July 4th is almost here, and that means fireworks again! The fireworks app that has been used in the past few years has been updated, adding cities in San Bernardino County. Continue reading
Fireworks 2018!
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Category Archives: Fun Stuff
The Phantom Atlas
Looking for a gift for someone who loves maps? Take a look at The Phantom Atlas. Long before satellites and Google, cartographers traced out maps of the world, some with errors that persisted for hundreds of years. The Phantom Atlas compiles the greatest “myths, lies and blunders” on maps, from honest mistakes to deliberate lies. Check out this interview with the author:
Hardcover and Kindle versions available on Amazon:
GIS Meme
This one made me laugh!
Spaces in file names were a big problem with my GIS students.
Salary Needed to Buy a Home
Looking to buy a home in California? You will need to make $120,120 per year to afford an average home. Check out this article and map of the US showing what your annual salary must be to afford an average home.
Mapping the Ocean Floor
Interesting article about mapping the ocean floor. I did not know that only 15% of the ocean floor has been mapped so far. An idea to “crowd source” ocean floor mapping is taking hold, using volunteer cargo ships, fishing boats, and pleasure craft to transmit data in real time.
Radio Garden
Radio Garden is an interactive globe that allows visitors to listen to over 8,000 live radio stations from around the world. When you visit the site, radio stations are loaded and then you will be directed to the radio station closest to your current location. From there, you can explore other stations around the globe. Cities with multiple participating stations will have a list appear on the right side of the browser, allowing you to choose which station to listen to. By selecting the History tab or the Jingles tab, you can explore historic radio broadcasts and station jingles from across time and space. Check it out!
Caring For Your Globe Collection
Do you have a globe collection? Sign up for the webinar “Caring for Your Historic Globe Collection” for May 17 and keep those globes spinning! The webinar will cover storage, handling, display, and general care of your globes.
The First Isothermic World Maps
Check out this Library of Congress post about the “father of temperature mapping”, Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), who devised the concept of the isotherm. Cool maps!
Finding and Mapping National Parks
The US National Park Service boasts an extensive, well-designed website that features resources for educators, nature lovers, history enthusiasts, and anyone interested in learning more about the many U.S. national parks and sites. Check out the Find a Park page, which allows you to quickly locate parks and historic sites of interest. Using the interactive map, you can find parks by state and view a variety of statistics about park visitors and land area in each state. You can also conduct a text search to find a particular park. You can also scroll down on the main page to check out a list of fee-free days at national parks.
Stuff in Space
January 2023 NOTE: The Stuff in Space website has moved. The link to the site has been updated.
Stuff in Space is a “real-time 3D map of objects in earth’s orbit”, including satellites and debris. This map uses data from Space-Track.org, a website operated by the U.S. Department of Defense. On this map, different kinds of “stuff in space” are color-coded: red for satellites, blue for rocket bodies, and grey for debris. Visitors may also explore different groups of space objects, which include maps of all Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and their orbits and a map of the debris created by the 2009 collision of the satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251. Check it out!
SoCalGIS.org 