KML in Research Competition | Bring your data to life

Google Earth has launched a competition for KML in research, check it out Google is constantly looking for new ways to spur innovation and creativity in science and engineering. We are looking for the best examples of showing your work in Google Earth using KML. And we'll reward the brightest scientists, researchers, and students from all over the world. In addition to prizes, winning entries will be showcased on the Google Earth website and at our booth at the 2008 American Geophysical Union convention

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Surname Surfing

Hi all! This from Ken-ichi: check out how your surname maps globally. I am a big fan of this type of dealie. Check it:map my name.

First full “historical city” modeled with Google Earth - Rome

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7725560.stm This seemed inevitable, but it's really cool to see nonetheless. In my mind, this is exactly the type of thing that Google Earth can / should be used for.

GoodGuide.com: Dara’s Talk Today

From Dara O'Rourke's colloquium today. He went over the new site GoodGuide. Aside from scoring your favorite products based on health, environmental and social scores, they also provide a new tool to look at political support by companies. Check this out: major companies classified by their political donations. Some very revealing information for us consumers! And Burt's Bees is really Clorox? Man is this greenwashing complicated.

New York Times Data Visualization Lab

So I have to admit, the last two days I've spent about 8hrs playing with the 20+  visualizations on NYT online. I also just saw they launched their own website  NYT Data Visualization Lab And users can access this to create their own visualizations. The potential for this Flash style graphics with GIS is endless, it would be great to see a Flash+GIS product out there.  The New York Times is clearly leading this march, it will be interesting to watch it develop. Cheers, Josh

Demographics and the Election

Interesting map. interactively shows how voting patterns by different demographics could impact election results.

California Digital Atlas offers over 60 online mapping services

The California Digital Atlas uses an ArcGIS data appliance to provide access to layers and layers of spatial data, including high-res imagery, usgs elevation, and 2 california-specific street address geocoders. enjoy!

check the app store: Google Earth is ready for iPhones

 I've been discussing with my brother about building app for Android that would allow you to map real time with the G1's GPS onto Google Earth, along with real time photo capture/geo-tag, and upload to your picasaweb, mymaps, earth, something that is close to reality with the G1 phone open development

Rad! Mapping Manhattan Project

Eric Sanderson is visiting CNR next week: Chris G pointed me to his work. Imagining Manhattan before European contact through visualization. Gorgeous work, and appealing on many levels for geographers everywhere.  Project site, and highlights from the New Yorker.  The image here shows an aerial view of Manhattan as it might have looked in 1609, juxtaposed with the outline of Manhattan today.

Pollan is at it again

By "it" I mean brilliantly explaining the food situation. Read his Open Letter to the Next President from Sunday's NYTimes; and listen to him on Fresh Air (10-20-08 podcast).  He touches on everything we talked about in lab meeting last week - ethanol, cheap calories, obesity, GHG, growing biofuels on prime agricultural land, farmer's disincentives to grow food. This guy is amazing.