(Above, an aerial image taken at last year's Extreme Citizen Science balloon mapping at University College London)

Hello all -- happy Friday; we've got a LOT of events in coming weeks, so be sure to look for things happening near you! Want to add things to the newsletter? Email organizers@publiclab.org

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Announcements

Public Labs has joined the Gulf Monitoring Consortium. “working together to investigate and publicize pollution in the Gulf region” -- read more at http://www.gulfmonitor.org/about/

A new map of regional Public Lab groups has been posted at http://publiclab.org/places/ -- which also links to the start a chapter page

Skytruth, a fellow (and founding) member of the Gulf Monitoring Consortium, is crowdfunding an attempt to use thermal photography to map gas flares from North Dakota's Bakken Shale. Read more here: http://blog.skytruth.org/2013/08/skytruth-the-bakken.html

Upcoming Events

Check out the LEAFFEST weekend gathering in Salisbury, Vermont on September 7 & 8 -- http://publiclab.org/wiki/leaffest (This is a great opportunity to get involved in infrared photography research.)

Barnraising topic sessions brainstorming has begun as the 2013 Public Lab conference approaches: http://publiclab.org/wiki/barnraising-2013#Session+Ideas

Farm Hack has asked if Public Lab would also join them at the Maine Common Ground Country Faire that same weekend! http://www.mofga.org/theFair

Mathew and Shannon are doing a couple of workshops next week in London. If you know anyone interested in participating, please contact Shannon at shannon@publiclab.org.

Sept. 6th 18:30-22:30: Kite/Balloon Mapping First workshop](http://www.meetup.com/Citizens-without-Borders/events/135709822/): making kites @ the Mildmay Community Centre, N16 8NA, East London

Sept. 7th 11:00-16:00: Kite/Balloon Mapping Second workshop: fly, map, & interpret @ the Mildmay Community Centre, N16 8NA, East London

Sun 8th Sept 14:00-17:30: DIY Spectrometry - introduction to spectrometry workshop @ UCL, Gower St. main entrance.

Mon 9th Sept 18:30-22:30: Testing the PLOTS DIY Spectrometer workshop: 'advanced' applications @ UCL, Gower St. main entrance

Join your fellow Public Labbers at World Maker Faire the weekend of September 21-22! http://makerfaire.com/new-york-2013/ -- We will be making a main stage presentation as well as staffing two (2!) tables: our own, and one inside the Farm Hack tent to highlight the Infragram. This is a great opportunity to hang out with some visiting Public Lab folks from out of town. I (Liz Barry) personally guarantee it will be a fun time. There will be a lot of visitors to our table so it's a great chance to speak about your own work if desired and make connections! Please email liz@publiclab.org if you can attend.

New and ongoing projects

Brief report back and image sharing from the Tidmarsh Farms meetup last weekend: http://publiclab.org/notes/warren/08-26-2013/results-from-aug-25-2013-tidmarsh-farms-mapping

Research Note highlights

Detecting cyanobacterial blooms with Infragram cameras (above image) near the Museum of Science in Boston: http://publiclab.org/notes/dsittenfeld/08-28-2013/mapping-cyanobacterial-blooms-with-ndvi

A contributor from Spain posts about an improved spectrometer design for testing liquid samples: http://publiclab.org/notes/homechemist/08-30-2013/homemade-spectometer-for-sample-absorstion-analysys-and-a-type-of-ramman-spectroscopy

An Australian contributor shares his high precision agricultural mapping an offers suppor to others attempting similar work: http://publiclab.org/notes/bc512/08-30-2013/extremely-precise-mapping (see image below)

Hot topics on the mailing lists

Spectrometry curricular materials for younger students: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/plots-spectrometry/fuwa0T__PZs

Detecting lead in lipsticks with spectrometry: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/plots-spectrometry/oDWsa9k2_OQ