Apollo News Snippets – September 2020

• Our September list of tech advances is one of our longest ever with topics ranging from batteries to biofuel to graphene:
  A wind turbine for your home.
  Our next generation clothes could be made from this carbon-based fabric.
  These bacteria can be modified to produce hydrogen and ethanol.
  Apparently electronic equipment could be even more efficient if it was spintronic!
  Pressure aligned electron highways could make these low-cost solar panels even more effective.
  A liquid-metal battery that stays molten even at room temperature developed.
  High-efficiency, scalable perovskite solar cells developed and tested.
  Important step taken towards sustainable power from seawater.
  Lithium battery with lower fire risk for electronics developed.
  This solar-powered energy generation idea is over 80% efficient.
  Lower cost lithium batteries developed by replacing cobalt.
  Two interesting developments in biofuel: one in Oman based on date pits.
  And the other, a new and improved US Navy catalyst.
  New soft and solid (weird!) electrolyte developed that could open pathway for commercial solid-state batteries.
  Graphene component could improve fuel cell durability.

Tons of red on this Temperature Departure map for July 2020–with some of the warmest weather spanning the Tropical region.

• The July 2020 NOAA climate report shows that the warming trend continues for the 427^th month in a row–that is quite a record streak! July 2020 was some 1.66°F (0.92°C) above the 20^th Century temperature average, tying July 2016 as the second warmest July on record. Six of the hottest Julys have occurred since 2015–ugh. And as all of this warming continues, Trump focuses on making showerheads waste more water.

• Bet you did not know that September 1 is American Chess Day? Well we didn’t either! But regardless, it makes for a fun Google search for the month, “Chess and GIS.” And wouldn’t you know it, there is actually a paper on the topic by Thomas Gumbricht at the University of Witwatersrand! It is an interesting and fun take on GIS modeling as related to a chess game, enjoy J

• Last month we found all that you could expect in an online GIS website when we reviewed San Antonio, Texas, and for this month we travel north to Utah’s second largest city, West Valley City, for a similar review:
  West Valley City, UT GIS Website (unclear if this is the correct department)
  West Valley City, UT GIS Contacts (same website as above, sorry…)
  West Valley City, UT GIS Web Map
  West Valley City, UT GIS Map Collections
  West Valley City, UT GIS Direct Downloads–not available

Brock Adam McCarty
Map Wizard
(720) 470-7988
brock@apollomapping.com