Top 5 Make Smarter - Geospatial Revolution, Where 2.0 Videos, Python from Scratch, On Being Wrong, Blender 2.57

This month’s make smarter is coming a little early because (a) my make smarter text file is overflowing and (b) I’ll be at the beach all next week where I plan to sacrifice at least 10 IQ points on the alter of sand, sun, and beer. Not necessarily in that order.

First up, the 4th and final Geospatial Revolution video from Penn State is out. This episodes covers monitoring global climate change, preventing famine, tracking disease and mapping communities never before seen on a map. The last one focuses on a case study on one of the world’s largest slums and is particularly good.

Via The Map Room, O’Reilly has put together a YouTube playlist of all the Where 2.0 talks. There are 47 videos, so be sure to bring popcorn.

There are no shortage of Python tutorials on the web, but Nettuts has released the first of a five part video series called Python from Scratch. It starts assuming zero Python knowledge and promises to go through creating interactive web sites. If you’re brand new to Python, the first video is great. If you’re past the Hello World stage, you might want to wait for later videos in the series.

TED Talks had a great video by Kathryn Schulz on Being Wrong.

And finally, Blender 2.57 is out. The Blender 2.5 series had a major UI overhaul, and it’s an order of magnitude easier than it used to be. Check out this tutorial on Creating an Underground Subway Scene using Blender 2.57.

Create an Underground Subway Scene - Part 1 of 2 from Andrew Price on Vimeo.