April 2009

Mapping the Seven Deadly Sins: Last month, the Las Vegas Sun reported on an unusual study in which researchers attempted to map the distribution of the seven deadly sins. Researchers primarily looked at Nevada, which for some unexplained reason is associated with sin, but…; posted to Demography | Apr 30, 2009
Hakimzadeh’s Sentence Cut in Half: Farhad Hakimzadeh, who pled guilty to stealing maps, illustrations and other pages from rare books in the British and Oxford University libraries and was sentenced to two years in prison for it, has had his sentenced cut in half by…; posted to Map Thefts | Apr 30, 2009
Map Addict: Mike Parker’s new book, Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge and the Ordnance Survey, is out today; from the Daily Mail’s account of it, it sounds like eccentric good fun: “Mike Parker — who spent his teenage years…; posted to Books | Apr 30, 2009
Mapping the Grid: For a series on the U.S. electricity grid, NPR has put together an interactive map showing said grid, including transmission lines (both existing and proposed; pictured), power sources (i.e., coal, nuclear, hydro), power plant locations, and solar and wind…; posted to Energy & Resources | Apr 29, 2009
A to Z Map of London, 1936: Phyllis Pearsall’s famous 1936 map of London is available again. The company she founded, A to Z Maps, has published a fascimile reproduction of her map, coloured to simulate aging (the original was black ink on white paper, but…; posted to Antique Maps, London | Apr 29, 2009
Another Animated Map of U.S. Job Losses: Another animated map showing U.S. job losses; this one shows net job gains and losses by metropolitan area over the previous 12 months, with a timeline — note the big red circle over New Orleans after Katrina. Via YahooGeo. Previously:…; posted to Current Events | Apr 29, 2009
‘Accidental’ Maps from Geotagged Photos: New Scientist: “David Crandall and colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, analysed the data attached to 35 million photographs uploaded to the Flickr website to create accurate global and city maps and identify popular snapping sites.” Here’s…; posted to Geotagging | Apr 29, 2009
Mary Spence, Mapmaker: Mary Spence may be a familiar name to many thanks to her complaint about Internet mapping at last year’s Royal Geographical Society conference (and the dust it kicked up online), but the past president of the British Cartographic Society is…; posted to Cartography | Apr 27, 2009
Colin Ellard’s Book on the Psychology of Navigation: University of Waterloo psychologist Colin Ellard’s new book, Where Am I? Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon but Get Lost in the Mall, was released in Canada this month. Last Friday’s Globe and Mail had an…; posted to Books | Apr 26, 2009
Ottawa Citizen Freaks Out About Street View: Google’s Street View cars are combing the streets of Ottawa; this rather unbalanced piece by Robert Sibley in today’s Ottawa Citizen comes across as a jeremiad about the state of privacy in modern life without actually stopping to question whether…; posted to Censorship, Security & Privacy, Online Maps | Apr 26, 2009
Location Privacy: For location services like Google Latitude to succeed, Tom Arran argues in GPS Business News, their users need to be able to trust them; for that to happen, adequate safeguards need to be in place. He points to four emerging…; posted to Censorship, Security & Privacy, Geolocation Services | Apr 26, 2009
Street View, Privacy and Liberty: The Grauniad’s Michael Cross on the ruling by the Information Commissioner’s Office that Street View does not contravene the Data Protection Act (see previous entry): The ICO’s statement says there is no law against taking pictures of people in the…; posted to Censorship, Security & Privacy, Online Maps | Apr 26, 2009
Mapping the Taliban in Pakistan: Maps produced for The Long War Journal show the extent of the Taliban’s influence and control in northwestern Pakistan. Only the first map, shown in this article, contains a legend explaining what the colours represent; subsequent maps that show…; posted to Current Events | Apr 26, 2009
Randy Plemel Interviews Charles Graves: Randy Plemel, who we last saw working on accessible transit maps, writes to let us know about the latest episode of his Smogr Alert podcast, in which he interviews Charles Graves, the author of The Genealogy of Cities (see…; posted to Books, Cities, Historical Maps, Podcasts & Audio | Apr 26, 2009
