the Wicked Witch of Finance

Posted on February 22, 2011 | Leave a comment

I have absolutely no formal background in international economics, politics, or finance, but at some point I came across the blog of Chris Blattman and  have been a faithful follower ever since.  I like his explanations, his humility, his dedication to teaching, and his sense of humor.   Like today’s entry in which he likens the world of finance to cruel and unusual acts of violence.

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Posted in geography, politics, social sciences

VGI and the Jane Goodall Institute

Posted on February 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

I was given a gift this morning: to be part of a small meeting at which Jane Goodall and others from her Institute met with Esri folks to discuss current and future collaborations.  Some great ideas being discussed for using VGI and citizen science for their Roots and Shoots program and beyond, and imagining new ways to use geodesign processes in their work.  I’m excited for these developments.  Maybe I’ll make it to Tanzania one day?

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Posted in geodesign, VGI

crisis mapping for New Zealand earthquake

Posted on February 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

The video footage of the Christchurch earthquake has been terrifyingly mesmerizing. I still lack the training to contribute to crisismappers.net, but their task force has been launched. First map from Crowdmap is here.   I want to be ready to help, soon.

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Posted in crisis mapping, VGI, web mapping

Google Public Data Explorer

Posted on February 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Google has released an application that allows you to visualize one or more data sets across different formats, including scatter plots and histograms.  The initial collection of data is somewhat eclectic; many of these are the ones originally included in GapMinder, which Google acquired back in 2007.  This is the first time I’ve seen them do anything with the software.

 

 

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Posted in data & visualization

visualizing science, spatially

Posted on February 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Our capacity to understand and know through representations of information yields deep opportunities, like Maps of Science and these scientific visualizations profiled in Wired Magazine.

It’s thinking with space.

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Posted in education, spatial thinking

origami and spatial thinking

Posted on February 20, 2011 | 1 comment

Origami involves spatial thinking along all stages.  Imagine being the one generating the original set of instructions for a design.

MIT has a whole paper folding club (?).  Paper folders make good engineers.

Origami can also involve curves, and some people choose origami as their livelihood.   (links from GreatMap).

Origami – one spatial way to make your brain work well.  Here is a list of other spatial activities, and not only for children.

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Posted in education, games, spatial thinking

bringing GIS into the geosciences at Hamilton College

Posted on February 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sean Connin at NITLE interviewed Barb Tewksbury, a geologist at Hamilton, on how her department has integrated GIS and spatial analysis into the curriculum.

Barb is also deeply involved in the On The Cutting Edge project for faculty professional development, and Chris can vouch for the excellent work they do. Cutting Edge maintains resources for GIS and remote sensing instruction.

(Thanks for the call out, Barb.)

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Posted in education, GIS, higher education

Part 2, Julio Rivera on geography and spatial thinking at Carthage College

Posted on February 20, 2011 | Leave a comment

Here’s the 2nd part of NITLE’s podcast interview with Julio Rivera, the geographer at Carthage College who’s now their provost. Well worth a listen for his thoughts on spatial learning.

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Posted in geography, GIS, higher education, spatial thinking

Building Stonehenge, ala Ikea

Posted on February 18, 2011 | Leave a comment

Ikea’s iconic instructions, applied to construction long ago.  First page is hilarious, second loses its clever edge.

Assembly diagrams like these are classic examples of thinking in space.

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Posted in humor, spatial thinking

Mapping England’s Lake District

Posted on February 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

Ian Gregory and others from Lancaster University (UK) have applied GIS to literary studies of the English Lake District. Their Mapping the Lakes project has done an admirable job of moving beyond push-pins to some spatial analysis, as they make density maps of the sites where Thomas Gray and Samuel Taylor Coleridge visited and wrote about. Results? Differences in the patterns, with less overlap than many would have predicted. Also some interesting gaps where neither went. Could be networks of access, or vistas influenced by topography or vegetation.

These types of density surfaces always make me wish it were easier to apply “masks” or “barriers” to the analyses. Without that, we get too many false positives and false negatives. Many analyses assume a uniform distribution, that people *could* have gone anywhere across the landscape, when in reality we can’t, and we don’t.

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Posted in GIS, humanities