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Detailed 3D ocean map can help with marine conservation
We've explored such a small part of the ocean that we know more about the moon and Mars. This new three-dimensional map can help us get more acquainted with the body of water that occupies most of our planet, though. It sorts water masses around the world into 37 categories of different temperatures, salinity, oxygen and nutrient levels. There are other maps out there, but they mostly focus on surface or coastal ecosystems. This project, which is officially called ecological marine units (EMUs), includes the waters between the surface and the ocean floor. It maps the frigid waters of the deep sea, the oxygen-deprived Black Sea, the Red Sea and even some rivers in the Northern Hemisphere.
TED founder thinks big data needs a big makeover
Richard Saul Wurman isn't a fan of President Barack Obama's push for data.gov, an online repository for big data. "That's just politicians talking," the 79-year-old TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference founder told me. "I think there will be a pushback saying, 'We don't understand all this fucking data.'" The way Wurman sees it, that bulk collection of raw information has no value without a creative means of diagramming, mapping and comparing it all in a way that gives it meaning. "[You] have to have it in a form that you can understand. They're leaving that step out," he said. It's that approach to the organization of data that has directly informed the creation of Wurman's high-tech information-mapping project, Urban Observatory.