Texas Divided: With all the nonsense going on about Texas seceding from the U.S. — remind me again how well that worked out the last time? — one of the things that has also been noticed in the hullaballooery is that…; posted to Electoral Maps, Miscellany | Apr 24, 2009
Google Street View Privacy Update: Canada, Sweden and the UK: The UK’s Information Commissioner has ruled that the risk of privacy invasion by Google Street View is not enough to warrant removing the service, calling such a move “disproportionate.” Stefan compares the British reaction to how he expects Swedes to…; posted to Censorship, Security & Privacy, Online Maps | Apr 24, 2009
Global Warming Art: A map produced by Global Warming Art was featured on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day earlier this week. Global Warming Art has a number of maps and other graphics illustrating the effects of climate change, most of which…; posted to Environment | Apr 24, 2009
Will Yahoo Outsource Its Maps?: Buried in the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of job cuts at Yahoo is the suggestion that Yahoo may farm out its maps to another company, which is generating a certain amount of reaction in the map blogosphere: All Points Blog,…; posted to Industry News, Online Maps | Apr 23, 2009
‘GIS Alley’: Fort Collins, Colorado: Truth be told, I’d never heard of the name “GIS Alley” before today, but it refers to the large group of geospatial companies located in and around Fort Collins, Colorado. Here’s a puff piece in the Fort Collins Coloradoan by…; posted to GIS, Industry News | Apr 23, 2009
Photocartographies: Tattered Fragments of the Map: An update on Photocartographies: Tattered Fragments of the Map (see previous entry): the exhibition, which now has a rather challenging Web site, will run from May 16 to June 30 at the g727 gallery in downtown Los Angeles. Via MapHist….; posted to Art, Exhibitions | Apr 21, 2009
Myriahedral Projections: Bucky Fuller’s Dymaxion projection projects the globe onto an icosahedron (a 20-sided polyhedron) and unfolds it. Take the same principle, but project the globe onto a polyhedron of immense complexity, with a lot more sides, and you get a myriahedral…; posted to Map Projections, Video | Apr 21, 2009
WhereCamp 2009: WhereCamp 2009, an “unconference” taking place May 22 to 23 in Palo Alto, California, right after Where 2.0 in nearby San Jose: We are self-organized in true bar-camp style. Bring your projects, work and ideas to get feedback from a…; posted to Conferences | Apr 21, 2009
So What If Four Corners Is a Little Off?: It’s not that the Four Corners marker is “about 2.5 miles west of where it should be,” as the Deseret News puts it, it’s that it’s about two and a half miles west of where it should have been. Important…; posted to Mapping Errors, Surveying | Apr 21, 2009
The Bartholomew Archive: The Bartholomew Archive at the National Library of Scotland contains the business records, publications, working maps and printing plates of John Bartholomew & Son Ltd., the Edinburgh mapmaking firm. The Archive is still a work in progress: the Library is…; posted to Antique Maps, Blogs, Libraries | Apr 20, 2009
The Geography of Buzz: The Geography of Buzz, a project of Columbia University’s Spatial Information Design Lab, “set out to analyze the unique spatial and social dynamics that are created by the arts and entertainment industries in New York City and Los Angeles.”…; posted to Geotagging, Los Angeles, Miscellany, New York | Apr 20, 2009
Mapping 2009: “Mapping at Work” is the theme of Mapping 2009, the British Cartographic Society’s annual symposium. It takes place from June 17 to 20 at the Harben House conference facility in Newport Pagnell — the same venue as last year’s symposium….; posted to Conferences | Apr 20, 2009
Soma’s Singles Map: Richard Florida’s singles map tracked surpluses of single men and women by U.S. metropolitan area; in response, Jonathan Soma’s singles map adds a slider to show where the surpluses are by age group, on the assumption that age sort…; posted to Demography | Apr 18, 2009
Office of the Geographer: Catholicgauze points to a profile of the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Geographer and Global Issues in the March 2009 issue (PDF) of the State Department’s employee magazine, State. It’s not the first time State has profiled the office;…; posted to Miscellany | Apr 18, 2009
