotted at Lambeth Bridge

We always knew Google Maps was good! Canonical and Ubuntu are a global organisation and there’s always somebody awake somewhere. Today that somebody was Jono Bacon, staying up late on the west coast of the United States. Before anyone in the UK was even awake there was a tweet saying that the Google satellites had spotted the early arrival of a yellow Narwhal in the River Thames just outside the London Millbank Tower Canonical offices. Google Maps did indeed prove its accuracy; when we looked out of the window from the 27th floor down towards Lambeth Bridge there was a visitor:

Narwhal visiting Lambeth Bridge, seen from the Canonical Offices.

In Ubuntu we like to publicly test everything, yesterday the hundreds of people working on Ubuntu released Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1. Canonical’s head of PR has informed us that just like the release, the Narwhal visit has been carefully orchestrated as part of the press activities for the final Ubuntu 11.04 release later in April. This 1st visit is a “beta” run to recheck whale head-room clearances under the bridges at low-tide.