Blake Esselstyn

I've been studying contour/elevation/relief maps for upwards of 30 years and this one stands out for its wealth of visualization options and elegant interface. Pretty amazing to explore. High resolution in NL is extra cool. Even keyboard shortcuts!

Bert Spaan@bertspaan.nl

I've made an interactive map for exploring the terrain of the world! It uses @mapterhorn.com data and tiles, and WebGL for dynamic colors and animations. relief.bertspaan.nl/world?lang=en

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Tibor M. Kalman

@kalmantibs.bsky.social

1 Sept

Wendell Berry, revered American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, and farmer. August 5, 1934 - August 31, 2026. Rest in Peace, sweet soul. ❤️‍🩹🕯️🕊️

zuzai.orgZuzai, a new word, indicates the absence of AIAbout the word zuzai, coined to denote things made or done without artificial intelligence.

23 July

I wrote something, based on my conviction that the current moment calls for a new word. A nice, crisp word to indicate that something was made or done *without* AI. My proposal for this new word is ... zuzai. zuzai.org 1/2

23 July

Part 2, mostly for the nerds: Zuzai is a recursive acronym. It stands for "zuzai uses zero artificial intelligence" If you like the idea, please spread the word! 2/2

23 June

Surprise on a KLM flight yesterday from Tokyo (Narita) to Amsterdam: the entire flight was in an eastward direction. Though both Tokyo and Amsterdam are in the Eastern Hemisphere (with ~⅜ of the world's longitude between them), most of the flight was in the Western Hemisphere. See image & 🧵. 1/3

23 June

The flight path was not a great circle. Evidently so many airlines are avoiding Russian and Iranian airspaces that there's something of a bottleneck on the route between the two airspaces over Azerbaijan. (When I flew from Amsterdam to Tokyo, that's the route that KLM chose.) 2/3

npr.orgA Trump push to cut 'statistical noise' could mean less data from the Census BureauNew public data for redistricting and other uses may be reduced as Trump officials limit the ways the Census Bureau can protect people's privacy when it releases statistics.

23 June

Here are the original displayed image (in the one above I added the yellow for better visibility) plus one with time zones, which is more cluttered but provides additional context. Also, if you're really super curious, here's the FlightAware depiction, too: www.flightaware.com/live/flight/... 3/3

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Hansi Lo Wang (he/him)

@hansilowang.bsky.social

12 June

My latest @npr.org story: New public data for redistricting, policymaking and research may be reduced as Trump officials limit the ways the Census Bureau can protect people’s privacy when it releases statistics www.npr.org/2026/06/12/n...

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Redistricting Data Hub

@redistdatahub.bsky.social

6 May

Looking for the #Tennessee congressional map proposed today by the state legislature? We created one in DRA sourced from the county, VTD, and census block descriptions in SB 7004 & HB 7003. Map: tinyurl.com/3e59msnv Data source: tinyurl.com/rfccsw27 #redistricting @davesredist.bsky.social

bertspaan.nlAll 11.333.878 buildings in the Netherlands

8 Apr

This has provided the most fun I've had with an interactive map in quite a while.

Bert Spaan@bertspaan.nl

12½ years ago, I made a map of all the buildings in the Netherlands. Unexpectedly, people loved it! Ever since, I have been wanting to make an updated version of the map. Newer data, higher resolution, more interactive! I never got around to it, until last week: bertspaan.nl/buildings

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Openscapes

@openscapes.bsky.social

5 Mar

📅 March 19 @juliesquid.bsky.social will reprise her AGU Greg Leptoukh Lecture: Forking as a Worldview: How Openscapes uses the open source concept of copy-modify to support researchers & shift culture in science. Everyone welcome. Details: openscapes.org/events/2026-... #openscience #kinderscience

arcg.isarcg.isThis story map was created with the Story Map Cascade application in ArcGIS Online.

23 Feb

In 2019 I created a Story Map explainer of NC's distinctive county grouping requirement for legislative redistricting. Soon that resource will vanish (Esri is retiring that old platform). If you want a refresher on the so-called "Stephenson" process, now's the time! #NCPol 1/3 arcg.is/1DnDO

23 Feb

One thing about this early generation of scrollable story maps is that the content can't be indexed by search engines. Nonetheless, as of today, the explainer has had nearly 3,000 views, almost all presumably driven by people sharing links to it. Not too bad for a somewhat arcane topic. 2/3

23 Feb

I have no immediate plans to migrate the content to another platform; the explanation is based on a set of numbers and groupings that are now outdated. At some point I would like to provide an updated version. If folks have recommendations for FOSS scrollytelling platforms, please let me know! 3/3

podbean.comEpisode 30: Predictions for (the rest of) 2026Happy new year!!! We know, we know, we’ve been in 2026 for a while already (already too long?). But this is the first episode we recorded this year, the first one with Levi as a dad (yay!), and one wh...

19 Feb

Some fascinating prognostication in this episode!

