Saturday, July 30th, 2011
In the early summer of 2011, the Medvezhiy Glacier in Tajikistan, Central Asia, slid abruptly down its valley and for greater distance than it has in at least 22 years. The sudden downhill slide of the glacier raised concern among glaciologists and emergency management groups about a potential glacial outburst flood that could flow down
Saturday, July 30th, 2011
Ellie Gibson learns how the voyages of trains, planes, tubes, bikes and buses come to life graphically by “data visualisation”. “Information wants to be free” has been one of the rallying cries of geeks, digital activists and hackers since the earliest days of the net. Read More
Friday, July 29th, 2011
The European Commission, in a surprise move, is proposing that its satellite-based Earth observation program be removed from its seven-year budget starting in 2014 and instead be funded by voluntary contributions from individual European governments. The decision to take the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) effort off the commission’s books just as it begins
Friday, July 29th, 2011
More than 7300 fire officers and officials along with almost 1000 units of equipment have been deployed to extinguish the blazes. In its daily report, EMERCOM stated: “Compared to the previous 24 hours there is a fall in the number of wildfires (by 28 hotbeds) and a rise in the areas on fire (by 3 027.03 ha).
Friday, July 29th, 2011
The continued reliance on a strategy of setting aside land and marine territories as “protected areas” is insufficient to stem global biodiversity loss, says a comprehensive study published in Marine Ecology Progress Series, a journal of the Germany-based Inter-Research Science Centre, on Thursday. Despite an impressively rapid growth of protected land and marine areas worldwide, totalling over 1,00,000
Friday, July 29th, 2011
The Kremlin just can’t wait to dazzle and impress the global community with its GLONASS, a satellite positioning technology which is being touted here as a credible challenge to established U.S. rival GPS. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, who oversees GLONASS development, told reporters on Monday that the home-made system will achieve 100 percent
Friday, July 29th, 2011
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education and partners were awarded a US$8 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will be used to excel postgraduate sanitation education and research with a focus on solutions for the urban poor in sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. This 5-year capacity building and research project was
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
Does Europe really want to dictate an idea for climate protection to the rest of the world? That’s the question being asked by US leaders in Washington, who are throwing their support behind a protest by the American airline industry against an EU climate rule. The new regulation comes into force in January 2012 and requires
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) organized its fourth, Spatial Challenge. This year, 37 teams of students from 18 institutions took part in this annual Geographic Information System (GIS) competition. The teams showcased their efforts at The Plaza, National Library Building on 27 July, marking the culmination of six months of hard work by the students. Guest-Of-Honour,
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
The International Space Station (ISS) will be de-orbited and sunk in the Pacific Ocean after 2020 like its Russian predecessor Mir, Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) Deputy Head Vitaly Davydov said on Wednesday. “We will be forced to sink the ISS. We cannot leave it in orbit as it is a very complicated and a heavy object.
