My New Favorite Website: Weatherspark

Having run the astronomy labs at Elon for many years, I have spent many hours checking many weather sites, trying to predict whether the skies will be cloudy. I would click back and forth between weather.com, accuweather.com, and wunderground.com to access different data slices and maps. Today, I got a glimpse into the future of weather sites with weatherspark.com.  Oh my god! What middle-school girls feel for Justin Bieber, I feel for WeatherSpark! If Edward Tufte and Al Roker had a love child, this would be it.

Ok...putting aside my "shiny new toy" feelings for this site, let me give two critical comments.

POSITIVE: This is the first site I've seen that clearly illustrates the difference between actual weather, predicted weather, and climate. I will certainly have students look at it in class when I start to talk climate change and/or scientific uncertainty.

NEGATIVE: The WeatherSpark map is missing two data products I rely on: infrared satellite data (for tracking clouds that aren't raining) and a future button for the map (so I don't have to use a ruler and estimate when the clouds will show up myself).

Number 10: Asteroids!

In FlowingData's Top 10 Visuals of 2010, I am particularly pleased with number 10.

Text as Visuals

I'd try to explain it, but it is easier for you just to hit play.

Tufte's Personal Library For Sale

As reported on Slashdot, Ed Tufte's personal library is up for sale, including his original manuscripts by Galileo. While the original Sidereal Messenger looks set to go for a million, maybe FR&D would give my $5000 to get this pirated Frankfurt printing.

A Sideways Look at the General Studies Revision

The proposed GST revision has an interesting set of concentric circles in it with the "global citizen" at the center. At today's forum, someone mentioned that the current graphic being used only shows the student at the center and reinforces an egocentric mentality devoid of other humans. I was confused, since I had always seen other people in the picture. I tried to draw a quick sketch to make my case, but my quick sketches didn't really do the job. When I got back to the office, I modeled it quickly on the computer.



I've always imagined that the yellow "global citizen" circle was a person seen from overhead. He was surrounded by other citizens (in the purple ring) that he interacts with through ethical reasoning and personal responsibility.



Of course, it could be that our faculty and students are the "global citizenS" that interact with others.



Finally, as a natural scientist, I like to imagine that the big blue sphere represents the world that we try to gain knowledge of through inquiry.



However, I think other see the purple ring as a lens through which we view the world instead and that there should be blue people in here somewhere. :)

Anyway, I'm much more interested in the details of the GST review (e.g. how courses might get tagged, who is making the final decisions on classes, how much science students will be learning). However, today my mind drifted a bit to thinking about Viz Cult and how a flat image of colored concentric rings could have so many different meanings to people.

Update and Requests

Hi Viz Culters.

A few quick remarks.  

1. We are not meet this coming Thursdays (as I had once suggested) because there will be another GST forum during our meeting time.   Please consider attending this (and other) GST fora as we would like to find ways to intersect our interest in Viz Cult with the revised curriculum (when appropriate).

2.  We would like to get a better sense of the range of faculty, disciplines, and courses engaged or at least interested in visual issues.  I’ll be sending out an email in the next few days/week asking you a few questions about your role (or desired role) in working with visual culture at Elon.  I would appreciate your help with this matter.  We had some really wonderful energy at our last meeting and the time seems “right” to try to get something more formal going. 

3. In the short term, I’d like to start gathering a database of classes in visual culture so if you are teaching a course in the spring you would consider to be “intersecting with visual culture” please send me the name, title, and course day/time.  A brief description would be welcome, but for now the basics are enough.  I will compile these and make them available to our group for advising, but also — and perhaps more appropriately — for opportunities to connect faculty and expertise across campus. 

I’ll be in touch soon to reschedule our meeting.  Until then please keep sending me conference and speaker announcements!

All the best,

Evan 

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE IMAGE

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE IMAGE     
University of California, Los Angles, USA     
2-3 December 2010     
http://imageconference.com/

The Image Conference is a forum at which participants will interrogate the nature and functions of image-making and images. The conference has a cross-disciplinary focus, bringing together researchers, teachers and practitioners from areas of interest including: architecture, art, cognitive science, communications, computer science, cultural studies, design, education, film studies, history, linguistics, management, marketing, media studies, museum studies, philosophy, photography, psychology, religious studies, semiotics, and more.

We are pleased to hold the 2010 conference at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA.

This year's conference features the following plenary speakers:    
* Howard Besser, Director, Moving Image Archiving and Preservation, Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, New York City, USA   
* Sean Cubitt, Director, Media and Communications, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia    
* Douglas Kellner, George Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education, University of California, Los Angeles, USA    
* Emanuel Levy, Professor and Critic, Columbia University, New York City, USA    
* Becky Smith, Theater, Film and Television, University of California, Los Angeles, USA    

For more information about these speakers, please visit the conference website:    
http://ontheimage.com/conference-2010/plenary-speakers/ .

In addition to plenary presentations, The Image Conference includes parallel presentations by practitioners, teachers and researchers. We invite you to respond to the conference Call-for-Papers. Presenters may submit their written papers for publication in the refereed 'International Journal of The Image'. If you are unable to attend the conference in person, virtual registrations are also available, which allow you to submit a paper for refereeing and possible publication in the journal.

Whether you are a virtual or in-person presenter at the conference, we also encourage you to present on the conference YouTube Channel. Please select the Online Sessions link on the conference website for further details.

The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is 18 November 2010. Future deadlines will be announced on the conference website after this date. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of submission. Full details of the conference, including an online proposal submission form, may be found at the conference website: http://imageconference.com/ .

We also invite you to subscribe to our free, monthly email newsletter, and to our Facebook, RSS or Twitter feeds at http://imageconference.com/ .

We look forward to receiving your proposal and hope you will be able to join us in Los Angeles in December.

Yours Sincerely,

Phillip Kalantzis-Cope & Tamsyn Gilbert     
The New School For Social Research, New York City, USA       
For the Advisory Board, International Conference on the Image and The International Journal of the Image