3 News Articles/Reports Utilizing Data Tables and Charts

There a a variety of sites out there featuring data tables and charts but I found three particularly interesting...


NASA's page on global climate change has some pretty interesting up-to-date information on world carbon dioxide levels. The charts on this page are used to show direct measurements taken between 2005 and September 2014, indicating that carbon dioxide levels have been steadily increasing. Another chart features indirect CO2 measurements from ice cores, showing fluctuations in carbon dioxide levels as far back as 400,000 years, with a drastic increase starting around 1950. I found these charts to be very easy to read and gave me pertinent information about how carbon dioxide levels have been changing over the years. 

The Huffington Post shared an article about the recent Ebola outbreak, including interactive charts containing the number of outbreaks in the countries with the highest number of cases (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) as of mid-October. A second line on each chart plots a forecast for future cases if current conditions persist. In terms of wanting to know specifics about how many cases have been reported in these countries I found this article quite helpful, but while interesting, the predictions must be taken with a grain of salt as accurate forecasting is a difficult task. 

The US Geological Survey has a great page featuring their Earthquake Hazards Program, riddled with data tables on world earthquake statistics. These tables include information regarding earthquake magnitude, frequency, and location. Other pages related to the program provide graphs and other graphics related to such data, providing the public with up to date worldwide earthquake information. I liked this website as it provided simple and informative visual information about the research USGS has been conducting over the years. 

4 Sites with Examples of Nice Resumes

I found 4 good websites for help with writing a resume...

• As with learning how to do anything these days, I found WikiHow to be a good resume building resource. They have free templates that can be exported to Word or PDF, sample resumes, and tips on how to format a resume. This site was great because it was straight and to the point and provided a great array of resources. 

• Business Insider put out a great article in their career section last year about how to write a great resume called "19 Reasons Why This Is An Excellent Resume". In this article they posted a resume and explained specifically why this is a good resume and what jobseekers are looking for. The site also provides tips about what not to include in your resume, just as equally important information. I really liked this resource because of how much it focused on the jobseeker and what they are looking for, not just the type of information that should be included. There is even a link off to the side of the page for a free template download. 

•  Microsoft Office allows you to download templates directly from their website, with various types of resumes from general entry-level to those as specific as for a computer programmer. While the site does not give specific examples of resumes, such as one that someone may have written up for their own purposes, I like this resource because it is directly compatible with Word and provides a wide variety of template options for various career categories albeit generic information about what to include. 

• I liked Career Perfect as another resume building website. While a variety of their career advancement services are not free, they do have various free sample resumes for download for various job fields including healthcare, banking, and sales management; they even have a section for recent graduates and students. Another feature I found particularly interesting about this site was that they also had cover letter examples, another document jobseekers commonly ask for along with a resume. 

4 Free Online Resources for Learning Office

I have found 4 sites with great tutorials for learning the ins and outs of Microsoft Office:

In Pictures

If you are a visual learner like me, In Pictures is a great site that gives tutorials based on what you are seeing on your screen, not just a bunch of words that send you on a wild goose chase trying to figure out what a site is attempting to instruct you to do. The site provides tutorials for Office 2007-2013 from basic to even the more advanced tasks associated with each program. 

GCF

GCF learnfree.org is a very comprehensive, beginner friendly site with tutorials for all versions of Microsoft Office. With videos, pictures, quizzes, and regular ol' text based learning, I found this site very helpful for understanding how to operate even a program that I had never used before, such as Publisher. They even have a mobile app!

Going to the source

Who better to learn from than the people who made the product? The Microsoft Office website has a variety of tutorials and training courses on how to use their product from intermediate to advanced levels. The courses can either be downloaded or watched online. While this is a good go-to, I did however find slightly more in depth training from other sites. 

Free Training Tutorial

This is another good site that covers all the basics with step by step video instruction for performing various functions in all Office programs. This site is geared more towards the beginner as it does not cover too many advanced tasks, although it does seem to provide some intermediate level training. 

4 Software Programs I Use Most Often

Between my personal computer, work computer, and phone there are certain programs that I use quite often



Microsoft Office

Whether for work or school, most of my daily tasks involve Microsoft Office. At work, I utilize this program for email (Outlook), creating spreadsheets and entering data (Excel and Access), and creating word documents (Word). For school I use this program for mostly the same purposes as work, minus Outlook and adding Powerpoint. 



Instagram
As an app on my iPhone, I use this program on a 
daily basis. I do a lot of fly fishing and like to document my time on the river, share my experiences with others, and see what other people are up to in the fly fishing community. I am also an ambassador for a local fly fishing apparel company called H&H Outfitters, where I represent the company and get their name out by wearing and showing off their product. It's a lot of fun and I have made a bunch of new friends just because of this app and how I utilize it. 


Google Earth

I use this app/program on all of my computers. Working for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in fisheries I use it to help locate and visualize sampling sites. Outside of work I use Google Earth to locate new fishing spots, which I like to do regularly.





Safari/Google Chrome

These two web browsers get used extensively on all of the computers I use on a daily basis. I have Safari installed on my personal computer and phone and Chrome on my work computer. I use each browser for research, accessing Blackboard and other school related websites, saving files in Google docs, and whatever other web based activities I feel like doing.