Geospatial Technology Specialist Adjunct Assistant Professor; Ph.D. 30 years of research, teaching, using & supporting academic technology in higher education.
Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Joined July 2009
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For @theAAG #WisconsinRedistricting panel, I actually georeferenced the first #gerrymander. You’re welcome.
bit.ly/WisconsinRedistrictin…
The Gulf of Mexico has had that name for almost 500 years. On the whim of one person, the official US designation has changed, and subsequently reflected in the publications of many online map services.
Want a correction? Here’s an overlay you can add.
amherst.edu/people/facstaff/…
The Gulf of Mexico is what most of the world calls it, for the last 500 years. The US is now calling it the Gulf of America. Overlapping geographic names are common, e.g. “Persian Gulf” = “Arabian Gulf”. Using one over another is simply a point of view.
maproomblog.com/2026/05/a-pa…
«[A]t the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, at the University of Southern Maine in Portland.…[s]tudents can view maps and globes, both modern and some going back hundreds of years, from all over the world.»
npr.org/2025/12/07/nx-s1-561…
GIS Day @UMassAmherst
Nov. 19 2025
• Keynote “From Big Data to Big Evidence: Combining Ways of Knowing in Computer Cartography”
• Faculty Slam!
• Silly Map Competition
• HOT Mapathon
• Young Professionals Network
meetup.com/valleygis/events/…
Mappy Hour!
meetup.com/valleygis/events/…
The US produces a tiny amount of coffee in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, but nowhere else. A 15%–20% coffee tariff (tax) does nothing to expand coffee agriculture in the US. Bad to the last drop!
AG Pam Bondi now says no.
«[E]ducation-equity experts and legal scholars [had] suggested that increasing the geographic recruitment of low-income and historically underserved students could be another way to boost racial diversity in incoming classes.»
insidehighered.com/news/admi…
At a time when 100-year floodplain maps are becoming 20-year floodplain maps, this is an egregious case of under-regulation.
Federal regulators repeatedly granted appeals to remove Camp Mystic’s buildings from their 100-year flood map, loosening oversight as the camp operated and expanded in a dangerous flood plain in the years before rushing waters swept away children and counselors, a review by The Associated Press found.
to.pbs.org/40RJgQG
«If you’ve ever wanted to explore “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” the best place to start might be Wisconsin. There, a cartographer created the maps in “The Atlas of Middle-earth,” the official geographic guide to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien.»
wpr.org/news/wisconsin-carto…
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (#FEMA) has censored its climate change maps, including those documenting flood-prone areas, as well as current future risk assessments for hazards of all types.
Why? #Trump #ClimateDenial, of course.
googlemapsmania.blogspot.com…
Andy Anderson 🗺 retweeted
🚀 Last month, we celebrated John P. Wilson’s new book, Spatial Data Science, published by Esri Press! 📖✨
Dr. Wilson was joined by Dr. Lauren Bennett from @Esri for an insightful discussion. Thanks to everyone who attended! 👏
#SpatialDataScience #GIS
The Library of Congress has published the latest lists of proposed new/changed subject headings, including the change of "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America" and "Mount Denali" to "Mount McKinley". The public comment period ends today!!!
classweb.org/tentative-subje…
#2/3. A complete substitution, as proposed by this change, is dramatically inconsistent with your responsibilities as a librarian to provide accurate and meaningful reference material to Americans and the rest of the world.
#3/3. At most you should include a reference of some sort linking this new term to the standard term, e.g. as with the following for the “Arabian Gulf”, as the Persian Gulf is known on its western shores.
«The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name…. As a global news agency … the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences.»
ap.org/the-definitive-source…
NEW YORK (AP) — The White House blocked an Associated Press reporter from an event in the Oval Office on Tuesday after demanding the news agency alter its style on the Gulf of Mexico, which President Donald Trump has ordered renamed the Gulf of America.»
apnews.com/article/trump-ap-…
It looks like #USGS is going along with the ridiculous notion of renaming the #GulfOfMexico, after 500 years of use. It will just be on US maps, though, no one else in the world will change it.
Next up: they’ll rename Lake Ontario “Lake New York”.
theconversation.com/can-trum…
