Cool Geo-Video: Mapping Greenland's Ice Sheets

Very cool video showing ice layers from three periods (Holocene, last Ice Age & Eemian) covering 150,000 years of accumulation.

Mapping Cities: Creating 3-D City Models

From the Esri video files

Geo in BI: Embedding ArcGIS into MicroStrategy

Video from the Esri files, a good overview of how to embed GIS into BI.




Location Architect simplifies map creation in MicroStrategy

Location Architect in Esri Maps for MicroStrategy 2.0 allows organizations to define geographic relationships in their MicroStrategy data, and a corporate style for maps at the project level. A Location Architect model simplifies map creation in MicroStrategy, automatically updates maps to reflect changes in the report grid, and applies consistent mapping styles for attributes and metrics across your MicroStrategy project.

Cool Geo-Pic: Mapping Internet Attacks

This image and hyperlink comes from Norse to highlight there Dark Matter platform. 

Per the company's website - " .... The patented Norse DarkMatter platform is a globally-distributed "distant early warning" network of thousands of sensors, honeypots, and crawlers that continuously analyzes Internet traffic to identify compromised hosts, malicious botnets, anonymous proxies, and other sources of digital attack. Processing hundreds of terabytes daily, the DarkMatter™ attack intelligence platform continuously computes over 1,500 distinct risk factors for millions of IP addresses every day...."

Good stuff, but the visualization really brings it to life. It immediately reminds us of a global thermonuclear warfare simulation a-la internet attacks.

Definitely check out Norse - IP Viking-Live

Cool Geo-Video: Earth's Magnetic Field

Cool Geo-Video: Earth's Magnetic field - another great post from NASA's Earth Observatory. I particularly like the visualization of the wandering magnetic north in the video link.

Source: NASA's Earth Observatory 
Quick "Cut & Paste" Summary:

"....Launched in November 2013 by the European Space Agency (ESA), the three-satellite Swarm constellation is providing new insights into the workings of Earth’s global magnetic field. Generated by the motion of molten iron in Earth’s core, the magnetic field protects our planet from cosmic radiation and from the charged particles emitted by our Sun. It also provides the basis for navigation with a compass...."

" ....Geophysicists have noted that the strength of Earth’s magnetic field has been decaying—about 5 percent globally over the past century. However, it is not changing in a uniform way; it grows growing stronger in some places and weaker in others. ...."

"....[t]he changes are a natural variation due to processes in the deep interior of the Earth ....[t] he movement of molten iron in the core creates electric currents, and electric currents create a magnetic field. So every change in the flow of the core means changes in the magnetic field...."

Credits & References: 

1. European Space Agency (2014, June 19) Swarm Reveals Earth’s Changing Magnetism. Accessed September 5, 2014.
2. NASA Earth Observatory (2011, April 23) Earth’s Magnetosphere.
3. NASA Earth Observatory (2004, May 22) Earth’s Surface Magnetism.
4. NASA Earth Observatory (2004, March 30) Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment.

Images and video courtesy of European Space Agency/Technical University of Denmark (ESA/DTU Space). Caption by Mike Carlowicz, based in part on a story from the European Space Agency.

Cool Geo-Pic: Border Result of Different Agricultural Use

Found the cool geo-pic from the familiar NASA Earth Observatory. Fascinating how the different demands & policies for agricultural land use can produce such a stark contrast.

Geo-Pic:



Quick "Cut & Paste" Description:

"....The border between the two countries is defined by land-use policies. In China, land use is intense. Only 11.62 percent of China’s land is arable. Pressed by a need to produce food for 1.3 billion people, China farms just about any land that can be sustained for agriculture. Fields are dark green in contrast to the surrounding arid landscape, a sign that the agriculture is irrigated. As of 2006, about 65 percent of China’s fresh water was used for agriculture, irrigating 629,000 square kilometers (243,000 square miles) of farmland, an area slightly smaller than the state of Texas....."

".....The story is quite different in Kazakhstan. Here, large industrial-sized farms dominate, an artifact of Soviet-era agriculture. While agriculture is an important sector in the Kazakh economy, eastern Kazakhstan is a minor growing area. Only 0.03 percent of Kazakhstan’s land is devoted to permanent agriculture, with 20,660 square kilometers being irrigated....."

Credits: Source link

• BBC News (2010, January 30) Kazakhs protest against China farmland lease. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• Earth Observatory (2013, September 25) Fall harvest in Kazakhstan. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• Encyclopedia of Earth (2013, August 25) Land use profile of China. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• Fragile Oasis (2011, September 7) Borders from space. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• United States Central Intelligence Agency (2014, June 22) The world factbook: China. Accessed July 9, 2014.
• United States Central Intelligence Agency (2014, June 22) The world factbook: Kazakhstan. Accessed July 9, 2014.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Robert Simmon, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Holli Riebeek.

Instrument(s): Landsat 8 - OLI

Cool Geo-Video: Stunning Timelapse of Bustling Midtown Manhattan

New York, NY - downtown Manhattan.

Cool Geo-Video: Stunning Timelapse of Bustling Midtown Manhattan

Production company District 7 condenses more than 50,000 frames shot in 100 different locations into a brief, beautiful tour of New York City (2:42)
Produced by: Drew Geraci (District 7 Media)

Full credits to www.Smothsonian.com for bringing this to my attention.

Geo-Video: Lidar – Working with LAS Datasets

Esri staff give an overview of how LAS datasets can be used to manage large collections of LAS files. Part of the 2013 Esri International User Conference Technical Workshops Series.

