Lazy Sunday Service

After a week in Chicago I head back to Ireland this afternoon.  It's been a good trip, though 10,000 geographers all in one place at the same time is a little overwhelming.  Most of the papers I listened to were very good and a couple of the sessions would have been worth the trip on their own (especially a pair on spatial big data and everyday life). The team I was part of, Lampchop, came second in the IronSheep hackathon with a couple of animated maps of twitter data (to which I contributed nothing but ideas and critique) - the photo left is me with our trophy!  I also picked up the AAG Media prize at yesterday's awards ceremony.  Up until the handful of major awards there had been a whole series of study group awards for which the winners were presented with their certificate and then exited the stage without being given the opportunity to say anything.  However, for the major awards they asked the awardee to say a few words for which I was singularly ill-prepared, expecting simply to follow the arrows stage right.  Since the compere mentioned my novels in the citation, I managed to offer to kill audience members before remembering to say 'in a story.'  Probably a unique offer in the history of the Association!  Afterwards, I only got one request, from a prominent geographer who wanted me to include her in a story, not as a victim, but as a mass murderer (but not a serial killer)!  I guess it's better that she gets this fantasy performed in fiction than in the classroom or university management building so I'm trying to think of a suitable scenario and method!

My posts this week
Review of The Spy Who Came in From The Co-op by David Burke
Chicago haul
Towards geographies of and produced by data brokers
The politics and praxis of urban data: building the Dublin Dashboard
Review of Pandaemonium by Christopher Brookmyre
Jumper