planetwater

• Interview with an ESRI engineer in geoprocessing team: understanding processes matters! http://esriurl.com/dls RT @mattartz #geostatistics #
• Cool water fountain with messages – or a poster? http://bit.ly/cqZrNE (via @welldone) #
• India to Create Museum of Statistics http://bit.ly/cwCrAB (via @alexlundry) #

• More pictures of #Eyjafjallajokull http://bit.ly/8Y2YSy [BG Big Picture] (via @highlyanne) #
• How to Solve America's #Water #Crisis according to Robert Glennon. http://bit.ly/9sTJUX (via @loticwater) #
• Some of the most spectacular pictures I've seen of a natural event. http://bit.ly/ahd3JZ It's sucks but its sure is pretty. (via @mekentosj) #
• Peter Gleick's book 'Bottled and Sold-The Story Behind Our Obsession with #Bottled #Water' is out http://bit.ly/aqImwC (via @thewatercrisis) #
• From @big_picture, amazing photos of Iceland's recent volcanic activity. http://ow.ly/1zigk (via @NatGeoChannel) #
• Is Recent Earthquake Activity Unusual? http://bit.ly/avWeCs (via @USGSNews) But what's the expected frequency? #
• water fun: temp. free access to Journal of the Institute of #Brewing & #Distilling /via @olllllo http://ff.im/-j0MWb (via @beersage) #
• Water Becomes the New Carbon for World's Largest Companies | Business | GreenBiz.com: http://bit.ly/aCpMyG (via @ConservationM) #

Here is a little description for how to setup an mbox calendar of the University of Stuttgart under iCal on OS 10.6

• in iCal go to Preferences, to the “Accounts” tab, add a new account by clicking on the plus on the bottom left
• fill everything like in the first screenshot;
  • in the blurred out section, put your user name
  • instead of “iws” put the abbreviation of your institute or department

first screenshot

• if an error message occurs, don’t give up, but try again!
• fill the second screen as shown in the second screenshot. Again: in the blurred out section, put your user name

second screenshot

That’s it! You should be ready to go!

Enjoy!

Wow, I just learned about this today: I am running gstat fairly frequently, for simulation purposes. Here is a nifty little way to run this from a shell that understands both python and traditional shell commands.

1. open such an shell typing

   ipython -profile sh -pylab
   

2. Let’s assume you want to simulate 30 fields, then type:

   import time
   for i in range(30):
    !gstat.exe "{name of gstat setup file}"
    !move "{gstat output file}" ${ "%03i" % (i,) }
    time.sleep(12)  
   

Here are some explanations:

• the gstat output is copied into folders that are named 001, 002,… up to 030
• in order to invoke traditional shell commands they need to be preceded by an exclamation mark
• the time.sleep command is placed, because I found that for a new random seed to happen in gstat it needs to pause for a little while. I am not sure if this is correct or if there are better ways to do this. If you are aware of any, please let me know.
• a “$” is necessary in front of a python command if it is inside a shell command, so it is processed before it is passed to the shell.
• important: “cd” is to be treated like a python command! so do NOT use “!cd ..”

Big thanks to Thomas, master of many things and especially of PyMF!

This is so wicked! I also discovered folder actions in OSX yesterday. How awesome are these two discoveries?

Well, it’s weekend now, and three machines are running full throttle. Cheers!

• RT @IrrigationInfo: Global Water Supply & Irrigation Systems Market to Exceed $37 Billion by 2015 http://goo.gl/fb/CfnNw (via @loticwater) #
• It's Play-Off time! I drew up a #NHL #StanleyCup #Schedule http://bit.ly/9KXnhX http://twitpic.com/1f1lmj #
• On #data and #models and false believe in true models http://ke-we.net/th #modelling #statistics #
• GIS & Geostatistics: Growing Role in Design http://bit.ly/9E02Ke Geostatistics have an important role in the future… (via @Vector_One) #
• AGU assembled a Twitter list with 257 geo/space/ocean scientists on it? (including some hydro people) http://bit.ly/9oWiAc (via @theAGU) #

It’s Play-Off time!

And the season ended with an awesome goal by Daniel Sedin and with Patrice Bergeron scraping the puck off the goal line!

This sets the expectations to a fairly decent level! So I drew up a schedule (pdf)

NHL Play-Off schedule for 2010

Enjoy!

update Thursday; April 15, 2010: I hope I can update the scores on a regular basis!

• Largest Companies Fall Short in #Managing Disclosing #Water #Scarcity #Risks http://ke-we.net/qo #
• CBC: Canada's escalating #water #crisis: http://ke-we.net/qm #
• Does the increasing ease of data mapping & visualization lead more people to mistake correlation for causation? #wherecamp (via @cbdawson) #
• Why hot water freezes faster than cold #Mpemab effect explained, #randomness http://ke-we.net/py #

March 22nd was “World Water Day“. This day gave reason for National Geographic to devote a full issue to the topic of Water. Even more, they let you explore this issue online, for free, and with a few extras such as interactive maps and background stories. It really is a nicely done interactive version, taking advantage of browsing, searching, video and audio. The only unfortunate thing is that it is based on flash.

Cover page of the April 2010 issue of the US National Geographic

For the same occasion, world water day, boston.com has a water-themed collection of astonishing photographs in their “The Big Picture” category

… where water meets money…

There are a lot of people from big companies there. And Maude Barlow is in the final debate.

The time for incremental change in the water industry has passed – and it has failed us. The challenge of global water sustainability is greater today than it was ten years ago. It is also greater today than it was two years ago. This is not just a matter of the steady increase in water scarcity, the continuous depreciation of our water infrastructure, and the on-going degradation of our water environment. It is also a matter of the tightening relationship between water and our staples: energy, food, and money.

Wish I could be there

“Talsperren im Wandel” Eurogress Aachen www.conventus.de/dtk2010 Veranstalter: Deutsches TalsperrenKomitee e.V.