Wind Map

A friend of mine forwarded this interesting link. For those who are into data visualizations, this is a pretty cool visualization of wind patterns across the US. Developed by hint.fm, surface wind data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database. These are near-term forecasts, revised once per hour. So what you’re seeing is a living portrait. (See the NDFD site for precise details; our timestamp shows time of download.) And for those of you chasing top wind speed, note that maximum speed may occur over lakes or just offshore.”

Click on the image to get to the visualization or just go to http://hint.fm/wind/.  Makes it a little more clear why Chicago has the nickname of the Windy City..fun!

ESRI’s new business analyst online

ESRI the makers of ArcGIS just made available to Evergreen Business Analyst and Business Analyst Online, which is a very interesting exploration into the integration of GIS and business analytics.  At first glance it is a way to look at standard datasets through a geographic lens.  You can add data points, buffer or travel times and then run reports from a number of integrated data sets not least of which includes current US Census data.  Create report ready customized maps, conduct market analysis based on a host of socioeconomic information.  They are starting to improve the ability to run queries and analyses from the cloud which rivals some of the more CPU intensive processes that GIS is (in)famous for.  Check out some of the demos which give an idea of what this system is built to do.  You can also try a free trial.  Evergreen students and faculty of course can, through a global account, use the application as part of the state GIS consortium.  Send me an email if you are interested and I can get you started..

Want to try something interesting, try the Get the Scoop on Any Area in the U.S. from the front page of BAO and type in your zipcode and check out the information about your home zip.  whoa.

Maphead: Interesting new book for map nerds

An interesting new book was published lately by Ken Jennings called Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks. A quote from Amazon is “Ken Jennings, best known for his epic winning streak on Jeopardy! in 2004, returns to the writing world with Maphead, a charming, funny, and of course, informational book about the world of maps and the people who love them.”

I’m hoping to get my hands on a copy but haven’t yet. Anyone who has gotten a copy and chewed through it I would love to hear what you think!

Google Earth Farm to Table Project

A really interesting food mapping project conducted by a group of Enviromental Studies students at Middlebury College.  The students built a series of Google Earth KML files that illustrated the spatial movement of ingredients that comprise a standard meal at Middlebury.  I’d love to see this expanded to a college (like Evergreen) that could trace not only food but equipment, materials, everyday consumables to the world market.  Match that to embodied energy and you have a much more definite idea of the real global footprint.