30 September 2014

Southern Louisiana


The Mississippi River used to change its course with remarkable regularity. Captured by the Corps of Engineers in the map above (one of Bill Rankin's 5 favorite maps) the dynamic river was important to the renourishment of the wetlands of Southern Louisiana.

It has changed so much that Brett Anderson writes in The Medium that logos using the state outline need to be changed if they are to be honest. (Lagniappe: The article includes a trip to Esri)

23 September 2014

Ways of designing

Steinitz lecture on video: Ways of Designing

Climate expert speaking at Rutgers

"Are Our Brains Wired to Ignore Climate Change?" 

George Marshall

7 pm Tuesday September 23  Cook Student Center MPR.


A lecture and book signing by George Marshall, founder of the  Oxford-based Climate Outreach and Information Network and one of the leading European experts in climate change communications. Over the past 25 years Marshall has worked at all levels of the environmental movement, including
as a senior campaigner for Greenpeace US and the Rainforest Foundation.

This event is co-sponsored by Rutgers Climate Institute, Rutgers Department of Human Ecology and Office of the Cook Campus Dean.

This event is open to the entire Rutgers community and the public.   RSVP requested: climatechange.rutgers.edu
Direct lint to register:
http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e9px6ytye9fa2da3&llr=h9zg7diab

The rest of the High Line

With the grand opening of the final segment of the High Line, the NY Times' Michael Kimmelman suggests that your response to the popular elevated design project will reveal something about you:

But this third phase completes a kind of narrative, which the two earlier phases started, about 21st-century New York as a greener, sleeker metropolis, riven by wealth, with an anxious eye in the rearview mirror. It is a Rorschach test, signifying different things — about urban renewal, industry, gentrification, the environment — to different people. 

Sounds like a field trip...

22 September 2014

Something in the air


The DEPARTMENT of ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
presents a seminar by:

DR. JAMES R. FLEMING
COLBY COLLEGE
WATERVILLE, MAINE

“EVERYTHING ATMOSPHERIC, EVERYWHERE ALWAYS” A HISTORY OF ATMOSPHERIC
RESEARCH 1900 - 1960

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER  26, 2014
2:30 P.M. – Room 223 (Refreshments served at 2:15 pm)
Environmental & Natural Resource Sciences Bldg.
14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, New Jersey

Abstract:
This big picture history of atmospheric research in the first six decades of the twentieth century features the work of Vilhelm Bjerknes, Carl-Gustaf Rossby, Harry Wexler, and their associates spanning two world wars and the Cold War, a period of dramatic social and technological flux, from Marconi wireless and the Wright Flier to digital computing and weather satellites, from Roentgen and Becquerel rays to outdoor nuclear testing. Collectively, Bjerknes, Rossby, and Wexler were scientific entrepreneurs, public-minded champions of something larger than themselves, something entirely new and useful. They made meteorology into a physical science, expanded observations to a global scale, developed new techniques of weather analysis and forecasting, built new theoretical models, founded new institutions, trained new people, responded to societal needs, and appropriated the most promising new technologies to establish the foundations of the atmospheric sciences.

Their stated goal was to portray “everything atmospheric, everywhere, always,” and they pursued a Laplacian ideal of precise measurement and prediction.  Henri PoincarĂ© had warned, circa 1900, that perfect observations of nature were not possible, noting that, “small differences in the initial conditions would produce very great ones in the final phenomena.” Sixty years later, at a landmark conference on numerical weather prediction in Tokyo in 1960, Edward N. Lorenz demonstrated that weather systems have a "sensitive dependence on initial conditions," a founding insight of chaos theory that established a new agenda.

Tuition

Susan Dynarksi wrote an interesting column in the NY Times about why public colleges and universities have to keep raising tuition.

Cleaner chalkboards

If you are tired of showing up at a classroom with a messy chalkboard, maybe it is time to ask the Dean for one of these:


19 September 2014

Barcelona: Old and new

It is a city of old and new.

Sometimes they look similar.

Lots of it is just fascinating.


 More after the break...

18 September 2014

Barcelona: starchitects

Gaudi isn't the only famous architect with work in Barcelona. In fact, it seems like nearly every famous architect has to have something there now.

Mies' Barcelona Pavillion.



Gehry has his fish.

More after the break.

17 September 2014

Barcelona: Gaudi and Dali

The planning has begun for a summer studio in Barcelona. Details will follow. For now it is just photos.

Barcelona is the city of Gaudi.



More after the break...

