August 7, 2012

Here’s a snippet of what’s new on GISuser (via GISuser Today newsletter)… enjoy! We’ve been busy editing and processing videos from the esriuc and have made available all the interviews we conducted onsite. Moving forward, big news from NASA as Curiosity is now sending images from Mars back to us… indeed a huge win for NASA in dropping the rover on to the surface of the red planet – More on that here (oh, and kudos to CNN on their lack of coverage of Curiosity gathering data and rather a focus on the NASA tech’s mohawk hair do!) Have you been glued to the Olympics the past 10 days like me? Great stuff although I’m sooo bummed that the CDN women’s soccer team fell short yesterday (hand ball?? seriously, a hand ball??) regardless, kudos to the US ladies on advancing to the Gold medal game. If tracking the winners is your thing then be sure to scope out details of the latest Story Map from Esri – as usual, fun stuff! Another fine graphic visualization has been shared by the Washington Post, this via their map of the US drought which has now spread to some 60% of the USA – A map of the drought shows sun-baked land stretching across the lower half of the country like a surgical mask. Speaking of awesome visualizations, check out this impressive data from the NY Times showing Usain Bolt vs. 116 years of Olympic sprinters – total awesomeness! Finally, is your GeoTech company listed in our popular Directory yet? Listing is Free and guarantees a few clicks back to your website! Speaking of clicks, I recently added a link from GISuser (and the blog) to a friend’s new website… he tells me that his Google page rank almost immediately jumped from 7 to a 2! I luv hearing things like that {some food for thought}. Have a great week all, don’t forget the sunblock, you boaters be sure to wear a life vest, and if you live in an area prone to hurricane activity be sure to grab the latest mobile app from the Red Cross (see image below)… Details HERE

This complete Aug 7, 2012 newsletter is online HERE

Source: play.google.com via Glenn on Pinterest

Some interesting visualizations are popping up in an effort to convey the extent of the drought in the USA, perhaps the worst drought in over half a century! This from the Washington Post… More than a fifth of the contiguous United States rates as being in an “extreme” or “exceptional” drought, according to official statistics released Thursday. Farmers and ranchers are paying the price and obviously, the US consumer will be paying a hefty price at the till in the future.

A map of the drought shows sun-baked land stretching across the lower half of the country like a surgical mask. The northern tier of the country is fine, but the productive heartland of the Midwest, including corn states Indiana and Illinois, has seen its row crops shrivel. Among the places hit hardest and getting even drier are Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Over the 60% of the contiguous US is under moderate drought conditions!