There is one good thing about living on-campus: you get to keep up with whatever happens on-campus, such as when the marching band gives a concert. Onward to something else.

Have you ever thought about how the top of the page for most maps is (assumed) north? I was thinking about this the other day. Sadly, I think I've forgotten most of those thoughts. It just seems interesting that we associate "north" and "up." Even when speaking about travelling north someplace, more than likely you (okay, I--- I admit I say this. I think I do, anyway) would say you're going up to Alaska- not going north to Alaska (the song that is now stuck in my head because I didn't realize I was setting myself up for that one)... but "up" to Alaska. Alaska isn't above me. That'd be very scary, actually. Alaska is farther north than I am, however. Just one of those weird things where geography and linguistics mix.

Introducing Google Mars.



What you're looking at is a color elevation map of Mars, where blue and green are the lowest elevations and red, pink, and white are the highest. The most notable features in this image include Olympus Mons (the really big circle off by itself in the top left corner), three other volcanoes- Ascraeus Mons (top), Pavonis Mons (middle) and Arsia Mons (bottom), and finally Valles Marineris is that blue line thing. For scale, Valles Marineris is about the width of the lower 48 United States (from left to right).

I admit it. I'm a fan of Lost. I'm trying out Blockbuster Online and put the first two discs of the show in my queue. I got them this past week and have watched the first 8 episodes. I like the show. I'm just anxious to find out a few things that will have to wait until I get more discs.


It made me think, though- what would it be like if I were on the island? Maybe not that island- but if i was somehow "lost" on an island, what would it be like? What would my "role" be? I don't know if I'd see myself taking a leadership role, as I'm usually pretty laidback and generally just "go" with whatever's happening (unless it's something I really wouldn't like to have any part in- I don't follow blindly). I think I'd probably be most concerned about mapping the island- figuring out where resources are and how they can be used... knowing where it's safe and where it's not. With some of what I've learned in my map use and analysis class, I could probably drawn out a fairly accurate map. Before I set out on accurately mapping the island, I'd want to just make a very crude map- to serve as a general reference. Then, after realizing that I'm stuck on the island for possibly many years, I'd start on a detailed map as a little project to keep my sanity.

I could travel during December- just randomlyy go someplace. Iqaluit. Yellowknife. Inuvik. Inuvik has some interesting things- like their church shaped like an ice igloo (very interesting thing- Google image search "igloo church") or their community greenhouse (also interesting to think about, considering Inuvik is north of the Arctic Circle). I guess their greenhouse wouldn't bee too exciting in December... but it'd be something to look at. Hmm... or it might be cheaper to fly to England or the Netherlands or some other part of Europea than northern Canada.

Today I had the idea that I'd drive out to a spot my ex took me when we were dating. It's out in the desert, along a narrow dirt road. I hadn't remembered where it was, but I checked around at GoogleEarth and I found it... well, the road, anway. It was difficult with GoogleEarth to pinpoint exactly where we were (since I'd probably need a more 3-d model instead of just aerial photographs). I drove on the road today, but didn't explore the area in-depth because I had other things to do.

Over X-Mas break (yes, another Futurama reference), I'm going to try to do a comparison of GoogleEarth images and the real terrain (I'll go out to the area and take lots of pictures). Then I'll work on identifying features. Hmm.. this might make a good project for my aerial photography class next semester.

When I was visiting with Placement and Career Services the other day, I was shown a book that had various professional organizations (apart of that "networking" idea). One organization really made my day: The American Society for Geolinguistics.

Geolinguistics? It didn't really occur to me that such a subject could exist. I haven't found too many good sources explaining what is involved in geolinguistics, but I'm going to take a guess at what it is. Geolinguistics examines the spatial distribution of linguistcs - ie, where do languages occur? (Err... language exists everywhere humans do, but I mean specific languages... ie, why do Bostonians talk differently than New Yorkers or Californians? Why does some language exist one side of a mountain but not on the other? What is the pattern of a language's distribution? Or possibly- why did a language evolve the way it did? This might be closely related, but may or may not be apart of geolinguistics) There might be more to geolinguistics than just distribution of linguistics/languages...

Whatever geolinguistics really is, I think I'm really going to have to look into it (if I can actually find some helpful sources and/or contacts). It's especially useful to me- being a geography major with a linguistics minor.

This is another fun, interesting thing I came across while reading what professors leave up on their doors.

"Free States vs. Slave States ~
Oh How Far We've Come...">, a map comparing the 2004 election results to free or slave states.

I really don't think it signifies much- but it is an interesting thing to look at. In my opinion, there's a lot more to what's going on than what the map presents. Yes, there are similarities... but that doesn't mean it actually means something- it doesn't mean there's an actual relationship between the two. Things are a lot more complex than that... but if you think about it, it tends to ruin the fun.

Area 51 can easily be found using Google Earth. I was surprised to find the satellite images of the Groom Lake facility (south of Racehl, Nevada) were actually fairly high resolution, considering that it's in the middle of the Nevada desert.




( More Area51 )

The Earth has been Googlized... or at least Fairbanks.




Click for bigger version.

Earth.Google

I went geocaching for the first time yesterday. For those unfamiliar, it's where there's something hidden (in a box, for example) at a particular coordinate. The point then is to find these objects (the cache). The cache I found today (with jacyl) is a more difficult cache to find. Many caches are hidden in a city (parks, for example), although there are a lot hidden in, essentially, the middle of no where. Today's cache was definately a no where located one. It was a hike to get to (probably 2 miles from the road, I'd guess)... over hills and through the desert. It was fun though.

( More cache! (with pictures) )

Well, today I visited North Pole. It took a while to get there via bus... but what do you expect? I had to go quite a ways out of town to get there. Once there, however, I got to see the Santa Claus house. Wow. I can't believe I actually saw Santa! Well, I saw a few statues and images of him... but he was actually out on his lunch break at the time I visited. One my way out, however, I did manage to see him rid in on a motorcycle. Santa on a motor cycle! Yay!