Dani Arribas-Bel@darribas.bsky.social

New episode of the one and only #GLaDpodcast. For this one, @rsfrankl.bsky.social , @levijohnwolf.bsky.social and yours truly dust off our oracles to speculate what 2026 (whatever is left of it anyway) has in store for Geography, Life, Geography Life, and Data! www.podbean.com/eas/pb-8urep...

19 Jan

An illuminating look below the surface of this topic, revealing what such a change would entail.

Chris Cooper@chriscooperwcu.bsky.social

The Battle to be First in the Democratic Presidential Primary Isn't Worth it for NC. 🔗 ⬇️ substack.com/home/post/p-... #ncpol #2028election

30 Dec 2025

After years of using Google Maps as my primary app for driving navigation, today I drove to an unfamiliar place using @organicmaps.bsky.social for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. Particularly nice was that the app was less talkative, not stating the obvious (e.g., merge). 1/3

30 Dec 2025

Other notes: - I was driving from Maastricht to near Charleroi in Belgium. YMMV depending on OSM data. - In the screenshot, you can see I was in flight/airplane mode, using downloaded data. Still worked well. - It also offers the "first person driver" view. I just prefer keeping north as up. 2/3

open.spotify.comEpisode 27: Are you GLaD about GeoAI? A conversation with Kryzsztof Janowicz

30 Dec 2025

- I did not make a significant wrong turn that required rejiggering the route, nor was there congestion on the roads that would have been nice to avoid. - The car I was driving didn't support Android Auto. - Yes, my phone is set to French language, in anticipation of #QGISFR2026 🤓 3/3.

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Rachel Franklin 🦚

@rsfrankl.bsky.social

13 Nov 2025

🎧 new episode of the #GLaDpodcast is out! You can run but you can’t hide. @levijohnwolf.bsky.social, @darribas.bsky.social and I went to the source (Krzysztof Janowicz) to hear more about Geo + AI, AI for Geo, and my personal bugbear GeoAI. #geography #geoAI open.spotify.com/episode/7zZj...

@chriscooperwcu.bsky.social

16 Sept 2025

Do you know anyone whose birthday is today (Sept. 16th)? If they like math—or even if they don't—you could point out to them that 9 / 16 / 25 is a sequence of perfect squares. AND! 2025 is also a perfect square (45²). Best time of day to acknowledge? Perhaps 1:04. 🤓

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Chris Cooper

6 Sept 2025

🗳️Job🗳️ The Buncombe County Board of Elections is hiring an absentee voting coordinator It's a great team in a terrific location. Sept 15 deadline. buncombecounty.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Buncom...

buncombecounty.wd1.myworkdayjobs.comElections CoordinatorThis job posting expires at 11:59PM on September 15, 2025. No applications can be submitted after 11:59PM on September 15, 2025. Job Title: Elections Coordinator Department: External Hiring Range: $29...

census.govTIGER/Line GeoPackagesView the available TIGER/Line GeoPackages from the Geography program.

TIL the US Census Bureau is releasing its latest TIGER/Line data in GeoPackage format! 🧵 www.census.gov/geographies/... 1/5

View full thread

What does it say about me that I've been on Bluesky since November of 2023 and this is what I choose to make my first original post/thread about? 🤓 4/5

I was a bit surprised to see that searches for "census geopackage" and "tiger geopackage" in Bluesky turned up zero results. May this post remedy that situation! 5/5

census.govTIGER/Line GeoPackagesView the available TIGER/Line GeoPackages from the Geography program.

TIL the US Census Bureau is releasing its latest TIGER/Line data in GeoPackage format! 🧵 www.census.gov/geographies/... 1/5

census.govTIGER Data Products GuideHelp determining which TIGER Product to use.

And (at least as of today) it would appear that the Census Bureau is making the 2025 TIGER data available as GeoPackages and NOT shapefiles. www.census.gov/programs-sur... 2/5

census.govCensus Bureau Releases New Geospatial DataThe U.S. Census Bureau today announced the release of new geospatial data, including the first-time release of TIGER/Line files in GeoPackage format.

It also appears that this is not new news; the first such release evidently was in 2024. (For my work, I still mostly use the 2020 geographies because of their alignment with the PL 94-171 redistricting file.) www.census.gov/newsroom/pre... 3/5

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Geomenke

@geomenke.bsky.social

17 Apr 2025

Big news! QGIS 4.0 is on the horizon! #QGIS blog.qgis.org/2025/04/17/q...

blog.qgis.org🎉 Big Changes Ahead: QGIS Is Moving to Qt6 and Launching QGIS 4.0!Exciting times are ahead for the QGIS project! We’re thrilled to share some major updates coming to the QGIS platform over the next few months. These changes are part of a long-planned technical mi…

Blake Esselstyn reposted

Daniel Laurison

@daniellaurison.bsky.social

7 Apr 2025

JOB! Please RT. Swarthmore is hiring for our Social Science Quantitative Lab Associate to support & do teaching quant methods to undergrads. Especially looking for people familiar with sociology and/or political science, and R. Apply by 4/18. apply.interfolio.com/165892 Happy to answer questions.