Awesome!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,The Colbert Report on Facebook,Video Archive

CartoDB

CartoDB is a great web-based data visualization and mapping environment and now they offer unlimited access for their academic accounts. And a new field data collection app in Fulcrum.

Video vs. Written Student Feedback

This study has generated considerable interest: Could Video Feedback Replace the Red Pen? More discussion on Profhacker and GeoEd Track.

Landsat 8

This looks interesting: a Special Issue of Remote Sensing - Landsat-8 Sensor Characterization and Calibration.

Urgent; Important

Principal Component Analysis

This is great: a visual and interactive explanation of PCP = Principal Component Analysis from 2D to 3D to ND (well-done!)

The Grapes of Wrath

Or at least the modern version thereof: Where Are the Hardest Places to Live in the U.S.? (by The Upshot, NYT)

Make your own font!

Metaflop is fun = an online playground where you can create your own font! Read more about it over on Co.DESIGN.

The World's Ecosystems

A new map by the USGS using Esri Story Maps: The Global Ecosystems Map

2015 NMC Horizon Report

What's current and upcoming in education technology? Well, here's the annual NMC Report:

• Full report (56 pages)
• Report preview (8 pages)
• Report website
• Summary video (6:47 minutes)

Personally, I am always skeptical of reports like that as they are essentially produced by industry special interest groups (e.g. Educause and others) and thus promote a clear pro-technology agenda. That being said it is interesting and worthwhile to see what others in higher ed are doing in regards to education technology. Laura Guertin posted a nice summary of the 2015 NMC Horizon Report over at GeoEd Trek.

GIS and Geography MOOCs

Early 2015:

1. Geospatial MOOCs
2. Introduction to Geospatial Technology Using QGIS
3. Skills for the Digital Earth (Elmhurst College)

Upcoming:

1. Fundamentals of GIS for Conservation (6 modules from the Nature Conservancy)
2. Going Places with Spatial Analysis by Esri (upcoming, course outline).
3. Geospatial Intelligence & the Geospatial Revolution (starting 14 January 2015)
4. Introduction to GIS using gvSIG (24 November to 20 December 2014)

Starting now:

1. From GPS and Google Maps to Spatial Computing (started 23 September 2014)
2. Desktop GIS from Peggy Minnis at Pace University (started 1 September 2014, read syllabus here and enroll here)
3. Teaching Geography for the 21st Century (started 3 September 2014, more about this course from Joe Kerski) 
4. Introduction to GIS and Mapping by Open Online Education (started 1 September 2014)
5. GPS: An Introduction to Satellite Navigation, with an interactive Worldwide Laboratory using Smartphones by Stanford via Coursera (starts 13 October 2014).

Ongoing, finished, or closed:

1. Exploring Geographic Information Systems by Simon Fraser University. (Self-paced, but currently closed).
2. Introduction to Geospatial Technology using QGIS (and other open-source GIS courses under Academy Links, also great tutorials and labs on YouTube).
3. Maps and the Geospatial Revolution by PennState via Coursera (just finished).
4. Geodesign: Change Your World by PennState via Coursera (just finished.
5. Skills for the Digital Earth by Elmhurst College via Desire2Learn (just finished).

For a discussion of MOOCs, GIS, and Online Education in general consider "Crossing Borders" (a column by Doug Richardson in ArcNews Summer 2014).

RateMyProfessor

Ben Schmidt did something obvious (at least in hindsight) and created an interactive chart/analysis of the words used to review male and female professors on RateMyProfessor.com.

The Public and the Scientists

Interesting report by the Pew Research Center Public and Scientists’ Views on Science and Society