Cool and Scary!

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/29/us/schools-reopening-coronavirus.html

COVID-19 & Mask Myths DEBUNKED!

How risky do you like it?

This is pretty interesting: COVID-19 Event Risk Assessment Planning Tool. Here you can adjust your 'event' size and then see, county-by-county, the probability that a COVID-19 positive individual will attend. Let's see: for Westfield State (assume 1,000 people in Hampden County) we get 96 percent or higher.

13,000 years or earlier?

I find this scientific question fascinating: when did people reach the Americas? 13,000 years ago is the 'accepted' date, based on the opening of a land passage between the Cordilleran and Laurentide Ice Sheets. But that date is not as certain as it may sound, plus the formation of an ice-free corridor does not mean people immediately followed it. Then there's the idea that people traveling via boats along the shore maybe as early as 16,000 years ago.

Below a map from Source 1 below showing the current evidence - interesting!

1. Evidence grows that peopling of the Americas began more than 20,000 years ago (Nature, 222 July 2020).
2. Tools suggest people reached Americas early (Science, 24 July 2020)

The USA: Locals vs Tourists

Or, rather, by attractions listed on Tripadvisor and split between what Local vs Tourists think of these attractions: Travel-Like-A-Local.

ArcGIS Experience Builder

Imagine a story map and a web app combined themselves somehow and you get the ArcGIS Experience Builder (I think). Details are a bit fuzzy, but there are several tutorials to get you started: Try ArcGIS Experience Builder.

NCSE Climate Change Summits

The NCSE Climate Change Summits are well-designed role-playing games. The 2019 edition revolved around dam renovation and the 2020 edition is called: How would you use $100,000 to mitigate climate change?

Two good videos on nuclear energy

Here are two short videos worth watching:

• Dan Kammen and the new nukes
• Should 'green new nukes' be part of the Green New Deal?

Look, here's the thing about nukes and energy: a) tell me how you are going to finance it to make it affordable and b) tell me what you are going to do with the waste. Then you will realize that there much better options already available.

UN FAO Data Portal

Have a look: https://data.apps.fao.org/

I'm just not into these map-based (or now 3D) search interfaces: too complicated, too slow, too much. Give me a nice scrollable list and a well-developed text-based search tool.

It is that complicated.

It's not that complicated.

More at https://flowingdata.com/2020/07/21/understanding-covid-19-statistics/

Meanders on the Mississippi

Nice image: Meandering Mississippi River

Chart Chooser / Chart Types

FlowingData cataloged all the chart types - not really a chart chooser, but a nice way to find information and resources about specific chart types: Cataloging All the Charts

Flooding

Two great interactive data viz related to flooding:

• How is flooding affecting your community? gives all kinds of cool embedded maps comparing flood risk in 2020, 2035, and 2050. Many you can embed in your website or create an animated GIF (see below).
• Flood Factor is simple: just enter your address and see your flood risk.

Land Cover: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

And - finally - here is a nice compilation of land cover data as part of Esri's Living Atlas of the World:

• 1992 - 2018 (measured)
• 2050 (predicted)

The SDGs Today

Nice website (sponsored by Esri): The SDGs Today @ http://sdgstoday.org/. Here you can see and download the data related to the 17 SDGs.

Related to that: Esri also compiled the  ArcGIS Living Atlas Indicators of the Planet (same basic idea).

Climate Change Communication: Art & Science

Risky Business!

I'm not an expert, but I think I would put 'going to school' somewhere in the orange zone of this chart. For context, here's the xkcd version: https://xkcd.com/2333/

https://informationisbeautiful.net/

Wishful Thinking vs Science

This is pretty good, especially the COVID-19 section starting ~2:00-minutes.

Anti-Racism Pedagogy

This is not my expertise, but here are some useful resources:

• Robin DiAngelo: How 'white fragility' supports racism and how whites can stop it. At the end of this interview she gives white people five specific tasks.
• Take the 21-Day Racial Equity Habit Building Challenge
• Read the Me and White Supremacy Workbook 
• Why White Students Need Multicultural and Social Justice Education

Geography Games

Seen on Maps Mania: How Well Do You Know the World?

Honestly, Guess Where? is just dumb and not useful in any way: recognizing a capital city based on a Google Maps close-up is just silly and has nothing to do with geographic knowledge or insights. This is in-essence the 21st-century version of memorizing river names and has nothing to do with what we think of as the 'geographic perspective'. At least show the satellite image and scale bar - that way you can begin to use deductive reasoning and practice 'thinking like a geographer'.

Boston's Black Heritage Trail

Boston's Black Heritage Trail is a really nice 'story map', created in Tableau.

But, I'm torn. On one hand it shows-off what you can do with Tableau in terms of geography-based mapping and data viz, but on the other hand this would look so much better, especially on smartphones, using a tool such as Esri Story Maps that is specifically-designed for such a purpose.

21 Arguments

It's not that complicated: The 21 best arguments for wearing a mask

https://www.lavision.de/en/news/2020/4302/

The 2020 Environmental Performance Index

The 2020 Environmental Performance Index, a scorecard ranking 180 countries on how well they are managing natural resources, pursuing sustainability, and protecting public health.

Got it? Like any global metric, this is not perfect, but rather offers a general view on which countries are best dealing with environmental issues.

• Esri Living Atlas feature layer
• ArcGIS Dashboard

How Well Do Masks Work?

This really says it all

Great side-by-side maps showing climate and energy views of Democrats and Republicans. Great work as always from the Yale Forum on Climate Change Communication (includes the data and the survey questions): Democratic and Republican Views of Climate Change (2018)

Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change

This sounds great: Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change. There's a book, game app, and more. Here's a review on the NCSE website. Even better: the Cranky Uncle cartoons available as PPT slides!

And then we have the complete compilation of Myths, Facts, and Fallacies - all matched by a great video. Well-done!

https://crankyuncle.com/book/

https://crankyuncle.com/book/

The Sun between 2011 and 2019

This is fun: View the sun on this day every year between 2011 and 2019

COVID by County

Nice interactive map here: COVID Risk Levels Dashboard

Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin DiAngelo