How DO you count so many center-pivot systems?We started last week’s Challenge with two satellite images. The first is from a large center-pivot farm at 29.9653127, 38.3618227 in the northern part of Saudi Arabia. Center pivot fields in Saudi Arabia…
One of the most striking things about flying… … is looking down and seeing giant fields of circles on the Earth below. If you’ve ever seen these, you might have wondered what they are. They are NOT UFO landing sites, but are just fields that are …
Things are often not what they seem… Recall this week’s Challenge: We’re trying to understand what’s causing this gap around the plants up in the chaparral on Black Mountain (in the Santa Cruz range). 1. What causes the odd, plant-free gap aroun…
My FIA seed grant was a fabulous crash course in the future of academia. This blog post is about what I learned on the way to creating ResearchIQ, a dashboard prototype to show the impact of research funding in traditional media, academic publications, and social media. The seed grant experience changed my entire orientation to academia.
The biggest surprises… … are sometimes the ones you don’t see at first. They’re the kind of little things that slowly creep into your consciousness and make you wonder… why is it that this is so?? Long-time readers will remember the one of the …
Finding connections… … is one of those basic skills we have to develop as SearchResearchers. But it’s also something that we encourage in our students, and in critical thinking in general. “Compare and contrast the American Civil War with the Fre…
Connections between artists… … thinkers, do-ers, builders, writers, composers, and makers is important. If you know that Mr. X somehow influenced Ms. Y, or that Organization A is somehow connected with Place B, you’re a leg up on understanding how…
Tools adapt to fit the task… … so it’s no surprise that there are some really interesting tools to fit to unusual work tasks. 1. A tool that’s been used by stained glass workers since medieval times is a fid. What IS a fid? And how would you u…
The world is full of fascinating tools… … and I love to find out what they are and what they’re used for. So, for this week, here are a few Challenges about some really odd, interesting, and unusual tools. 1. A tool that’s been used by stained g…
A panel discussion celebrating the future of information was held on July 8, 2016 at the Harpers Ferry Design Center (HFC) to honor Don Kodak as he steps down from 10 years of leadership at HFC. Over the past 4 years, Don has been an active member of the Future of Information Alliance, helping to host meetings, collaborating with colleagues at the University of Maryland, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, the Newseum, and more. A few of these colleagues joined the discussion to explore issues, challenges, and opportunities of the future of information.
A photo can have lots of information in (and around) it, if only you seek beyond the surface… In last week’s Challenge I asked “where’s the ship in this pic?” and for some information about it. A mystery at a beach in an undisclosed location. If yo…
Sometimes a photo doesn’t just give up its secrets. In this week’s Challenge, I heard a great story about a nearby place, and went to visit it. Somehow, I missed the thing I was sent to find. As you know, sometimes you have to search a bit to learn w…
Hats, Badges, Cloth… … are all signifiers — that is, they all connote much more than you’d think, with meaning and symbolism dripping all over. Knowing the backstory is crucial for these kinds of things. As in my story about the appearance of th…
Several years ago… … I went with a friend to the Edinburgh Tattoo. It’s a wonderful, gigantic mass of Scottish pipes and drummers, with bands from around the world marching back and forth in formation, skirling the pipes and percussing the drums. …
It all began with one word: Cookbook.
I was a sophomore, participating in a small group of journalism students discussing potential innovations in the field as part of my honors program …