MGIS GISC 401 Kaikoura fieldtrip dates confirmed: 23 February

The fieldtrip dates for the 2015 MGIS for GISC 401 in Kaikoura is confirmed as the 23rd to the 27th.  AUT and VUW students will need to make their own travel arrangements to Picton, Christchurch or Kaikoura.  Students arriving in Picton and Christchurch will need to arrive in time for the onward journey to Kaikoura.  Times will be confirmed closer to the dates of the fieldtrips.

animated gif of deforestation in Paraguay

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/green-going-gone-the-tragic-deforestation-of-the-chaco-20140728

Apart from the annoying ESRI default settings, this is rather a stark example of deforestation.

F-f-f-follow the penguins

Find turn by turn directions a bit passe?

Want to follow a penguin?

http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/penguin-navigation-sat-nav-app-gps-aquarium-1581996-Jul2014

Cops' crime crystal ball

Good to see crime GIS methods having a very positive impact in New Zealand.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/10280543/Cops-crime-crystal-ball

A little off the GIS topic but equally apt for GIS as for Geography

Article: 

How to Succeed in Business with a Degree in Geography

http://news.aag.org/2014/06/succeeding-in-business/

I came across this article via the AAG today - Geography graduates (or soon to be graduates) should find it worth bearing in mind.

Human Development from the skies

http://diply.com/different-solutions/20-breathtaking-satellite-images-that-will-change-way-you/41081

Images provided by Digital Globe.

North Atlantic Skies

I can't tell you how much it bothers me that I saw this first on the Paul Henry Show (which I am deliberately not linking to).  In my defense, it was because I was watching what came on next...

Such an interesting visualization of the aircraft flying over the North Atlantic.

http://vimeo.com/98941796

relative sizes

http://xkcd.com/1389/

another google map game

http://smartypins.withgoogle.com/

Turns out I'm rubbish at it...

Population cartogram with elevation

A neat cartogram of world population with elevation.

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the book!

http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2014/07/play/mapping-creativity

NZSEA- New Zealand Spatial Excellence Awards

http://www.siba.org.nz/2014%20NZ%20Spatial%20Excellence%20Awards/

NZSEA awards were launched this week.  The categories are:

Organisational Awards	Individual Awards
Award for Export	Professional of the year
People & Community	Student of the year (Undergraduate)
Innovation & Commercialisation	Student of the year (Postgraduate)
Environment & Sustainability	Education & Professional Development
Spatial Enablement	Young Professional of the year
Technical Excellence

Entry this year is free and if you or your organisation have a project or person in mind - go for it!

Importance of base maps

Interesting (and horrific) article on the controversy surrounding the burial of children in a Mother and Babies home in Ireland.

One of the items that caused confusion was the interpretation of an historic map of the area.  Reading about the interpretation of the maps and the proliferation of misinterpretation is disturbing.

http://kettleontherange.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/an-international-publicity-frenzy-and-my-mother/ 

The road that wasn't there

Just booked my tickets for this fun sounding play.  Yes, its quite kid focused but should be fun - if you're keen on joining me. I'm going to the Saturday night 7pm showing.

Presented by trick of the light theatre

This is a story about a girl who followed a map off the edge of the world…

In New Zealand there are some 56,000 kilometres of paper roads – streets and towns that exist only on surveyors’ maps. Or do they? A young woman strays from the beaten track and finds herself in a paper world. It seems a land of possibility but she soon discovers that things that happen in the fictional world can have frighteningly real consequences.

From an award-winning company comes an original fairytale drawn from the twitchy edges of children’s literature – a dark world reminiscent of Coraline, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Margaret Mahy. Combining puppetry, shadow play, and live music, this is a curious tale for intrepid children and adventurous adults…

“Thoroughly enchanting and totally engrossing, The Road That Wasn’t There is a must see show for all ages.” – The Dominion Post

“Probably the most beautiful kids’ show I’ve ever seen.” – Edinburghia2012

Suitable for audiences of all ages.

http://www.circa.co.nz/site/Shows/The-Road-That-Wasn't-There

Gender in the GIS workforce

Not an especially informative article - but one of the first I've seen.

http://www.siba.com.au/News/News-Articles/Gender-in-the-GIS-workforce.aspx

Fed up of your boring quickest route algorithms?

Try the new scenic route algorithm instead...

Yahoo researchers are crowdsourcing the underlying 'scenic' information.  

http://businessetc.thejournal.ie/mapping-route-scenic-1561813-Jul2014/

As we're heavily using a shortest path algorithm for our commuting project, this really struck a cord.  One of the questions we're often asked by pedestrian and cycling commuters is how do we account for things like safety on cycling routes (the safest route may not be the quickest one!) and scenery.  Nice to think that Yahoo is out there solving that part of our puzzle :)