Archive for October 2011





NASA Updates Topographic Maps

Oct 19th, 2011 | By

NASA has teamed with Japan’s Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center to create a new topographic map covering 99% of the Earth’s landmass.  The maps are created using two sets of data from Japan’s ASTER sensor which are slightly offset from one another.  Merging the data creates a 3D look like Google Earth’s topographic display.  [...]



A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 326

Oct 16th, 2011 | By

A VerySpatial Podcast Shownotes – Episode 326 October 16, 2011 Main Topic: GIS and gaming revisited Click to directly download MP3 Click to directly download AAC Click for the detailed shownotes



First Annual Sketch Up Halloween Challenge

Oct 14th, 2011 | By

Sketch Up has announced their first annual Halloween Challenge. You can pick three categories: 1:Jack 0′Lantern, 2: Haunted House, 3: Both together. You need to fill out a challenge submission form and upload your model to 3D Warehouse in publicly downloadable format. The SketchUp team will judge the entries on October 28th. Here is a [...]



And Another Great Tech Pioneer Leaves Us

Oct 13th, 2011 | By

The news around the Internet today is that Dennis Ritchie, inventor of the C programming language and the UNIX operating system, passed away over the weekend. I think it’s a mark of his impact that it might not be readily apparent exactly how important Ritchie was to our modern technology world. The fact of the [...]



A Story As A Map

Oct 11th, 2011 | By

I’m a pretty big fan boy of Wil Wheaton (although I still hate Wesley Crusher – SHUT UP Wesley!) I’ve never had a situation when the Venn diagram of my fan boy nerdness (it’s a pretty big chart) has overlapping circles in both ‘geo’ and ‘Wil Wheaton’… until today. In his blog, WWdN In Exile, [...]



The Geography of the Death Penalty

Oct 11th, 2011 | By

GeoCurrents has an interesting article on the geography of the death penalty in the US. Most people are aware that Texas has executed the most prisoners since 1976. GeoCurrents does a pretty good job of succinctly detailing a few other geo-facts about the death penalty. They detail the current geography of laws, which are sometimes [...]



A VerySpatial Podcast – Episode 325

Oct 10th, 2011 | By

A VerySpatial Podcast Shownotes – Episode 325 October 10, 2011 Main Topic: Geospatial data and liability Click to directly download MP3 Click to directly download AAC Click for the detailed shownotes



Podcast delay

Oct 9th, 2011 | By

Apologies! The podcast will be up a little late this week.



Search For Life on Mars

Oct 5th, 2011 | By

Ok, not Mars. Not just yet, at least. Researchers have created really cool science project called MAPPER. The idea is to leverage citizen scientists to comb through data and find signs of life on far away planets. For now, they have tapped into a couple of DeepWorker bots currently exploring the depths of two lakes [...]



National Geographic Challenge for PS3, XBOX360, and Wii

Oct 3rd, 2011 | By

As you know, many of our discussions here on VerySpatial have touched on the increasing convergence between geography, geospatial technologies, and games and gaming technology. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw the announcement and trailer for National Geographic Challenge, a new console game that will be available for all 3 of the [...]