Posts by themagiscian:
- Canada 202 080 km
- Indonesia 54 716 km
- Greenland 44 087 km
- Russia 37 653 km
- Philippines 36 289 km
- Japan 29 751 km
- Australia 25 760 km
- Norway 25 148 km
- United States 19 924 km
- Antarctica 17 968 km
- New Zealand 15 134 km
- China 14 500 km
- Canada 265 523 km
- United States 133 312 km
- Russia 110 310 km
- Indonesia 95 181km
- Chile 78 563km
- Australia 66 530km
- Norway 53 199km
- Philippines 33 900km
- Brazil 33 379km
- Finland 31 119km
Belgium – Germany Border
October 29th, 2014Belgium, small country in Western Europe, shares its borders with The Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France. The length of the border with Germany has been reported to be 167km long …
… but at a closer look, the border between both countries seems to be shorter than that.
How is it possible ?
Coastline Paradox
October 5th, 2014According to the CIA World FactBook, the ten countries with the longest coastline are the following (when we take into account Greenland and Antarctica of course):
But, if we base our analysis on the data coming from the World Resources Institute, we get the following list:
This list IS VERY different from the other list. If I had taken a third source, I would have gotten a third different result…
How come ?
Canada Aborigines
October 2nd, 2014A reader of my previous article, the one about the comparison of the Australian States with other UN-countries, left a comment on saying that it would be interesting to see, for Australia, how the different aboriginal groups are spread within the country. I found this comment very interesting and I decided to go so for. But, why not changing the study area?
I then came to the idea to picture the native settlers of the Canadian Provinces. More exactly, this post is about the percentage of the native settlers, that are Inuits, American Indian and Metis, in each Province of Canada.
The technology used in this case is Google Fusion Tables 
Canada – Inuit Population
Australian States and Territories
September 14th, 2014Australia is such a large country which sub-territories, the Australian States and Territories, can be compared to all the other UN-recognized countries in terms of size, population and GDB. Information about size and GDP have been gathered from World Bank and the results can be bluffing as you can in this post.
CLICK on the following picture to start the theater !
Holiday Pics Story Map
September 6th, 2014Holidays come to an end :'( And with it comes also the pleasure to sort out the best holiday pics to create a holiday photo album, to post the best parts on social networks, or simply to have a nice and clean folder on you disk.
I went with some friends beginning of June to Stockholm and I decided to keep my best pictures for the creation of a story map web application! Discover it here!
Shortest distances
August 27th, 2014Have you ever wondered about the strange route followed by the plane when looking on the screens during the journey? This is especially the case for long flights like flying between Europe and the USA:
As you can see, for a flight from Amsterdam Schiphol to Seattle-Tacoma, the plane takes first a route full to the North and then curves southwards to the destination. Why not flying a straight line from origin to destination airport like depicted in the following map?
What is GIS? A correct definition
August 26th, 2014We, as professional, should know what exactly is GIS, the “thing” we are working on all day. But after having surfed on several websites and blogs where the word “GIS” is defined, I have to admit that I don’t agree with all the definitions I see. The main problem is that I don’t agree with the fact that, for example, GIS is automatically linked to “computers” in general.
In this article, I will present my personal definition of GIS.
Please discover the presentation I made here:
Analyse your Runtastic, Runkeeper, Garmin, Endomondo performance on a map (ArcGIS for Desktop)
August 12th, 2014In the previous post, we saw how to import GPX data coming from a Mobile Sports Application, such as Runtastic, and how to create a map. In this post, we go a step further by creating a map which is interesting for runner who wants to analyse their performance. Having several series of maps, the sporty people can analyze themselves and check the portions where they perform well and where less. Notice that this is feature available in the PRO version of Runtastic, for example.
Stop writing! Check out the following self-explanatory map!
As you can seen, I start pretty well before seeing my speed decreasing (due to a steep slope). The speed is then higher because of running down and then the speed decreases slighty along the channel.
How to build this map?
Import GPX using Python (ArcGIS for Desktop)
August 5th, 2014In the previous article I presented how to import Sports GPX data into ArcGIS for Desktop (example taken with Runtastic). I did the exercise for a single GPX file but what do you do if you have several favorite tracks circuits? After having downloaded your routes, the import of hundred of GPX files by doing it manually through the ArcMap interface would take ages!!!
Simple solution: using a Python script!
From Mobile Sports App to Map (ArcGIS for Desktop)
August 1st, 2014You are a runner and you use a tool such as beautiful as Runtastic, Runkeeper, Garmin, or Endomondo, to track your performance (I personally use Runtastic). After having run thousands of kilometers, you came to the idea to spot your tracks on a map. You can use the build in-tools in the Runtastic Webapplication but what if you want to create your own map(s) ? The data can be downloaded in GPX format from your Sports App Website and can be imported into ArcGIS for Desktop thanks to the GPX to Features tool. It is available for all product versions (Basic, Standard and Advanced).