MacArthur Geniuses

The new list of MacArthur "Genius" Awards has been released and it has a couple interesting selections that relate to planning. After gulf coast hurricanes, John Henneberger has done a remarkable job of identifying common ground and negotiating solutions through the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service. Rick Lowe has been using art to transform neighborhoods in need of redevelopment or rehabilitation. And the special thing about these fellowships is that you can't apply for them, they have to find you. So the work these Fellows are doing has clearly stood out.

12 September 2014

Space Station New Brunswick

Ever wonder what New Brunswick would look like if George Lucas drew the map? CityLab has the story on a new map skin that lets you see any city through this Deathstar lens. You can try any place in the world, so try Brasilia or Barcelona and see what you get.

Fall GIS Family Fun Day

The first annual Fall GIS Family Fun Day is scheduled for Saturday September 20, 2014 at noon at Pennington Park, 801 Creek Rd. Delanco, NJ. The third annual Spring GIS Family Fun Day was a huge success with a 400% increase in attendance with over 30 people! A great time was had by all. Visit the facebook page to see some action shots.

Bring family (kids are very welcome), friends, significant others, dogs, etc. There is a playground adjacent to the pavilion, easy access bathrooms, walking trails and a dog park.

For more information, to register and to see who is coming please visit the website:

11 September 2014

9/11 Memorials around New Jersey

Woodbridge 9-11 Memorial


Wyckoff 9-11 Memorial


Allendale 9-11 Memorial


Bayonne 9-11 Memorial


Colts Neck 9-11 Memorial


A 9-11 Memorial from Chatham


Another 9-11 Memorial from Chatham


As an aside, these photos were all taken several years ago one of our students, Jenna Pauloski, who spent some time taking landscape photos for our NJ LA project. I have chosen to omit what I consider the very saddest of the memorials that she photographed (even though the competition for that title is stiff).

10 September 2014

LiveBlog: Steward Pickett: Evolving Theoretical Frameworks for Urban Ecological Science

Rough notes from the Common Lecture

Steward Pickett
Evolving Theoretical Frameworks for Urban Ecological Science: The Global and Regional Metacity

"City" - downtown, suburbs, commercial, industrial, etc.  but the city encompasses more than just those areas

Old City assumptions include - We have long assumed that city and country are distinct

more after the break

03 September 2014

San Gabriel Mountains National Monument?

Of the various complaints you see with the proposed protection of potential parkland, this isn't what you might expect to hear. From the Daily Press:

Rutherford, who represents Lytle Creek and Mount Baldy residents in the San Gabriels, said a big question so far unasked is, “How will the national monument designation affect the placement of transmission lines that may be needed for future renewable-energy projects?”
Don't mess up our potential for transmission lines!


“How will the national monument designation affect the placement of transmission lines that may be needed for future renewable-energy projects?” - See more at: http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20140902/NEWS/140909977/12982/NEWS#sthash.YLywHSMP.dpuf
Rutherford, who represents Lytle Creek and Mount Baldy residents in the San Gabriels, said a big question so far unasked is, “How will the national monument designation affect the placement of transmission lines that may be needed for future renewable-energy projects?” - See more at: http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20140902/NEWS/140909977/12982/NEWS#sthash.YLywHSMP.dpuf
Rutherford, who represents Lytle Creek and Mount Baldy residents in the San Gabriels, said a big question so far unasked is, “How will the national monument designation affect the placement of transmission lines that may be needed for future renewable-energy projects?” - See more at: http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20140902/NEWS/140909977/12982/NEWS#sthash.YLywHSMP.dpuf
Rutherford, who represents Lytle Creek and Mount Baldy residents in the San Gabriels, said a big question so far unasked is, “How will the national monument designation affect the placement of transmission lines that may be needed for future renewable-energy projects?” - See more at: http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20140902/NEWS/140909977/12982/NEWS#sthash.YLywHSMP.dpuf
Rutherford, who represents Lytle Creek and Mount Baldy residents in the San Gabriels, said a big question so far unasked is, “How will the national monument designation affect the placement of transmission lines that may be needed for future renewable-energy projects?” - See more at: http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20140902/NEWS/140909977/12982/NEWS#sthash.YLywHSMP.dpuf

02 September 2014

Welcome back!

Another school year has begun at Rutgers and that means renewing old traditions and starting new ones. In celebration of the new school year, the Interchanges tumblr blog is posting a series of school-related images.  Each day the blog is posting an air photo of an Interstate interchange that is the exit you would take for a major school.

Here is the exit for Dartmouth.