Solar Eclipse

On sunday a solar eclipse will be crossing over the Western United States. This link has a few maps of the path of the eclipse, scroll to the bottom for an animation of the eclipse path.

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/2012-annular-eclipse-of-the-sun-china-to-texas-in-may

Privacy and the web

An interesting article about the use of social-media, such as facebook, for employment background checks.

The article points out that "some companies are mining photo- and video-gathering sites using facial-recognition software" so a person could still be identified by potential employers in seemingly anonymous photos.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/could-you-pass-a-facebook-background-check-2011-07-25

Google's Driverless Car Project

Google's driverless car project just put a whole new spin on applications of lidar technology. The car apparently has a Lidar unit on its roof that creates a 3D map used for navigation.

Here is a story with you tube videos of the car in motion, and here a story on NPR about the project.

Mapping Traffic’s Toll on Wildlife

Roadkill and participatory GIS (two of my favorite topics) make it mainstream! A recent article from the New York Times describes a project out of UC Davis using citizen observers to map roadkill.

"Volunteers comb the state’s highways and country roads for dead animals, collecting GPS coordinates, photographs and species information and uploading it to a database and Google map populated with dots representing the kills. The site’s gruesome gallery includes photos of flattened squirrels or squashed skunks."

The project website can be found here: http://www.wildlifecrossing.net/california/

Read the NY times article here.

Oil Spill Monitoring

A nonprofit called Skytruth has been monitoring the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico using NASA/MODIS satellite imagery and publishing daily reports and analysis as the situation develops. They've also developed an interactive mapping site (Gulf Oil Spill Tracker site) where people can share photos or videos. Here is an example of one of the images they've produced:

 

 http://www.skytruth.org/

Abstract City

Some fun art based on google maps by Christoph Niemann, from the New York Times. Here is one of my favorites, but there are several more on the NYT website.

Google Earth Maps Refugee Crises

GENEVA (AP) -- Internet search giant Google Inc. unveiled a new feature Tuesday for its popular mapping programs that shines a spotlight on the movement of refugees around the world.

Users must have downloaded Google Earth, UNHCR maps to access refugee information.

The maps will aid humanitarian operations as well as help inform the public about the millions who have fled their homes because of violence or hardship, according to the office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which is working with Google on the project. "All of the things that we do for refugees in the refugee camps around the world will become more visible," U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees L. Craig Johnstone said at the launch in Geneva. Users can download Google Earth software to see satellite images of refugee hot spots such as Darfur, Iraq and Colombia. Information provided by the U.N. refugee agency explains where the refugees have come from and what problems they face. Although not all parts of the world are displayed at the same high resolution, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company has made an effort to allow users to zoom in closely on refugee camps. In the Djabal refugee camp in eastern Chad, which is home to refugees from the conflict in neighboring Darfur, Google Earth users can see individual tents clustered together amid a sparse landscape, and learn about the difficulty of providing water to some 15,000 people. Google says more than 350 million people have already downloaded Google Earth. The software was launched three years ago and originally intended for highly realistic video games, but its use by rescuers during Hurricane Katrina led the company to reach out to governments and nonprofit organizations. Google Earth has since teamed up with dozens of nonprofit groups seeking to raise awareness, recruit volunteers and encourage donations. Among them are the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the U.N. Environmental Program and the Jane Goodall Institute. "Google wants to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," said Samuel Widmann, the head of Google Earth Europe. The company estimates that 80 percent of the world's information can be plotted on a map in some way. Rebecca Moore, who heads the Google Earth Outreach program for nonprofit groups, said the company does not control the information published using the software. Google is considering offering a stand-alone version of its mapping software that can be used by aid workers in the field who do not have an Internet connection on hand, she said. Google said it will also provide nonprofit groups in several countries with training and free copies of its $400 professional mapping software, an offer it plans to roll out across the globe over time. http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/08/google.refugees.ap/index.html

Border Fence Raises Environmental Concerns

Although this isn't a Geo-technology article, the issue is inherently geographical and a good example where ecology, politics, and geography come into conflict. Not to mention a complete disregard for community participation in the public process.