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Wisconsin In The News

1. Finally, Wisconsin is recognized for something we’re really, really good at. Thanks to Nathan at Flowing Data for posting this FloatingSheep gem.

Flowing Data | Where Bars Trump Grocery Stores: “Red dots represent locations where there are more bars than grocery stores, based on results from the Google Maps API. The Midwest takes their drinking seriously.” Actually, it’s just Wisconsin that does. Central Minnesota, Chicago and southeast Illinois lightweights need not apply.

2. USA Today Science Fair | Tectonic Plate Model Lets Users Play With 3D Planetary Puzzle

Dubbed MORVEL, for Mid-Ocean Ridge VELocity (because much of the data comes from the mid-ocean ridges) it was created by University of Wisconsin-Madison geophysicist Chuck DeMets and collaborators Richard Gordon of Rice University and Donald Argus of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

MORVEL lets allows users model the relative movements of 25 interlocking tectonic plates that account for 97 percent of the Earth’s surface. It’s being presented in the April issue of Geophysical Journal International and is based on work the scientists have been doing for the past 20 years.

A dynamic three-dimensional puzzle of planetary proportions! Chuck was on my MS thesis committee and we used older versions of MORVEL in our graduate geophysics classes. Glad to see this great research and teaching aid get the attention it deserves.

4 comments… add one
  • Ray Ward March 25, 2010, 8:01 PM

    No red dot for New Orleans? Either the map is wrong, or we love eating even more than we love drinking.

  • pied piper March 26, 2010, 8:41 PM

    Thanks! This is very helping in explaining that whole Tommy Thompson thing.

  • Maitri March 27, 2010, 11:32 AM

    Glad to have been “very helping.”

    Tommy was actually a pretty decent governor and he supports the recent healthcare legislation.

  • jeffrey March 30, 2010, 1:54 PM

    The catch is, in New Orleans, often the grocery store IS the bar.

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