Shoals

Just Another Dark Age

Illuminating the things that grow in our gaps of perspective

Posted on October 28, 2023

In the Summer of 1934, author Patrick Leigh-Fermor entered the Transylvanian city of Kolozsvár, accompanied by his aristocratic lover and chauffered by their enthusiastic wingman. Even distracted as he was by such great company, he took note of his surroundings: [Read More]

The Latest From Lower Saxony

Posted on September 27, 2023

I had given up. My previously-documented enthusiasm for SQLite had run dry, and I had already hammered out another solution. Then Charlie stepped in and saved the day with a window function. [Read More]

Human stories in geologic time

Perception and reality

In which I fall into a well-documented trap of my [our] own devising.

Posted on September 21, 2023

I was at an amazing conference last week. The combination of a great setting, a warm and welcoming crowd - and a novel format that had us outdoors as much as we were in - led to a feeling of progress and connection that I don’t often get at events... [Read More]

The B-Sides of Remote Sensing

Some of the edgier things to which humans have attached cameras in the hope of gaining contextual knowledge of their surroundings

Posted on September 10, 2023

In the course of a lifetime in the almost-accidental study of Earth observation, I’ve found that - over centuries of innovation - humans have tried a million strategies to build the Tower of Babel; not to compete with god, exactly, but to see ourselves more clearly. Inevitably, I’ve acquired a... [Read More]

Dryland XYZ tiles

In which I discover how much geoprocessing you can get done with inline SQLite

Posted on August 17, 2023

Mapbox is occasionally referred to - not uncharitably - as “The Tile Company”. It’s true; we deal with big amounts of data, and the most common map/reduce unit we use is the old standby Mercator/XYZ tile. My past and present colleagues have built some really cool tools to make these... [Read More]

Tradewinds

A message in a bottle (or a laminated bar menu)

Posted on July 25, 2023

Yesterday a friend asked for my help hauling his boat closer to shore, along Lake Champlain in the Northern part of town. The recent flooding elsewhere in Vermont had now reached the lake, and he was worried that the rising waters would carry off his summer recreation plans. So I... [Read More]

A beautiful summer

Can tragedy fade into the background when it's on your doorstep?

Posted on July 12, 2023

Summer is great. I keep forgetting this, but the shores of Lake Champlain - for a blessed few months every year - are an absolute paradise. As I biked with my son to his summer camp this morning, I saw it in full display: boats on the water, strolling couples,... [Read More]