Congress cancels novel satellite program

Interesting, I didn't know the Government had a mandate to buy as much commercial imagery as possible on the grounds of national security. Hopefully this won't impact NASA and the Continuation programs. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27286093/

Measuring Your Food Environment

This site is related to the work Ellen and I are working on with Barbara Laraia and Irene Yen at UCSF. We are mapping the food environment for a study collaborating with Kaiser examining obesity and diabetes rates.  This is a new-ish field, with lots of new and exciting methods being developed to map access to "good" and "bad" food.  The National Cancer Institute has developed a site that collects many of these approaches.

Delta news: new plans for more dams?

Two articles about the Governor's plan for the Delta:Governor's panel warns delta must be fixed from the SF Chron; and Delta Vision Task Force Proposes Peripheral Canal, More Dams from the San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center.

Our buddy Bernt and the Neighborhood data

Bernt Wahl - geolunch vet and mapper extraordinaire  is involved in a lawsuit about his neighborhood mapping project.  Says the article in Wired: "the lawsuit could effectively bar Wahl from the mapmaking business for good." Yikes! Bernt could be on the cutting edge of the upcoming spatial data/privacy/proprietary data legal wars.

FANTASTIC Bay Area spatial data

  If you love detailed spatial data and/or the bay area, I HIGHLY recommend downloading and exploring the readily available Upland Goals Project Data . Ryan Branciforte introduced  it to us last week during his enlightening geolunch presentation about his work with the Bay Area Open Space Council. There is a wealth of data for all interests, including vegetation, animals, environmental features, weather patterns, fire risk, and even camp sites if you want to plan a trip to go look at all the data on the ground.

weather satellite imagery brings light to politcal uncertainties

A recent study by UCLA Geographers demonstrates a creative, and controversial, use of DOD satellite imagery.

Access private data at the UC Berkeley Census Research Data Center

Kevin and I went to a talk this week and found out about a very under-utilized resource on campus, the Research Data Center (RDC). It is one of only 9 RDCs in the U.S., and it is the only location where you can access non-public demographic, health, and economic data that contain detailed information on geographic location and/or other characteristics about firms or households. For an overview of all the confidential data you can seek access to,  look over the CRDC's data page, and specific details about each can be found at the Center for Economic Studies Data Page. The application process is described as "rigorous and lengthy", but the people at the center seem very friendly and eager to help more researchers use their data. For a list of other data resources on campus, check out the UC Data resources page.

GeoEye Launch

From Jeremy: This news from GeoEye website: A great day. We had a successful launch and deployment of the GeoEye-1 satellite from Vandenberg AFB, Calif today (Sept. 6, 2008). For more information on the launch, see here.

Global disease alert map

Here is yet another exciting use of the GoolgeMaps API.... HealthMap aggregates outbreak data by disease from numerous sources (news, personal accounts, and official alerts) and displays them by location in real-time. It's a collaborative project brought together by the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. If you're not a germaphobe now, you may become one after taking a look at the map; be sure to check it out before your next international trip or even if you stay around here. For example, did you know that the West Nile Virus has infected 78 people in California this year? Even closer to home, there was a TB scare at Kaiser in SF last week.

NYTimes Beijing Maps & Graphics

Perhaps it's foolish to point out yet another awesome NYTimes infographic, but I found their recent set of maps describing growth and new architecture in Beijing to be both interesting and beautiful. Their Olympic medal history visualization is also cool. Damn them for being so awesome. All the time. </fawning>