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Tech NewsNewsWhy Does Darpa Need a Huge Underground Facility by Friday?
Darpa is often described as the “mad science” wing of the Defense Department. They’re the ones who have a history of working on cutting edge technology for the military like virtual fences, disaster relief robots, and the invention of the internet itself. They even tried to build Skynet in the 1980s. But Darpa sent out … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsGoogleGoogle Is Sprucing Up Maps With a New Tab for Commuters and Built-In Music Controls
Depending on whom you ask (and where you live), the average American spends between 17 and 33 minutes each way commuting to work, which adds up to a nearly a day (or more) of wasted time every month. So to help take a little stress out of your daily work route, Google is building a … Continued
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EartherEarth Science
New Super-High-Resolution Map Shows Antarctica In Unprecedented Detail
We’ve seen a lot of good maps of Earth’s polar regions of late. A map that shows the thickness of the entire Antarctic ice sheet. Another that shows Greenland’s hidden bedrock contours in unprecedented detail. But a new terrain map of Antarctica is still special. It’s not just the highest resolution ever produced for the … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherConservation
‘End of the World Atlas’ Reveals Future Human-Nature Conflicts
The world is rapidly becoming more urban, but as cities grow in size, their impact on Earth’s biodiversity grows in step. As a new mapping effort led by landscape architects at the University of Pennsylvania shows, the conflict is far more dire than most of us appreciate. Of the 423 cities growing in one of … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherEarth Science
Mesmerizing Visualization Turns This Winter’s Snowfall Into Mountains
Does it feel like your neck of the woods has already received mountains of snowfall this winter? Then you’ll probably appreciate this striking new visualization by Dartmouth geographer Garrett Nelson, which turns this winter’s year-to-date snowfall totals into literal mountains. “I’m a geographer, so I’m always finding ways to make new maps in my spare … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherA Software Engineer Is Using Drone Footage to Map Puerto Rico for Relief Efforts
Ever since Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, a grassroots network of volunteers has been helping the island get back on its feet in an unexpected way. They’re using satellite images to create digital maps of buildings and roads that relief workers with FEMA and the Red Cross are using to reach those in need. Most … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Earther
Why Thousands of People Around the World Are Mapping Puerto Rico’s Buildings and Streets
PHILADELPHIA—In a brightly-lit seminar room above a gym at the University of Pennsylvania, Girmaye Misgna stands in front of a large digital display, pointing to a bird’s eye view of a house nestled among the trees. The two dozen volunteers packed around the long white table watch attentively, their own laptop screens mirroring Misgna’s satellite … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Roomba CEO Swears That He Will Never Sell Maps of Users’ Homes, So Help Him God
iRobot, the maker of Roomba, made big news this week when an interview with its CEO mentioned plans to sell the map data of customers’ homes to third parties. Today, the company launched damage control measures and the CEO is spreading assurances that this is all just a big misunderstanding. https://gizmodo.com/roombas-next-big-step-is-selling-maps-of-your-home-to-t-1797187829 In a statement first … Continued
By Rhett Jones -
Tech News
Stunning New Atlas Shows the Polar Seafloor Like We’ve Never Seen It
An unprecedented collaboration involving 20 countries, 75 institutions, and over 250 marine geologists has yielded a new atlas that’s providing our best glimpse yet of the seafloor at both polar regions of the planet. The images are of significant scientific value, but they’re also quite beautiful. It’s called the Atlas of Submarine Glacial Landforms, and … Continued
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Tech News
Striking New Maps Show the Beauty of Earth’s Shadows
We are visual beings: Our perception of the world is intrinsically tied to our ability to perceive light. But what about the places where light doesn’t fall? Do places in shadow still encode information for the visual cortex to process? Can shadows actually tell us something meaningful about the landscapes they darken? “Shadowlands,” a stunning … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
EartherClimate Change
Enjoy a Gloriously Detailed Look at the Arctic Before It Melts Away
A series of beautiful digital terrain maps, created by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Science Foundation (NSF), are immortalizing something that might soon be lost: the magnificent, ice-carved landscapes of the Arctic. These recently unveiled topographic maps of Alaska are the first publicly-released products from the ArcticDEM project, a White House-mandated … Continued
By Maddie Stone -
Tech News
Here’s the Most Complete Ocean Floor Map Ever Made
What lies beneath the deep blue sea? So much more than you might think. The results that let this new, marvelously-detailed map of the seafloor from NASA’s Earth Observatory be made were actually first published last year as part of a paper in Science from researchers at NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. They were … Continued
By Ria Misra -
Tech News
Aww, Norway Wants to Gift a Mountain to Finland
This story takes place far inside the Arctic Circle but, no, it’s not about Santa Claus. What it is about is truly embracing the Christmas spirit—the part where you give of yourself. Finland celebrates its centennial on December 6, 2017. 100 years! Such a milestone! How do you possibly commemorate such an event? To properly … Continued
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Tech News
Three Surprising Parts of the World Where Air Pollution Decreased
Thanks to a super-sensitive new tool, NASA can now see exactly where air pollution is increasing and decreasing–down to the level of neighborhoods–and in some cases, the results are surprising. In 2004, NASA launched its Aura satellite, a research craft designed to monitor the Earth’s ozone. One of the (many!) instruments aboard Aura was the … Continued
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Tech News
The Fascinating Reason Why the Coldest Days of the Year Vary So Wildly In the US
Statistically, the coldest days of the year should be a pretty simple thing to map. So why does this map look so splotchy? The NOAA recentlyresurfaced this map first published last year, explaining a bit more about its idiosyncrasies. It represents the average date of the coldest day of the year based on 29 years … Continued
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Tech News
Real-Time Traffic Cameras Could Make Me Actually Use Bing Maps
Yes, Bing Maps does still exist, and thanks to a brand-new update, you might even have a reason to use it again. Starting today, Bing Maps has access to 35,000 traffic cameras across 11 countries. Sure, in this day and age of crowd-sourced traffic info a cop-dodging Waze, cameras feel a little passé. But if … Continued
By Chris Mills -
ScienceSpace
Find Your House On This Map and Watch the Satellites Passing Above You
There are more than 2,250 satellites orbiting the Earth right now. But that abstract number didn’t prepare me for the shock of watching a Soviet-era rocket body whipping over my house in real-time. Then I watched an elderly Russian intelligence satellite glide over Seattle. A NOAA weather satellite slid by Newfoundland and the ISS passed … Continued
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Tech News
Look On This Map of First Snowfalls Across America, Ye Mighty, and Despair
A glorious, glorious heatwave is keeping most of the US toasty right now, but the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says we’re all living in denial—winter is coming, and it has a data visualization to prove it. Deke Arndt, the Climate Monitoring Branch Chief at the NOAA, put together this harrowing little piece of data … Continued
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Tech News
England Makes 3D Data of the Entire Country Free After Minecrafters Ask For It
Laser scanning has helped England do everything from discovering new things about Stonehenge to planning better flood infrastructure. Now, the country has made the entirety of its massive trove of scans available for free—in part because of requests from everyone from researchers to Minecraft players. All right, so it’s not just for Minecraft, though it’s … Continued
