Cities around the world are covered in spray-painted hieroglyphics and cryptic designations scrawled on public surfaces; unintelligible tags and arcane signs intended to communicate messages to a specialized audience with a trained eye. Such markings are so prevalent that they just blend into the urban patina of dirt and disrepair and go largely unnoticed. I’m not talking about illegal graffiti. Rather, the officially sanctioned infrastructural “tagging” employed by public works departments around the country.
(via Decoding The City: Infrastructural Graffiti | Design Decoded)
According to our estimates, more than 200 million people throughout the Middle East and North Africa depend on income from operating businesses or occupying property in the informal economy—without the protection of the rule of law. - Hernando de Soto
Dr. Mark Plotkin - “Mapping the Amazon”
(via Alumnus Mark Plotkin traces the footsteps of explorer Alexander Hamilton Rice | Harvard Magazine)
For more information, visit Amazon Conservation Team at www.amazonteam.org
The Terrainator allows you to select an arbitrary piece of geography, and have an accurate scale model generated and uploaded to Shapeways, ready for 3D-printing. (via The Terrainator)
Open source a challenge with geospatial data
Open-source geospatial technology has proved its mettle in state and local government and the nonprofit and private sectors, providing significant services, value, innovation, transparency and a healthy return on investment. But significant barriers remain if federal agencies are to realize the same successes. (via Open source a challenge with geospatial data — FCW)
