Professor John Boyer’s World Regions class at Virginia Tech got an amazing opportunity yesterday evening to interview Nobel laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who is known the world over for her efforts as a pro-democracy activist in Myanmar (Burma). After Boyer and his class recorded a video interview request and posted it to YouTube, Suu [...]
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 [...]
I’m thrilled with any post that allows me to make a The Police reference. Harold Hackett has a rather unusual hobby – he puts messages in a bottle and throws them into the sea. If you’re thinking this is a big waste of time, you’d be wrong. He’s put out 4,800 messages and has gotten [...]
It seems pretty obvious to me this will be a trend in future elections – Obama seeks data experts for edge. The President leveraged social media pretty effectively in the 2008 campaign. As the article points out, Governor Rick Perry did the same in his election campaign in Texas. What I find the most intriguing [...]
If you’ve ever heard me chatting with Elvin of the ArcPad team, you’ll know that I can wax poetic about cars almost more easily than I can about GIS. I think an awful lot about transportation (mostly old cars, but still…) It always fascinates me to think how well all get around in the future. [...]
I really like that quote. The good folks at the Center for Environmental Research Technology (CERT) at the University of California have been engaged in researching new fuel efficiency technology. Their conclusions – fix the driver, not the car. The way we drive has a huge impact on the efficiency of our vehicles. The researchers [...]
I remember reading a science fiction book in the mid-80’s that featured airship transportation on away planets. I had done a report about the Hindenburg a few years before that and thought the idea was daft. Turns out (perhaps unsurprisingly) apparently I’m the daft one, as NASA has begun constructing transportation airships for use right [...]
With more than a month under its belt, South Sudan seems to be moving full speed ahead. There continue to be issues as expected with a new country, but growth seems evident as well. In July we asked you the question “What are your thoughts on South Sudan independence?” and 47 of you shared your [...]
With South Sudan becoming independent, and the first new country in a while, there are a lot of questions coming up. We will leave the commentary to the talking heads but we are curious about your general thoughts on what is happening, and more importantly what will happen in the future, as South Sudan separates [...]
On this memorial day weekend the History Channel is kicking off a week of Civil War themed shows. While watching I thought I’d see if there were any interesting maps available on the intertubes. What did I find? Some wonderful animated maps from the Civil War Trust ! The maps are flash based and progress [...]
