Gisn8 has found a video by NASA that talks about just why the near infrared band in satellite imagery is useful in tracking vegetation and photosynthesis. A fascinating overview of something that we all knew worked, but probably didn’t know why.

Perhaps the best political map I’ve ever seen, Google Maps Mania is doing its bit for the Australian democratic protest by highlighting the 2013 Election Sausage Sizzle Map, which, as you guessed it, shows you the choicest places to get your sanga sammich come the 7th of September.

The ENVTECH blog reckons that we’re seeing a downward trend in GIS related blogs, and has some stats to back that up. He reckons it’s down to the majority of discussions now happening on social media or GitHub. What are your thoughts?

In case you were curious about just where in the world people were most concerned about the recent royal birth, Google Maps Mania has a Twitter heat map that highlights the areas with the most chatter.

The free ride that was Google Maps on your mobile is now attempting to create more revenue by displaying ads at the bottom of search results. Thankfully, they are of the typically unobtrusive AdWords style that Google is so well known for, rather than the flashing, blinking, screaming ones that are usually seen on mobile platforms.

The OGC blog has a post talking about how geospatial has always been ‘big data’, but that the techniques that are now available for processing big data are benefiting the geospatial world.

All things spatial has a post on the new Australian Solar Energy Information System, ‘ASEISonline’, which presents 25 years of solar data as collected by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and aims to assist in selection of potential locations for large-scale solar power plants in Australia.