UAVs for Citizen Science and Action

The new FAA rules are making more and more 'illegal' for folks at colleges and universities to fly UAVs even as basic teaching tools...but these restrictions do not (yet...) apply to private citizens, so go big! Here are two great websites for ideas and resources:

1. Conservationdrones.org
2. Public Lab

Rats in Boston (and elsewhere)

Thanks to MITs You are Here we now have animated maps of rats in Boston and other US cities. Great.

Why Does It Always Rain In Seattle?

This is super-cool and done with Tableau: Why Does It Always Rain On Me? (in Seattle)

Learn About Tableau

Bloomberg and NYC

This is very cool (and just another example of just how full of themselves New Yorkers are...): Reshaping New York

Our World from the ISS

Simple and effective!

1. Our World from the ISS
2. ISS Expeditions 40 and 41

Climate Change in California

That's nothing new, but this Story Map Geographic Impacts of Global Change: Mapping the Stories of Californians by students from Stanford maps narratives of change across California, in addition to visualizing all the standard climate parameters.

Wasting Food!

Here is a simple (and quite shocking) infographic: How The World Wastes Food

Mine is bigger than yours!

Really? Now we have a quick way to test that with Compera = a fun web tool to compare the size of different countries, states, or cities.

USGS Earthquake Map

This is one of the coolest real-time interactive web maps around: the USGS Earthquake Map.

  

March 2014 Oso Landslide

Here are three ways to explore the March 2014 Oso Landslide:

1. Rendered as a 3D swipe-app inside Esri's CityEngine (more about it here)
2. Rendered as an oblique swipe-app (Seattle Times)
3. As a Story Map
4. Before and after (with houses)

Zoning for Drones?

I suppose this may be needed at some point: Zoning For Drones
Until then: consult AIRMAP to see where you can fly.

Brilliant!

The Economic Risks of Climate Change

Paulson, Bloomberg, Steyer and bunch more 'crazy liberal hippies', have a look: Risky Business - The The Economic Risks of Climate Change.

Terrain Bender

Terrain Bender does what the name implies: take a 3D topography and bend it over another surface.

Lava On Ice!

Here is some context from Popular Science: What Happens When A Volcano Erupts Under A Glacier?

XKCD: California Droughts

http://xkcd.com/1410/

Mapping Drought in CA and across the USA

Here some great maps / visualizations of drought in California and across the US:

• April 2014 - Today, weekly, across the USA (from the NYT)
• 2011 - Today, weekly, California (from the LA Times)

http://www.latimes.com/la-me-g-california-drought-map-gif-htmlstory.html

Nuclear Power Infographic

See for yourself: A Shift in Nuclear Powers

In general - if you need a graphic to explain how to read a graphic - reconsider your design!

2010 NYC Carbon Emissions

Wind Over Time!

Who knew that the US Department of Energy makes nice maps - how about Wind Farms Through The Years. They even have an entire collection of maps and infographics related to energy.

http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2014/08/wind-farm-mapping.html

Now I'm sleepy!

The WSJ has a great analysis of sleeping patterns for major cities using Jawbone data at Which Cities Get the Most Sleep? This would be great to duplicate on college campuses around the world!

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3034540/infographic-of-the-day/how-cities-sleep-around-the-world?

I want this!

This looks great: the FLIR ONE gizmo clips onto your iPhone and turns it into an infrared camera! And with this Pyranometer App you can measure solar radiation for the full radiation balance! Add some iCelsius sensors and you have a weather station!

GeoMapApp

GeoMapApp by the folks from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory is a GIS-Lite particularly suited for simple marine science applications. GeoMapApp runs inside a Java-enabled browser and the tutorials and video tutorials are great!

EPS-HDT

That's a really unfortunate name for something that is actually quite useful: EPS-HDT by Headwater Economics aggregates tons and tons of socio-economic data into MS Excel workbooks. It currently runs as a MS Excel Add-In, but a web-based version should be available soon. Another option is Social Explorer, especially if you have access to the professional edition.

http://headwaterseconomics.org/tools/eps-hdt

Mapbox GL JS API

Well, if you know what that means you are probably very exciting - the initial reviews are extremely positive. If you do not know what that means: no worries...and keep on using Google Earth, Google Map Engine, ArcGIS Online, or whatever.

• Mapbox GL Announcement
• Mapbox GL
• Mapbox GL JS API Documentation
• Mapbox GL JS Examples

Where We Came From, State by State

Where We Came From, State by State is a great new visualization by the NYT: where were the people living in a given state born? In essence this indicates the 'popularity' of each state in terms of attracting immigrants from within and outside the United States.

Poverty and Race, 1980 to 2010

Where do poor people live, now and then? The Poverty and Race in America, Then and Now visualization works best of lager metropolitan areas and when you zoom-in - that way you can see changes at the neighborhood level.

The Collapse...

This is a great and somewhat controversial book - have a look join the debate (only 79 pages):
The Collapse of Western Civilization - A View From the Future (by Naomi Oreskes and Erik
Conway)

Solstices and Equinoxes from Space

Read all about it here: NASA's Seeing Equinoxes and Solstices from Space.

Climate CoLab

This is an interesting initiative from the folks at MIT: can we crowd-source solutions to climate change using our collective intelligence? It's about time! Too many reports or websites focus on telling us - once again - what is happening to the world and that we are responsible. That's important, but does not lead to action...and action is what we need = what can we do, together? Consider getting involved in the Climate CoLab!

The Largest Satellite Image - Ever!

This has been around for a while, but how often do you get to see a satellite image that is 120 miles wide and 6,000 miles (!) long: Come Fly With Landsat 8

Great Cartoon and Article!

Why Doesn't Anyone Know How to Talk About Global Warming?

CMS or LMS?

On one side you have the big-boys: Vista, Blackboard, Moodle, etc. - those are great if you want to run an online course and need all the tracking and assessment tools they provide. But what if all you want is a fun, easy-to-use, and intuitive shared space to exchange ideas, sources, and maybe some files with and among your students? You could go Facebook or Google+, but that creates a weird mixing between your private and professional life. Here are several options for light-weight course managements systems:

• Yammer. The basic version is free, the interface looks almost identical to Facebook, and everything is hosted somewhere in the cloud - no downloads or configurations.
• Podio. The Lite version for up to 5 people is free, above that it's $9 per person per month.
• Basecamp. Commercial, web-based product similar to Yammer. No free option!
• Commons In A Box. This is a great option, but requires a WordPress installation on your own server.
• Wordpress. Use as-is or with plug-ins (see Commons In A Box).
• Drupal. Very popular, but requires your own server to run (real or virtual).
• Entrada. Also very popular, but as with Drupal needs its own server.
• Google Classroom. Part of Google's Apps for Education - looks promising and here are the first impressions from ProfHacker.
• Schoology. This looks like a great option as well.

So...get friendly with your IT folks, use Yammer, convince your college admins to invest in a Basecamp package, or just commit to going Google!