True Orthophotography: Ryan has a couple of posts on the difference between orthophotography — geometrically corrected aerial photography — and “true” orthophotography; true orthophotos “add the dimension of correcting for the distortion of buildings. Or, simply stated, true orthophotos do not show…; posted to Satellite & Aerial | Apr 18, 2009
Using Mathematica to Analyse GPS Data: Jillian from Wolfram Research writes, “I thought you and your readers would find today’s post in the Wolfram Blog quite fascinating. It’s all about Mathematica’s capabilities for importing and analyzing geographic GPS data. It includes many fascinating examples — elevation…; posted to Software, Tracerouting | Apr 17, 2009
Slate Maps U.S. Job Losses: The latest interactive map of unemployment in the United States comes to us from Slate: this one also shows county-by-county job losses, but measures job losses in a slightly different way: for each month selected, it shows the year-over-year…; posted to Current Events | Apr 17, 2009
The Cook Partisan Voting Index: The Cook Political Report’s Partisan Voting Index attempts to measure the competitiveness of each U.S. congressional district by comparing the presidential vote outcomes against the nationwide results for the 2004 and 2008 U.S. presidential votes. “A Partisan Voting Index…; posted to Electoral Maps | Apr 17, 2009
MacDonald Gill’s Wonderground Map: In an article posted on the ABAA’s Web site, Elisabeth Burdon of oldimprints.com argues that MacDonald Gill, the artist responsible for the 1913 Wonderground Map of London Town, had a “profound” influence on later pictorial mapmaking. “Not only did…; posted to Antique Maps, Art, London | Apr 15, 2009
Directory Updates: I’ve finally been doing some work on the directory. This morning, I got caught up on the year-long (!) backlog of new blogs, and pruned those blogs that have either gone dark or that haven’t posted in more than six…; posted to Site News | Apr 15, 2009
Tyler Bell on Yahoo’s Open Location Program: As a preview of his talk at next month’s Where 2.0 conference, Yahoo’s Geo Technologies lead Tyler Bell sits down for a long interview with O’Reilly Media’s James Turner, in which they discuss Yahoo’s behind-the-scenes geo technologies (e.g., geotagging on…; posted to Geolocation Services, Industry News, Online Maps | Apr 15, 2009
Unfinishtstan: David Mumford writes to point to Roger Pountain’s curious story of a map his son created on the unfinished wall of their kitchen: I had found my oldest son Alistair (25) up a ladder with a felt-tip marker and…; posted to Blogs, Fun | Apr 15, 2009
‘Cartography from a Kayak’: University of Tennessee researchers are collaborating with the National Park Service to map the streams of the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area and the Obed Wild and Scenic River, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Their goal is…; posted to Environment, Surveying | Apr 14, 2009
The Tobacco Atlas: The third edition of The Tobacco Atlas was published by the World Lung Foundation and the American Cancer Society last month; the paper version is complemented by the online Tobacco Atlas, which presents a series of interactive maps of…; posted to Health | Apr 14, 2009
Egypt Allows GPS: Egypt has lifted the ban on importing GPS receivers; the country’s National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority is now allowing the importation of “cars equipped with GPS and navigation programs … GPS-enabled mobile phones, computers and other devices with civilian applications provided…; posted to Censorship, Security & Privacy, GPS | Apr 14, 2009
Another Report Has Google Beating MapQuest: Google Maps surpassed MapQuest over the weekend in terms of monthly visitors according to Hitwise numbers; a couple of other reports had Google beating MapQuest back in January. I guess it depends on the methodology. Via All Points Blog. Previously:…; posted to Industry News, Online Maps | Apr 14, 2009
A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica: A Buyer’s Guide to Maps of Antarctica, a fantasy short story by Catherynne M. Valente published in the May 2008 issue of the online science fiction and fantasy magazine Clarkesworld, tells the tale of two rival Argentine cartographers mapping the…; posted to Fiction About Maps | Apr 14, 2009
