Sporcle: The New Geography Game

Actually, the online quiz website, Sporcle.com, has many categories, but the geography area is particularly popular. Who’s using it? College students. And, they are not using it to study per se, but for recreation and to jazz up dull geography club meetings according to the Boston Globe. Questions include:

Can you name all the countries in the world in 15 minutes? How many countries have “stan” as a suffix? Which countries share the longest borders? Which country consumes more beer, per capita, than any other? Can you name all 37 countries that contain the letters X, Y, or Z?

What pleases me most about what could be another “how nice! young people are learning geography” article is that the reporter, Don Aucoin asked actual academic geographer about the value of the game. Responses include:

“Maybe it promotes a curiosity about the world, but I think it helps to caricature geography, because it makes it a trivia game,” contends Joseph Nevin, an associate professor of geography at Vassar College.
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But James Hayes-Bohanan, an associate professor of geography at Bridgewater State, says Sporcle does attempt “a higher level of spatial thinking” by, for instance, following a question about the capitals of Africa with a question about the adjacent countries on the continent. “It piques curiosity,” says Hayes-Bohanan. “Once you see the kinds of phenomena they quiz on, I hope that would inspire people to do some reading.”

Intergraph 09 Opens With CEO Wise Stating “We’re not afraid to set aggressive goals.”

Intergraph CEO Halsey Wise (at right) opened the 2009 Intergraph user conference by acknowledging the global economic turbulence, with a hurricane graphic in the background to emphasize his point, and by stating "We are not afraid to set aggressive goals. We will use this trough to power through to the future. Some of our competitors have not even had the courage to hold their user event [this year]."

Wise cited several performance metrics to illustrate the success the company has realized:

• In 2008, the company reached $808 million
• Intergraph has grown operating profits 9x since 2003
• Intergraph R&D spending was $95.2M in 2008, an increase of 40% over last five years
• 32% of revenue comes from products that did not exist in 2003

Wise has set a goal of reaching $1 billion in revenue by 2012 and told the audience to "pay attention…next year we will announce new products and maybe new acquisitions."

More Maps = More Confidence in Renewables’ Locations

There are already a handful of maps designating areas of renewable energy for the state of Nevada. The latest comes from the Western Governors Association. More are expected from state legislation. And of course, all the existing and future maps will be a bit different.

Charles Benjamin, who oversees Nevada activities for Western Resource Advocates, suggests more maps are better:

If you do get three different processes all identifying the same areas, that gives you confidence. It’s like getting a second or a third opinion.

I just wonder if the maps/data/results are in a form that they can be easily compared and integrated. I’m fearing no, but hope I’m wrong!

- Las Vegas Sun

The Challenges of Putting Cemetery Records into a GIS

The Worcester Telegram highlights the challenges one small town, Northboro, MA, is having getting its handwritten cemetery records into a digital, searchable form.

[Director of Public Works Kara] Buzanoski’s goal is to one day be able to type a name into a search bar and have a record, complete with burial coordinates, show up on a computer screen within seconds. Software for a searchable database would cost at least $5,000, she said, and a geographic information system, or GIS, map would cost at least $10,000. The DPW’s budget for this year already has been depleted, and next year may not be any better.

Equally interesting are the comments, one of which suggests that students, even high school students, could tackle the project as part of their history studies.

Senate Finds Funds to Keep Loran

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation found the $37 million in the 2010 and its proposed 2011 Coast Guard authorization bill to operate the Loran system, and upgrade it to a enhanced Loran (eLoran). With the recent concerns related to GPS it makes sense Senators are more wary of shutting down what is considered the best backup.

- NextGov