Cool Geo-video - Steel Monsters Battle under a Desert Night Sky

Neat video from desert town of Borrego Springs, California. Dragons, Dinosaurs, Giant Scorpions, Wooly Mammoths, and much more created by steel sculptor ricardoabreceda.com Credits to

BORREGO STARDANCE from Sunchaser Pictures for his post .

 

BORREGO STARDANCE from Sunchaser Pictures on Vimeo.

Bike accident - in review

This sign sums up what happened in a glance. Wheels locked up and over the handle bars I went. Of course, the pavement always "wins"; but luckily I survived.

 

 



What "not to do" on a bike



 

As the story goes, my cycling buddy Malcolm and I have been several years now. Our circuit is quite generic; a loop from his house wear he begin solo- to my house, then together to the beach, we ride north on A1A in Delray Beach, FL, head back west at Woolbright - cross the Inter coastal - I "drop him off" at the Duncan Donuts near his house - and I ride the last leg "solo" home. 
 
The circuit is 12 miles (I believe) & our top speed is well below 20 miles/hour. We call ourselves the "Red Faced Fat Bastards Club", as Malcolm is found of saying, "we're athletes for the first 5 minutes of the ride".  In truth, I'm there for the company as much as the exercise, and certainly the slower & heavier rider.
 


Look Mom! Kept all my teeth!

 
 
So as the Florida move to the Washington DC area came upon us for a new job, I'd begun to slowly moving things home one locale to the other.  One of my first "bright ideas" was that I might be able to ride to work, as the Esri office is close to home and has gym & locker/shower facilities.  So after shipping my "better bike" up north - I'm left with a "back up bike" for the infamous ride (and resulting images).
 
 I remember most of the ride. Malcolm met me as usual (though we hadn't ridden in a while). We exchange morning niceties with the family as they prepared for errands and school - and off our two red faced athletes went!
 


Glasses removed from skull - stitches added later

 
Well, somewhere along the return ride from A1A when crossing the Inter coastal, I remember having a bit of speed and power left in me, and I vaulted (more like humbly accelerated) past Malcolm on the bridge accent. I even quipped something snappy about having the strength in me that day. Then .... not much. My mind was quiet. I remember soft thoughts, like awakening from a deep sleep into a dream. There was a sense of satisfaction (I suppose about simply being able again to form a cohesive thought) ... & then the odd sense that I was in an ambulance, with much hustling, taping, strapping and wrappings around me.

 


Elbow preserving ice and cushioning apparatus

 
Of course, Malcolm was the "best mate & hero" who made sure I survived the whole event. He describes it quite differently. They story starts the same way - off goes "Mr. Round Energy" up the bridge. Somewhere on the descent my front wheel wobbles and I lose control. The breaks lock up and I go over the handle bars, cartwheeling from head, to elbow to knees .... to finally a "large mass of a man inertia" in the middle of the road - with bike cascading on top, over and elsewhere.
 
As Malcolm describes, "you know they're OK when the limbs start to move after". Well me? Nope. Concrete snoozing in a lump of gashes & blood. He manages to attempt pressure on my largest wound - my elbow - which he noted "doesn't feel like an elbow anymore" .... more a "bag of rocks all jumbled up" and bleeding profusely. Deep cuts to the eye & chin, shoulder gashed open, with road rage all over my hands & knuckles. In his story, (when I become conscious again) I start mumbling about being fine and other silly talk (I have no memory of this). He rightly convinced me I was anything but fine and to sit my "athlete's ass" down until the rescue vehicles arrived.
 


"Son, don't be like your Dad" speech goes well

 
Obviously Malcolm's story is much more interesting than mine (he's always been the better story teller anyways). His favorite bit is how, having nothing to really staunch the blood from the elbow wound, he was forced to use the sweat-drenched bike gloves as a stop gap. But hey, there padded right? And it doesn't feel like an elbow anyways!
 
So then the time lines coincide, and its time to go to the hospital in the "thousands of dollars" ambulance ride - to the emergency room, where after checking my neck and other parts with X-rays, outstanding medics determine I luckily have shattered my elbow (only) with other wounds being mostly flesh deep.  So with stitches to the eye, its time for surgery the next day.
 


Metal in my arm, but not "cool" like Wolverine

 
The result is a titanium plate with ten screws.  The "home run" screw goes into the bone, with the smaller ones securing the plate. The doctor points in the X-ray underneath the plate.  He calls this "bone goo", as it will take time for the fragments to re-solidify under the plate.  Amazingly I had no tendon or muscle damage, so the break has been the major recovery point. I spend an extra night in the hospital for safe measure to ensure a "tens of thousands of dollars" recovery experience - but we are thankfully alive because of great medics, doctors and a "one of kind" bike mate.
 


"Manly stitches" fails to impress the wife

 
 
After two months in a half cast, we have a manly scar to show for our silly bust of speed and battle with concrete (who, as I mentioned, always wins).  I have begun "home grown" physical therapy (much to the wife's anger) and my elbow mobility is about 90-95%.  Strength for "curling" is good, but push ups will take some time. So far, my biking is limited to the stationary trainer once stored in the garage.  It now keeps my girth to a "toe viewing" minimum.
 
 Best to all. Kiss your kids (and the wife, if she'll let you) every night.  Tell everyone you love them at every opportunity (even when you don't), because we all could lose the "battle with concrete" or other unforgiving object, surface or menacing life-form at any moment.  Cherish the ride!