Wednesday, December 30, 2009

The NYPL Map Rectifier


Smart card ...
/Sik


Cool tool ...
/Sik


Quote

The NYPL Map Rectifier is a tool for digitally aligning ("rectifying") historical maps from the NYPL's collections to match today's precise maps. Visitors can browse already rectified maps or assist the NYPL by aligning a map. Play the video above to tour the site and learn how to rectify a map yourself.

Everyone is welcome to participate!

?t=t&id=1524465
from Atlas of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan. From actual surveys and official plans / by George W. and Walter S. Bromley. (In 2 layers)
about 1 year ago.Unrectified.
?t=t&id=1524458
from Atlas of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan. From actual surveys and official plans / by George W. and Walter S. Bromley. (In 2 layers)
about 1 year ago.Unrectified.
?t=t&id=1524448
from Atlas of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan. From actual surveys and official plans / by George W. and Walter S. Bromley. (In 2 layers)
about 1 year ago.Unrectified.
?t=t&id=1524447
from Atlas of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan. From actual surveys and official plans / by George W. and Walter S. Bromley. (In 2 layers)
about 1 year ago.Unrectified.
?t=t&id=1531750
from Borough of Richmond, Topographical Survey. (In 2 layers)
about 1 year ago.Unrectified.


Read more: http://maps.nypl.org/warper/

Amazon Initiative Map Viewer: Spatial Policy Targeting for Incentive-based Ecosystem Service Management


Flot kort ...
/Sik


Nice map ...
/Sik


Quote

Supported by the World Agroforestry Center, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture, and the World Bank, the Amazon Initiative and its partners are developing an interactive map server for environmental policy targeting. The tool uses spatial information from a large variety of sources and allows users to calculate land cover, biomass. and conservation opportunity costs in custom polygons.




Read more: http://www.iamazonica.org.br/IAViewer/

NASA Visualization of 2009 Antarctic Ozone Hole


Ozon hullet er lukket nu mangler vi bare at løse resten af klimakrisen ...
/Sik


We fixed the hole in the ozone layer ... now we need to fix the rest of the climate crisis ...
/Sik


Quote



Read more: http://gisandscience.com/2009/12/29/nasa-visualization-of-2009-antarctic-ozone-hole/

Monday, December 28, 2009

Scam Journals Uncovered by Improbable Research

Improbable Research has recently reported on some unbelievably brash copyright violations by a set of scam journals:
Strange academic journals: Scam?

We have discovered what may be the world’s strangest collection of academic journals. Published by a shadowy entity, it suggests — at first glance, anyway — some kind of scam. But is there a scam, or not? If there is, what’s the point of it? If there’s not, same question. Maybe you can help us find the answers.

One journal is named Psychology. All its articles have been previously published in reputable journals, some almost a decade ago — but nowhere is that mentioned.
The abstract for one of the articles (PDF) is shown below.



It's absolutely identical to an article already published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology:

DeWall CN, Twenge JM, Gitter SA, Baumeister RF (2009). It's the thought that counts: The role of hostile cognition in shaping aggressive responses to social exclusion. J Pers Soc Psychol. 96:45-59 [request PDF].

Since two of the plagiarized articles were stolen from JPSP, I contacted both editors, Dr. Charles M. Judd and Dr. Jeffry A. Simpson. Dr. Simpson wrote back right away, advising me to contact the American Psychological Association, which holds the copyrights to all APA journals. I did send an email to the Copyright and Permission office and am waiting to hear back.

Since...
3. Permission is Not Required for the Following:
  • A maximum of three figures or tables from a journal article or book chapter
  • Single text extracts of less than 400 words
  • Series of text extracts that total less than 800 words

No formal requests to APA or the author are required for the items in this clause.

...I'm reproducing the abstract below [it's 148 words long].


Click on image for a larger view and compare to abstract above.

Some other lovely tidbits from the Improbable Research post:
The publisher, Scientific Research Publishing, has other journals, as well. Some of them ... also appear to follow the “publish things that were already published, but don’t mention that” principle.

On the organization’s web site, we found barely any identifying or location information. The contact page says “Name: Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. USA” and lists an email address — but we have not found any such corporation in the USA, and email sent to that address has produced no reply. The web site is registered to an organization in Wuhan, China.
Some quick Googling of "Scientific Research Publishing, Inc." turned up a link to the professional activities of Dr. Dharma P. Agrawal, which include:
  • Editorial Board Member, International Journal of Communications, Network and System Sciences (IJCNS), published by “Scientific Research Publishing,” Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. 5005 Paseo Segovia, Irvine, CA.
That's interesting, because 5005 Paseo Segovia, Irvine, CA is a private single-family residence that was last sold for $685,000 on 9/22/2008.

Let's conclude with a bit of irony from Scientific Research themselves:
For Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Paper submission will be handled electronically through the PSYCH online system. All papers are refereed through a peer review process.
They also had the nerve to print 'Copyright © 2009 SciRes.' on every page of the purloined PDFs.

There's a little more sleuthing in this October 2009 thread in the JREF Forum [James Randi Educational Foundation]. I'll post more information if/when it arrives. Stay tuned.

via @noahWG.


UPDATE: The APA Permissions Office was already aware of the copyright violation, and they are currently looking into it.

OLPC XO-3: An Impossible $75 Fantasy Tablet I Want to Believe In


Jeg gir' gerne det dobbelte hvis der samtidigt gives en gratis til et barn i Afrika ...
/Sik


I want one ... Double the price and give a child one for free ...
/Sik


Quote



The dual-touchscreen XO-2 was a fantastical concept. But it's nothing on OLPC's XO-3, a hot, messy wet dream of a tablet: All semi-flexible plastic, multitouch, backlit and reflective ereading modes, thinner than an iPhone and $75.

Remember, this is the organization that didn't just scrap the XO-2, but couldn't even tack a touchscreen onto the current XO-1 laptop, which isn't anywhere near a hundred bucks. (Hey, at least they gave up on the dual-touchscreen idea.) I think this sadly says everything about the likelihood of it happening, as much as I'd love to see and play with this thing: "We don't necessarily need to build it," Negroponte told Forbes. "We just need to threaten to build it."

Well, I can't wait to see the XO-4! [Fuse Project, Forbes]


Read more: http://gizmodo.com/5432351/olpc-xo+3-an-impossible-75-fantasy-tablet-i-want-to-believe-in