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Global Warming Art

This entry was posted in climate change deniers graphics graphs map on by

MAking climate change almost look pretty, Global Warming Art presents the data as clearly as possible.

Note I found Global Warming Art whilst researching a reply to this post. As I had comments deleted the last time I questioned the veracity of that particular graph, here’s what I said-

Thanks for the links, but I couldn’t find the graph in your post or the figures used in it. You should know that a number of the theories championed by Easterbrook have been examined and shown to be lacking.

For example- Mid century cooling- http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2006/03/what-about-mid-century-cooling.php – CO2 isn’t the only thing controlling the planet’s temperature, during this period the global dimming effect of particulates overwhelmed it. Various other of his arguments, such as that it’s a natural cycle or all down to sun spot activity- and several other points- are addressed in articles linked to on this page- http://scienceblogs.com/illconsidered/2008/07/how_to_talk_to_a_sceptic.php

But back to the graph at the bottom of your post. I wanted to address it because it just looks wrong. Not the numbers are wrong or it’s wrong because I don’t agree with your position, but wrong as a graph. Look at the red trend line. Before 2005 it’s steady, the wild variations of individual data points don’t make it jump around. After 2005 it’s following the data points almost exactly. The red line is based upon average anomalies over a given period, but it looks like the averaging was done over a far shorter period post ’05 than pre. If the average reacts that drastically to a dip in the recorded anomalies then it should also have kicked sharply up for the El Nino year of 1998 and less sharply down for 1985 (La Nina) and 1993 (Pinatubo volcano).

Basically I think someone has fudged the post 2005 trendline. Or, more bluntly, I think that graph is a lie. I’d recommend checking its provenance before using it again. For graphs of temperature change created from publicly available figures you could try http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Temperature_Gallery

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A brief review of Nokia Sports Tracker

This entry was posted in Google Map GPS map mobile phone on by

It doesn’t work on my phone.

Perhaps that was a little too brief.

Nokia Sports Tracker is a neat sounding mobile phone app I heard about on Tuesday. Basically it will use the built in GPS on your Nokia phone to track training rides or other journeys, geotagging any photos taken along the way and allowing you to upload the data to a website to share. I love mapping software so I thought I’d give it a go.

The problem is, my 6220 has never been all that good at GPS. The built in software has found a signal once and still thinks I’m in the same back garden I was eight months ago. Google mobile maps works far better. I guess it polls phone masts and does a bit of initial triangulating from that. Right now it’s got me to within 700 metres- not great for navigating, but it does get better when it can find GPS signals. However, Google maps doesn’t have, that I can find, the trip recording features that are what appealed to me about Sports Tracker.

Does anyone know of an alternative?

Spinneyhead won an award and I didn't even know about it

This entry was posted in map Platial Spinneyhead on by

My Psychodiscography map on Platial was voted joint best music related map on the site for last year. See all the winners here.

I’d almost forgotten about my Platial maps, so now I’m bringing Psychodiscography up to date with music related places beyond the initial batch I placed on it.

Spinneyhead won an award and I didn’t even know about it

This entry was posted in map Platial Spinneyhead on by

My Psychodiscography map on Platial was voted joint best music related map on the site for last year. See all the winners here.

I’d almost forgotten about my Platial maps, so now I’m bringing Psychodiscography up to date with music related places beyond the initial batch I placed on it.

Maps, Schmaps! Get lost in Manchester

This entry was posted in Manchester map photo Salford on by

This is the Schmap guide to attractions in Manchester. It’s a mini tourist guide to the city and one of my pictures has been used to illustrate the entry for the Printworks (this one, in fact).

However, take a closer look and you’ll find that the Lowry is in Fallowfield (Just down from Sainsburys and The Friendship pub), the Triangle is in Salford and Manchester Art Gallery has taken up residence with the Halle. Most out of place, however, is the Currier Museum of Art, which now resides on the campus formerly known as UMIST, having been transplanted from Manchester, New Hampshire.

I’ll send them a thank you along with some map references for where things should be.

Google Maps- Street View and a ghost ship in Manhattan

This entry was posted in Google map New York on by

Google has added another great time stealing feature to its maps. Street View has 360 degree street level photos of the area you’re looking at on the map, caught from a van with a turret of cameras on the roof. It’s a feature that has attracted some controversy and questions about invasion of privacy, but it’s also incredibly cool. The compositing of the photos gives cars and people, particularly when close to the camera, a ghostly, slightly transparent look.

There aren’t many cities mapped with Street Views yet. I took a wander around San Francisco and New York, trying to find views that were familiar from films and skating games. But then I went into satellite view and got distracted by these(if you want an even closer look find the “z=19” value in the URL and change it to “z=20”). Just offshore by Battery Park are two ghostly outlines of boats. Are they really there or are they the product of the way the satellite images have been processed? If you go South along the shoreline you can see another ghostly structure on the seam between one set of photos and another, but the ships don’t look like that.

Any Manhattanites want to tell me whether these boats are real, or go and check the area out for me. I may do it myself in September, if I remember, but I’m curious and impatient and I want an answer now.