News Archive

During the Geography Department’s recent fall barbecue, one of our new graduate students peered into the barbecue pit and asked our Master Chef Dan Montello if he was grilling turkeys. Dan later admitted that he was sorely tempted to say yes, but, upon reflection, remembered that tri-tip (as Californians know this cut of bottom sirloin) had its origins in Central California and would, indeed, be a “mystery meat” to...

Alumnus Kirk Goldsberry (PhD 2007) is a visiting scholar at the Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis and an assistant professor of Geography at Michigan State University. He is also the creator of many analytical tools that emphasize data visualization, including a “CourtVision” series of maps that chart scoring data for NBA basketball players (see the June 12, 2012 article, “Alumnus Kirk Goldsberry Featured in New...

A huge cluster of jellyfish recently clogged the cooling water intakes of the Oskarshamn nuclear plant in southeastern Sweden, forcing it to shut down. This marks the second time that jellyfish have caused the closure of the Swedish plant. The same thing happened to California’s Diablo Canyon facility last year, and four nuclear reactors in Japan, Israel, and Scotland were forced to shut down in 2011, due to swarms of jellyfish...