Powerful Emotions, "Bleeding-edge" Technology

by Ilse Genovese

Both are amply represented in this fall issue of the ACSM Bulletin. Ten years have passed since the U.S. was attacked on our own soil. As a nation, we have strived to remove the ugliness from our consciousness and burn into it a lasting remembrance of the heroic people—firefighters, first responders, ordinary citizens—who bore the brunt of that atrocity. The National 9/11 Memorials in New York, in Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, are testimony of love and respect, but also of the art and science—including the art and science of surveying and mapping—that went into erecting them. The latter part of 2011 has also been made memorable by natural disasters that surprised (the earthquake in Virginia felt along the East Coast all the way in Rhode Island) and gravely endangered (the Texas fires). And then, we had the old NASA satellite fall out of the sky! We are still searching for some pieces of it. But the October 2011 Bulletin is not confined to "internal affairs"; we have some great international stories in it, describing how our profession is helping improve people's lives beyond our shores.

GIS in the Himalayas

by Mayur A. Gosai and Leanne Sulewski

Geographic Information Science (GIScience) is quickly becoming one of the leading areas in geography. If proof is needed that this is so, consider the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration's report in March 2010 identifying geospatial technologies as one of the high-growth industries in the past decade (Shumate 2011). With the rise in interest in GIScience and GIS technology itself, it is no surprise that the international community is developing their own geospatial enterprises and entities. Even developing nations are becoming involved, as evidenced by a Geographic Information Systems enterprise project implemented in Bhutan in 2008, with participation by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
More on pp. 12-15.

When Surveyors Were Revolting

by N.W.J. Hazelton

"The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives." — William James
The picture of Mt. Rushmore with the slogan "Three Surveyors and the Other Guy" is now almost a cliché among the surveying community. T-shirts, coffee mugs, posters and all the commercial representations abound. And we feel good about it: "Hey, three of those guys were surveyors, just like me." But the rest of the world sees all four of those guys as former Presidents of the United States. Those heads weren't chosen because of their surveying qualifications; perhaps it never occurred to Gutzon Borglum that they were surveyors. They were chosen to commemorate the founding, growth, preservation and development of the United States.
More on pp. 43-46.

Illinois Minimum Standards of Practice

by Adam M. Boothe

The Illinois minimum standards of practice pertaining to land surveying were "set forth to provide protection for the public and to provide a means by which professional performance of the individual practitioner can be assessed".1 These standards provide direction for our work and codify an idea of what is expected of a land surveyor. Their interpretation forms a good part of the surveyor's work. More on pp. 31-34.

Faster Than Light

by Brian Vastaq

The day after news broke of a possible revolution in physics—particles moving faster than light—physicist Dario Auterio who leads the European experiment that made the discovery, made no sweeping claims.
Read more about this on page 16.

Image source: universitytoday.com

Small, Medium, and Large

by Gregg Marshall

When I was building my first websites, way back in the last millennium, the most common screen resolution was 640 by 480 pixels. Most websites at that time were being designed for 800 x 600 screens, which was rapidly becoming the standard. Desktop, and laptop, resolutions have been climbing ever since. If netbooks hadn't become popular a couple of years ago, it is likely websites would be designed for 1200 to 1400 pixel wide screens. Instead the common design standard for current websites is based on a 960 pixel wide grid, centered on the user's screen.
More on pp. 35-36.

Image source: apple.com