I just love TED Talks. Wonderful, humorous, inspiring speakers. Many short and punchy. Some like:
made me smile and even clap my hands at the end. Others like:
had me laughing and nodding my head in agreement.
The topics are fascinating. And the speakers exceptional. But when it comes to geospatial – and I truly do not mean to be disrespectful to those many speakers who have presented on geospatial topics – I am left a little cold.
My problem with Geospatial TED Talks so far ..
I’ll admit I get amused, and excited quite easily. Tell me a joke, any joke and I’ll roll around laughing. Tell me something that is interesting and you’ll have my undivided attention.
Geography holds the answers to so many questions. That’s why I love it so much. And geography as a science is truly fascinating. We study and focus on both humans and land-forms. Spatial or relating to space, being at geographies core: location or the ‘where’. So why am I a little down on TED Talks?
Because I’ve seen nothing so far which has excited and inspired me!
I’ve seen talks on GIS, digital maps, mapping this and that, big data. All good in their own right. But I want more. I want somebody to talk about the geospatial revolution/evolution that’s underway. Not somebody from one of the big vendors. Somebody who sees our incredibly exciting, newly emerging geospatial world through a different lens.
I was looking over the weekend at the most popular Tedx talks of 2016. And guess what is missing… Any talk which shines a light on the new possibilities the rapid advances in geospatial bring to our world. Let’s change that in 2017.
#People
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Researchers claim to have discovered a new continent mostly submerged beneath the South Pacific. Scientists behind the study say that New Zealand and New Caledonia aren’t regular island chains but they’re a part of a single, 4.9 million-square-kilometer (1.89 million-square-mile) slab of continental crust that’s distinct from Australia. According to the study, the 94% of Zealandia currently submerged broke away from Australia and sank 60-85 million years ago.
Geologists named the structure Zealandia and said it is a distinct geological entity that meets all the criteria applied to Earth’s seven other continents. It has an elevation above the surrounding area, distinctive geology, a well-defined area and a crust much thicker than that found on the ocean floor.
In a paper published in the Geological Society of America’s Journal, GSA Today, they said: “This is not a sudden discovery, but a gradual realization; as recently as 10 years ago we would not have had the accumulated data or confidence in interpretation to write this paper”.
While there is no scientific body that formally recognizes continents, the scientists would like Zealandia to become an accepted part of how the Earth is viewed.
