Vexillology…I think I just learned something
Posted by Jesse on January 27th, 2012
Yet ANOTHER reason why I love The Big Bang Theory. “I’m surrendering…to fun.” The sad part is that they probably won’t make the 52 promised episodes.
Warrantless GPS tracking unconstitutional
Posted by Jesse on January 23rd, 2012
Based on a syllabus from the Supreme Court released on January 23, the use of GPS tracking outside of a warrant is a breach of the Fourth Amendment. As stated in the syllabus:
the Government’s physical intrusion on an “effect” for the purpose of obtaining information constitutes a “search.”
There seem to be quite a few implications that come out of the decision that attaching the device is tantamount to trespassing due to the fact that the action was taken outside of the warrant period (11th of 10 days) and location (Maryland vs DC). There seems to be quite a bit of import being placed on the judgement in the couple of articles I have seen so far, however the wording of the syllabus suggests that the key is the actions and information from outside of the warrant’s parameters as opposed to the collection of location information. I think there will quite a bit of debate this week as to the role of the decision on GPS tracking that we will talk about this weekend on the podcast…check back Sunday for our response to others’ responses.
via Gizmodo
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 340
Posted by Jesse on January 22nd, 2012
A VerySpatial Podcast
Shownotes – Episode 340
January 22, 2012
An all news episode
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[more...]
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 339
Posted by Sue on January 16th, 2012
A VerySpatial Podcast
Shownotes – Episode 339
January 16, 2012
Our conversation on cultural mapping
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King’s College [geography] quiz
Posted by Barb on January 12th, 2012
In December, the Guardian UK website posted the questions for the notoriously difficult King William’s College quiz or General Knowledge Paper (GKP) given to students (and parents) at King William’s College on the Isle of Man. In another article on, “The Story of the King Wiliams’s College Quiz” quizmaster Dr Pat Cullen discusses the impact of the Internet on the 106 year old quiz and attempts to Google and social media proof the quiz to keep it intellectually challenging. MacLean’s Canada article on the history of the quiz is simply titled, “The World’s Most Difficult Quiz. Really.”
While only section 2 relates specifically to geography and cartography, I estimated that about 70 of the 180 questions could be considered geo-spatial. These range from questions such as, “4 Who first used continuous and broken lines to indicate fenced and unfenced roads?” to 5 Where did close neighbours claim the invention of a device for observing at a distance? The answers to last year’s questions were posted in February, so you will have to wait a while if you get stumped.
The quizmaster Dr. Pat Cullen doesn’t live in a dusty library tower, he is also a birder and citizen scientist for the Isle of Man which is home to several rare species of birds.
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 338
Posted by Sue on January 8th, 2012
A VerySpatial Podcast
Shownotes – Episode 338
January 8, 2012
Our conversation on cultural mapping
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[more...]
40th anniversary of the announcement of the space shuttle program
Posted by Sue on January 5th, 2012
This great image of US President Nixon and NASA Administrator Dr. James Fletcher shared today by NASA marks the 40th anniversary – January 5, 1972 – of the announcement by President Nixon of the start of the Space Shuttle program, and the beginning of 40 amazing years of innovation and achievement, as well as tragedy in the loss of Challenger and Columbia and their crews.
Image courtesy of NASA
A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 337
Posted by Sue on January 2nd, 2012
A VerySpatial Podcast
Shownotes – Episode 337
January 2, 2012
Our conversation looking back on 2011 and forward to 2012
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New Year Trivia and Tweets
Posted by Barb on December 31st, 2011
There are many sources for New Year’s interactive maps for 2012. The Glencoe/McGraw-Hill Education site has an interactive map and social studies quiz on “Celebrating New Year’s Around the World: Understanding Time Zones“. If you get stuck on the answers, point flags pop up on the map with additional information. Maps of the World has an interactive map that counts down the time to 2012 for each country. The BBC news online also has an interactive map which shows the most popular news stories for the day in real time. So far, New Year’s Eve Celebrations Start has remained the most popular in world traffic to the site. Last Year, Twitter posted an interactive map of Tweets on New Year’s Day calling it an “epic Tweet Day”. It will be interesting to see what 2012 holds.
