Ongoing research

Lots of exciting sharing this week! A new high-resolution global map of forest loss and gain has been created with the help of Google Earth. The interactive online tool is publicly available and zooms in to a remarkably high level of local detail - a resolution of 30m.

Abstract: Reduction in herbicide use in non-agricultural areas is being imposed by a growing number of governments, triggering the development of alternative strategies for weed prevention and control.

In the past avocados were rarely pruned. In fact, if the trees got very big, growers would stump them down to 3-4 feet and then let them regrow. This would often be a disaster, since the trees rapidly grew to stupendous sizes again.

NASA has announced a partnership with Amazon Web Services that the agency hopes will spark wider collaboration on climate research. In an effort that is in some ways parallel to Google's Earth Engine, NASA has uploaded terabytes of data to Amazon's public cloud and made it available to the anyone.

"What's wrong with my bees?" That's a question frequently asked of Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. Fact is, he's an "unbee-lievable" wealth of information.

You've heard of "The Beauty and the Beast?" A fairy tale? How about "The Beauty and the Beetles?" No fairy tale. That's the theme of the open house on Saturday, Nov. 23 from 1 to 4 p.m.

For class discussion: here is one look at the difference between Google Maps and Open Street Map. From http://www.theguardian.

UC Berkeley is establishing a new institute to enable university researchers to harness the full potential of the data-rich world that today characterizes all fields of science and discovery.

Bed bug behavior? Fascinating! Just ask Kenneth Haynes. "Despite their proclivity to hide near to where we sleep and stealthily feed on our blood, bed bugs are extremely fascinating insects," he writes on his website.

urgent needs from the Philippines, from tweets and images YolandaPH is a ESRI-based mapping platform for post-disaster response in the Philippines. Snapshot above.