Who turned off the light?

NASA has some cool technology tucked away. I love the way that they make a lot of their imagery and other data available via a range of sources. One of my favourites is their Earth Observatory - I subscribe to the Images of the Day.

This week I note that they have a feature on their main website which I think is pretty cool - a view of the earth at night made up from composite images taken in April and October this year. Here's one of the views - and as you can (or can't) see - NZ is quiet at night! And so is most of the planet.

There is a cool video version as well as a wealth of other stuff - well worth the explore and you can easily see how this can link to explorations at all levels of the science and maths curricula, not to mention the spin offs of creative writing about what its like to be out at night in, say, Canada ... or New Zealand ... or India ...

Japan Tsunami Wreaks Havoc in Antarctica

Sometimes I am in awe of the power of nature - and the way in which technology allows us to understand some of what goes on under the hood of nature is equally compelling.

I follow the NASA Earth Observatory on  a semi regular basis - they way in which they capture changes to the planet over time I find pretty cool. But today I was blown away with just how cool some of their stuff - and their people - really are.

We all saw those horrific pictures from Japan back in March. In fact, our school is currently hosting a number of students from Japan who have been badly affected by that event and what followed.

But who would have thought that the tsunami generated would be capable of ripping huge chunks of ice off the Sulzberger ice shelf in Antarctica hours later.

Sometimes I wish was a geography teacher. This is one of them!