Videoconferencing on iToys

or whatever Smart Gizmo you have! This is more than just FaceTime or Skype - with these apps you can actually talk to more than one person. I'm not sure how the video feed from say 4 different people will look on 4 inch screen, but worth a try!

• fring
• ooVoo

Where is the Middle of Nowhere?

Everything is located between somewhere and nowhere - have a look!

Landsat 8 in Photoshop

This is a great tutorial: how to use Landsat 8 scenes in Adobe Photoshop. That's not really GIS or Remote Sensing, but a great way to create impressive visuals.

Namaste!

or: Surviving Whole Foods!

Classic xkcd!

Posting and Sharing ArcGIS Online Maps

There are four way to share an ArcGIS Online map using a blog or a website: 1) the ArcGIS Online map viewer link, 2) the ArcGIS Explorer Online link, 3) the embedded map, and 4) the Web Application link.

ArcGIS Online map viewer link: Westfield State Buildings
ArcGIS Online Explorer link: Westfield State Buildings
Web Application Link: Westfield State Buildings


View Larger Map   

My Planet Is Bigger Than Yours!

Or is it? Try the Planet Resizer yourself and find out!

The IPCC

With the IPCC AR5 coming out soon, Nature produced a nice video and infographic about the IPCC and its history.

Teaching with Twitter

This is nothing new - teaching with Twitter has been around for years now. Here is an example of an (apparent?) success story: Creating scientists in 140 characters.

Another success here: Monica Rankin at UT Dallas teaching a history class with Twitter. Watch the video or read the report.

ArcGIS 10.2

I'm getting ready to to upgrade to ArcGIS 10.2 - here are some useful links:

• ArcGIS 10.2 released!
• ArcGIS for Desktop: Patches and Service Packs
• ArcGIS 10.2 Landsat 8 Patch

Colorado Flooding From Space

NASA put out these two Landsat 8 images showing the South Platte River in normal flow conditions (29 June 2013) and in flood condition (17 September 2013). Be sure to click-on the VIEW IMAGE COMPARISON button to see both images fade into one another as you move the slider.

• NASA Floods in Colorado (20 September 2013)

Inequality in the USA

Here are a series of animated GIFs showing economic inequality across the USA between 1977 and 2012. I admit: I don't understand these coefficients...so let's just assumes these economists know what they are doing. And, it that case, inequality certainly increased. But this is also a good example of the dangers of maps - sure the colors change towards more inequality, but that visual impression is also a function of map design, color choices, statistical classification systems, and break points.

http://i.imgur.com/EPa5zrO.gif

Colorado Flooding and UAVs

Interesting story about the use of UAVs in assistance of the flooding in Colorado - sure seems like the perfect application of this technology

• Falcon UAV

Census Reporter

Here are three ways to get to census data. Most would agree that American FactFinder is rather complex and not easy to use. Then we have CensusReporter (still in beta) - which hopefully will be much easier to navigate. Finally there is Social Explorer - my favorite: very easy to use, map interface, all census data for all times. The free edition is nice, but the professional version includes much more data (luckily Westfield State has a subscription via the library). Otherwise: get yourself a free 30-day trial and scrape the data!

http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/gis/manual/census_getdata/images/factfinder_workflow.jpg

Educational Jargon Generator

I knew it - that's how these assessment - outcomes things get written: with the Educational Jargon Generator!

EarthPorn

The name (thanks reddit...) is unfortunate, but there is nothing inappropriate as far as the content: just spectacular photographs posted by users and thus updated constantly.

MS Excel Art

That seems like an oxymoron - but maybe not! Have a look at Tatsuo Horiuchi's work! Now this would be even better had he not just used the autoshapes, but actual cell values and manipulations - shown as charts. Here's a nice video of his work: The Michelangelo of Microsoft Excel.

USGS Flood Mapper

Yet another nice example of a rich and interactive web map: the USGS Flood Inundation Mapper. It's almost getting to be too much these days...so many ways to look at data and to perhaps download data.

Europe 1000 AD - Today

This is quite nice (especially the music). But: why not add the date line or something?

Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) Version 3.2

New release of the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) - now Version 3.2. It features improved accuracy of glacier outlines in many places, notably Alaska (more recent source imagery) and South America (source imagery with less seasonal snow), filling of some gaps (for example in the tropics and in Burma), and
correction of errors in a number of places.

• Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI) Version 3.2

NOAA Historical Hurricane Tracks

From NOAA: The NOAA Historical Hurricane Tracker allows users to search by place name, storm name or year, or latitude and longitude points. With the search results, users can generate a map showing the track of the storm or storms accompanied by a table of related information.

The Last Mile

This is interesting (although don't quite understand the maps and underlying data): an open-source web map for visualizing the logistics of selected mega-cites around the world. Have a look yourself!

• The Last Mile
• MITs Megacity Logistics Lab
• MIT press release: In The World: Mapping the logistics of megacities

Connection

How do you effectively tell a story? In my life that's usually about science, particularly about global warming, its impacts, and what we can and should do about. Randy Olson wrote a great book to help us scientists with just that called Don't be Such a Scientist. Now he's back with a new book Connection - Hollywood Storytelling meets Scientific Thinking. Plus, there is the Connection Storymaker app for Android and iOS.

Bullet Journal

So you sit in a lecture and are supposed to take notes - how do you best do that? There are a bunch of established note-taking systems, but here's a new one: Bullet Journal. This one is interesting in its simplicity: no fancy gizmo or app is needed...just a piece of paper (although it may work better with a notebook).

The Rise of Machines

UAVs are all the rage right now...even for delivering pizza. Here's an interesting and somewhat critical article about the reality and future (?) of these unmanned autonomous systems.

• The Rise of the [Geospatial] Machines Part 1: The Future with Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

Inequality is Real!

This is a nicely-illustrated animated infographic narrated by former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.

• Inequality is real!
• Inequality.is

Diversity and (Gender) Bias in GIS

Or rather: the new world of geo-things in general.

• Changing the Ratio of OpenStreetMap
• Guns, Germans and Strip Clubs
• The Threads of OSM Discussions: Are the Doors Really Open? (talk)
• The Threads of OSM Discussions: Are the Doors Really Open? (slides)

No Stress GIS!

http://money.cnn.com/pf/best-jobs/

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/pf/jobs/1010/gallery.best_jobs_least_stress.moneymag/5.html

Forecast Lines

Super-cool: Forecast Lines shows you the different forecast from the different forecast models. There is also an iOS version.

The Automated Teaching Machine

Robots, Kafka, Rocketship, Dreambox, and ENGKEY - this all sounds like MOOCs to me! See for yourself: A Graphic Introduction to the End of Human Teachers.

Google Earth Tour Builder

Here's something new from Google: Tour Builder. Still in beta, so expect the unexpected! This seems to be Google's response to Esri's Storytelling with Maps.

Survey Monkey vs. Google Forms

Google Forms is a nice alternative to Survey Monkey - the results run right into a Google Spreadsheet. I admit: I have not used it 'for real', but it is not limited in terms of questions and responses as the free version of Survey Monkey.

The Age of Cities

Or, rather of buildings in a city - viewed as choropleth maps you get an idea of how the city developed over time.

• Brooklyn
• The Netherlands (all of it!)
• Chicago

Maps of Protest

John Bieler created this global view of protest starting in 1979 based on the GDELT data. Read about the limitations of those data on his blog and explore his recent maps of protests in Egypt.

Data and Big Data

Here's an excellent talk from TEDx: