The lectures are done, and the grading is over: now we can get on with that research stuff that we’ve been moaning that we don’t have enough time for, right? Well…
Sadly, the internet has conspired against us, with not one but two fascinating new sources of procrastination for us. First, we heard about Google Earth Engine’s processing of several decades’ worth of Landsat imagery to produce a 30 year timelapse archive for the entire Earth’s surface. Time Magazine unveiled it to the world, and on the discovery that the whole world (or, at least, the non oceanic parts of it) were accessible at Google Earth Engine, we happily started exploring to find our favourite examples of geological and anthropogenic evolution in action, as the Storify embedded at the bottom of the post demonstrates. Several examples may make it into future lectures.
Then, just when we thought is was safe to return to the internet, Jennifer Wade just had to introduce us to GeoGuessr, which drops you into a random location on Google Street View and asks you to guess where in the world you are. You get 5 turns, and you are scored based on how close you get. Click through at your own risk – it’s very addictive!
Nice plan for content warnings on Mastodon and the Fediverse. Now you need a Mastodon/Fediverse button on this blog.