World

FATMAP was acquired by Strava. FATMAP is a 3D outdoor mapping platform. Several friends from Nokia/HERE in Berlin work there. It started out as a downhill ski map (3D) but now has good coverage from OSM in several outdoor oriented activities. Check it out. Congrats to the team on the acquisition.

Crimea - this is a good summary of the situation: Ukraine isn’t likely to quit before they retake Crimea. One thing I was unaware of was a 1991 national referendum in which the majority of Crimean residents voted for independence from the Soviet Union. But if the Ukrainians try to retake it, it will be very difficult. “Putin could lose in Kherson, or elsewhere in Ukraine, and accept his losses. He could even lose the Donbas, part of eastern Ukraine that Russia has occupied since 2014, and make do politically. But Putin surely regards losing Crimea and surviving as president as irreconcilable. He will go to great lengths to hold on to Crimea.”

“The rotation of Earth’s inner core may be slowing down”. Well, that’s the headline and it is the conclusion of a new Chinese study on the potential oscillation of the earth’s core, but if you read/listen the article you realize we don’t really know shit about the Earth’s core.

Meanwhile deep in the Indian Ocean, we get some other glimpses of the biogeography of this planet:

Interesting demographic and economic geography of today’s digital nomads. Based on data from nomadlist.com. Which is a great site if you ever consider working nomadically, even for a short time. The 2023 State of Digital Nomads:

Khanoum, a city founded by Alexander the Great that was the easternmost Greek city - is in Afghanistan. Not surprisingly, it’s at risk.

Chilean Wildfires Chile is the latest suffering through the scourge of climate change induced wild fires. 40 degree C temperatures are not helping. So, here’s a clip on the details of the current event, plus a BBC short on the 5000 year old Alerce tree. That’s right, 5000. It’s likely the compete with the Bristlecone pine for oldest living trees.

US

Place based industrial policy:

Geography of Hope. Some amazing photos of a restoring Glen Canyon now that the waters of Lake Powell are at such a low level. And likely to stay low. I followed it from an HCN article (also excellent) by Craig Childs. One of my favorite authors. But the stunning part was the photos. Turns out the article end notes say: Elliot Ross is a Taiwanese-American photographer based in Colorado. His work focuses predominantly on human stories that inquire into the role landscapes play – both natural and artificial – in shaping community and culture. I loved his photos so I went to his site and this project is titled “Geography of Hope”. He has a great set of photos, slides, and text about the resurrection of Glen Canyon as he observes it to “emerge and heal from a human inflicted wound.”

Utah Department of Transportation is innovating public transit. Well, public transit for the tiny percentage of Utah residents and visitors that can afford ski lift tickets. They’re proposing an 8 mile long (13 km) electric gondola to serve 4 ski resorts that are currently connected to State Route 210. In general gondola’s are great. Let’s put them everywhere. Save money on building tracks. It could be a real public transit solution if used for the public and not necessarily for rich lycra clad snow riders.

Mule deer migration: This one’s from Jim Meacham. Some of you may recall that Jim has worked with the USGS for awhile on animal migration routes and worked on the award winning Wild Migrations: Atlas of Wyoming Ungulates.

Described as “An Unsparing New Geography of ‘American Apartheid’” Black Butterfly is a new book by Laurence Brown where “the scholar and public health researcher illuminates the process of “spatial racism,”. Should be interesting. It is well reviewed on Amazon.