The Changing World of Coastal, Island and Tropical Tourism

The conference program is online now at:
http://www.geog.nau.edu/igust/fwi/Martinique_Program_Schedule.pdf
looks like a great one!

It will be good to meet some old "geography" friends and make some new ones.

And for someone leaving temps below zero (Fahrenheit that is), the balmy temps in Martinique will be a welcome break!

whew, crazy weather here in the Northeast

I waited until the day was over, but the forecast for yesterday was pretty extreme. We ended up just having a sunny but cold day. Snow came into the area this morning and now it has stopped. There is a break in the clouds (nimbostratus) and hopefully the winter mix (snow, rain, sleet) will stay to the south.

I better get out and do some more shoveling. And maybe some x-c skiing before it ices up.

Recreation on Reservoirs

Folks in New England typically do not like people recreating on public water supp;y lands. One exception is the City of Holyoke who let people (but no dogs) walk around the reservoir. It is some 3 miles around and today, while brisk, the sun made it an enjoyable hike.

Tomorrow, the weather forecasters are calling for snow, followed by ICE. Should be fun.

One more thing, the folks at the Holyoke Water Supply even plow the roads!

a SNOW event coming our way

Wow, you'd think it was something really important. I mean, we are in New England and overall, our snow fall count is down this season. So what's a foot mean for us? Well. school is closed tomorrow.

So everyone is out in the stores tonight buying milk as if the all stores would be out.

It is crazy.

Foxification?

Weather Hysteria?

Just stay off the roads and break out the x-c skis for some good exercise.

See this link for the latest watches and warnings in the States:
http://www.weather.gov/view/largemap.php

Free resources on the Web

It just amazes me on the availability of information on the web. For a brief timeline of the "internet" see this link:
http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/timeline.asp

When I was a grad student in the eighties, we had email. And we could connect to other computers via FTP. And I would spend hours exploring (exploring wasn't coined until the 1990s) the networks trying to find environmental data like satellite imagery. It was all free back then, and for the most part, it still is. Just try "googling" free satellite imagery to see what you can get (besides Google Earth).

Enjoy!

Teaching Physical Geography over the winter break

I'm teaching a Brick and Click class in Physical Geography over our winter break. We met for the first time last night with a Remote Sensing Lab. Everyone is just amazed with the data available on Google Earth (or Google Maps).

It is a wonderful learning tool.

Most of the students use it to explore an area prior to a vacation. StreetView is of interest as well. Here is an image of our campus.

Tonight we do a lab on topographic maps.