Happy 2013 everyone! We're excited for what this next year holds... look forward to a NYC kickoff coming next month, watch a detailed tutorial on putting together the mini-foldable spectrometer and come visit us at the brand new New Orleans office. Enjoy!

1. Getting started with the mobile spectrometer. Public Lab organizer, Chris Fastie, posted a richly detailed note and video tutorial about his first experience assembling the mobile spectrometer. If you have the mobile version, or even if not, its well worth a view.

2. PBS MediaShift IdeaLab blogs. Two posts from Public Lab were posted to the PBS IdeaLab in the last couple of weeks. From Stewart Long, Balloon Mapping from the Ground Up: Public Lab's field techniques, and from Liz Barry, EcoHack Highlights: Sewage, Pedal Power and Cotton Candy.

3. Popular Mechanics features DIY Spectrometer. This past week, Popular Mechanics featured the Public Lab DIY spectrometer as one of nine new disaster-relief inventions.

4. New Public Lab office in New Orleans. This past week, the New Orleans branch of Public Lab moved into a long awaited work space in Central City. If you're ever in town, stop by at 4035 Washington.

5. New York City chapter 2013 kick-off. For those in NYC, there is a TBD February meeting to kickoff local goals for the year and get coordinated with one another. See the PLOTS-NYC list for a forthcoming email about scheduling.

6. Winter map update. Pay Coyle recently posted an updated Winter map of the Arroyo Mocho neighborhood in Livermore, CA. You can use the map viewer to go fullscreen and look at the different maps together.

7. Research notes: Only getting color at top of image (posted by BrentNewhall) Spectrometer calibration (posted by wiebew) Black image after assembly (posted byBrentNewhall) Kukui'ula Resort (posted by kyngaard) NOLA.com article on Sulfur release to Chalmette (posted by eustatic)

As always, if we missed anything, please email the list, post a research note or email content to shannon@publiclaboratory.org for inclusion in the newsletter next week. Have a great week, Shannon