Sci/Tech 101

Handouts for Sci-Eng 101 in New Orleans

The handouts for this year's presentations on National Security and GIS are available on the SLA website or directly via this handy-dandy URL:  http://s36.a2zinc.net/clients/sla/sla2010/public/Content.aspx?ID=108&sortMenu=101003

Hope to see you at the session way-too-early on Monday morning!-JEM

Green Big Truck

GreenBigTruck.com was begun by Aaron Turpen in 2009 as a source for those in the transportation industry in finding alternative-fueled commercial vehicle information.  Check out his site at:  http://greenbigtruck.com/ - mfl

Annual Energy Outlook 2010 Early Release

From the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) web page:  "The Annual Energy Outlook presents a projection and analysis of US energy supply, demand, and prices through 2035. The projections are based on results from the Energy Information Administration's National Energy Modeling System. The AEO2010 includes Reference case, additional cases examining alternative energy markets." - mfl

GIS and the Gulf Oil Spill

Check out this entry and image from the GIS Lounge site on April 30, 2010:  http://news.gislounge.com/2010/04/oil-spill-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-nears-the-coast/

And a more recent entry from The Map Room blog:  http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2010/05/mapping_the_gul.php

Definitely timely as we prepare to head to New Orleans for SLA next month!-jem

The Energy Collective

The Energy Collective is a blog and networking site dealing with energy issues. Podcasts are included along with links to specific energy issues.  - mfl

Remote Sensing-Some Interesting Links

For this entry, I thought I would just provide a few cool links to sites about Remote Sensing.  I thought these were interesting and I hope you do, as well:

Remote Sensing:  The Online Guides (http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/rs/home.rxml), from the University of Illinois.  Focused on meterology, this site provides "two web-based instructional modules that use multimedia technology and the dynamic capabilities of the web. These resources incorporate text, colorful diagrams, and animations to introduce selected topics in the field of remote sensing."  Check it out!

National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center (http://www.nohrsc.nws.gov/) provides "comprehensive snow observations, analyses, data sets and map products for the Nation. "

What the USDA has to say about Remote Sensing (http://www.usda.gov/oce/remote_sensing/index.htm).

And, just because of the high level of coolness, you have gotta check out the page of the Director for the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing (http://www.bu.edu/remotesensing/faculty/el-baz/).  Dr. Farouk El-Baz has many accomplishments in his career, but the neatest has to be having a shuttlecraft named after him on "Star Trek:  The Next Generation."  Sweet!-JEM

SimpleGeo and Please Rob Me

For this entry, I posted a status asking for requests to Twitter and Facebook.  I received a couple that I'll briefly touch today.

Thanks to Marcia Rodney, for suggesting the first topic for this blog entry.

SimpleGeo, founded by Matt Galligan and Joe Stump, is a new start-up company that is devoted to providing software to help developers of web and mobile applications.  This company, based in Bouder, Colorado (great town, by the way, first place I experienced the peculiar bouncy-rubber-asphalty stuff they use for playgrounds...but I digress), grew out of the founders frustration at the lack of a reliable infrastructure for geographic information.

An article about the company is available at http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/start-up-aims-to-be-a-hub-for-location-data/

and the company's website can be found here http://simplegeo.com/

Also, thanks to Steve Stone from Bluegrass Community and Technical College in Lexington, Kentucky (where, many moons ago, I taught Introduction to the Internet as an adjunct.  That was when we still covered gopher and archie, among other things) for pointing out Please Rob Me (http://pleaserobme.com) a site which is dedicated to the danger of too much sharing of information, especially when folks post that they are away on vacation and such via Twitter and Foursquare, etc.  Great heads up for us to remember to be careful out there...even when we're being social.  The owners of the site are currently evaluating its future, due to all the attention they've received.-JEM

GIS and what's this I hear about Geocaching?

As part of my talk this summer, I'll also be talking GIS.  What is GIS, you may ask?  Well, check out this handy-dandy explanation from Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIS.  Go ahead.  I'll wait here.

Done reading?  Good!  Now that that's cleared up, let's continue.  Remote sensing, which I talked about last time, is only part of GIS.  You notice there are a lot of pieces and parts that make up the world of Geographical Information Systems.  As part of GIS, we've seen the proliferation of GPS or Global Positioning Systems, in recent years.  Many of us have them in our cars, for example.  I don't, to be honest, I still prefer allowing Mapquest to lose me in new and fascinating ways, and I'd rather not have a machine voice lecture me about exceeding the speed limit, but I digress.

One activity that GIS systems have made possible is a pursuit known as Geocaching.  This is an interesting activity that a colleague of mine avidly pursues.  Essentially, Geocachers use GPS systems to play "hide and seek."  They look for small objects, pill bottles and the like, hidden in various locations, using provided clues from those Geocachers who have hidden the items.  These items often contain small, cheap trinkets that are traded among those finding the site.  The Geocachers are expected to not place the caches in dangerous locations, nor to trespass on private property.  The caches are expected to be maintained for the next searcher, as well.  To find out more about Geocaching, check out http://Geocaching.com.-JEM

Remote Sensing-via USGS

This summer, Sci-Eng 101's session at the SLA Annual Conference will be dedicated to National Security Resources and GIS/Remote sensing.  In anticipation of that session, I'm going to start talking about the topic of Remote Sensing in this blog entry.  I'd appreciate any shout-outs from the readers of their favorite Remote Sensing/GIS resources, that would be appropriate for the 101 audience (remember:  Mary Frances and I endeavor to keep it simple and basic).

When one things of this topic, the first place that jumps to mind is the United States Geological Survey (an arm of the Department of the Interior).  If you proceed to the USGS's website (www.usgs.gov, natch), you will find a plethora of resources available for your use.  On the right hand side of the page, you'll find links to topics of interest.  One of these is Remote Sensing.

Clicking on this topic, brings up a handy definition of the topic (The process of detecting and monitoring the physical characteristics of an area by measuring its reflected and emitted radiation at a distance from the targeted area. Remote sensing is used in this thesaurus to refer to methods that are solely or primarily deployed through air or space. Included in this concept are studies of biological populations using remote imaging techniques. Related methods which are used most frequently on the ground (e.g. photography), whether underwater, from airplanes or satellites, are not included in the term "remote sensing."), and also provides numerous links to subtopics, related topics and over 70 relevant sites.  You can even refine this list of resources by state (alas, Kentucky is NOT represented).  The links include very brief explanations to what you will look at if you were to click on the link.

One such link, which seems appropriate giving the location for the SLA Leadership Summit, is to the Hurrican and Extreme Storm Impact Studies Coastal and Nearshore Mapping with Scanning Airborne Laser (Lidar) (http://coastal.er.usgs.gov/lidar/), though there are several that are worth perusing.

Again, a site filled with information pertinent to the topic of Remote Sensing and GIS.  What are your favoriite and easy-to-use sites?-JEM

America's Wind Energy Potential Triples in New Estimate

Current wind technology deployed in nonenvironmentally protected areas could generate 37,000,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year, according to the new analysis conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and consulting firm AWS Truewind. The last comprehensive estimate came out in 1993, when Pacific Northwest National Laboratory pegged the wind energy potential of the United States at 10,777,000 gigawatt-hours.

Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/better-wind-resource-maps/#ixzz0gMxo7LRx Wired, - mfl