Submissions Open for Cartography Design Annual #2: Submissions are now open for the second volume of the Cartography Design Annual, Nick Springer’s compilation of “maps from some of the top cartographers in the world.” I reviewed the first volume last September. Previously: Review: Cartography Design Annual…; posted to Books | Apr 14, 2009
Errors in Google’s Maps of Toronto: The Toronto Star’s Map of the Week blog discovers several errors in Google Maps’ coverage of Toronto. You may recall that I noticed a bunch of errors in my neck of the woods back in September. The blog entry is…; posted to Mapping Errors, Online Maps, Toronto | Apr 12, 2009
Those Google Earth Bloggers, They Get Around: Google Earth bloggers are on the move: Stefan Geens (Ogle Earth), lately a resident of Cairo, is relocating to Shanghai; Frank Taylor (Google Earth Blog) is preparing for a five-year trip around the world by sailboat with his wife. Stefan…; posted to Blogs, Google Earth | Apr 12, 2009
Imagine Street View in 50 Years: “Street View might be pretty amazing now but it’s only going to get more amazing. Even if the technology stays exactly the same — which it won’t, it will only get better — Google Street View will become increasingly gob-smacking…; posted to Online Maps | Apr 8, 2009
Free Mac GIS Software: The Mac isn’t exactly known as the most GIS-friendly platform out there, but Leszek has compiled a list of free, Mac-compatible GIS applications (most of them are cross-platform rather than Mac-only)….; posted to GIS, Macintosh | Apr 8, 2009
After the Earthquake in L’Aquila: IKONOS imagery of the Italian region of Abruzzo taken after Monday’s earthquake (whose epicentre was in L’Aquila), is now available in this KML file, Google LatLong reports. See also this landing page (in Italian). Previously: Italian Earthquake….; posted to Current Events, Earthquakes, Google Earth | Apr 8, 2009
The Genealogy of Cities: Charles Graves writes to tell us about his upcoming book, The Genealogy of Cities, “a compilation of ancient and modern city plans, from 350 BCE to the present, depicting both built and proposed plans. … [I]t is illustrated with…; posted to Books, Cities, Historical Maps | Apr 7, 2009
The United Countries of Baseball: The United Countries of Baseball, a map showing the boundaries of team loyalty, is something I’ve seen before, but I thought I’d posted it. Apparently not, so here it is. Via The Map Scroll. Previously: CommonCensus Map Project. Update:…; posted to Miscellany | Apr 7, 2009
Italian Earthquake: USGS maps of last night’s magnitude-6.3 earthquake in central Italy are available: here is the ShakeMap (at right); here is a map and chart showing population exposure; historic seismicity maps place the quake in recent context. Via Making Light….; posted to Current Events, Earthquakes | Apr 6, 2009
Old Road Atlases of Pennsylvania: The most recent addition to Harold Cramer’s Historical Maps of Pennsylvania site (which looks massive) is a collection of old road atlases dating from 1889 to 1930. (At right, an example from 1892.) Via MapHist….; posted to Antique Maps, Roads | Apr 5, 2009
The Imperial Map: Times Higher Education reviews The Imperial Map: Cartography and the Mastery of Empire, a collection of essays from the October 2004 iteration of the Nebenzahl Lectures in the History of Cartography edited by James Akerman. “Between them, they have…; posted to Books | Apr 5, 2009
Data Errors Skew LA Crime Map: An article in today’s Los Angeles Times uses a geocoding error in the LAPD’s crime map mashup to illustrate the perils of map data error. In the case of the LAPD’s map, crimes at addresses that could not be parsed…; posted to Hacks & Mashups, Mapping Errors | Apr 5, 2009
GPS for Amateur Astronomers: It may surprise you that GPS gets used a lot in amateur astronomy, which in recent years has gotten awfully computerized. Now, you might not think that a technology that locates where you are on Earth has a lot to…; posted to Astronomy, GPS | Apr 4, 2009
Moon Maps and Star Charts for the iPhone and iPod Touch: I really shouldn’t be surprised by the number of lunar and star map applications for the iPod and iPhone touch that are aimed at amateur astronomers: I already have to bring a lot of gear out to the field as…; posted to Astronomy, Mobile Devices | Apr 4, 2009
Globes of the Solar System: If you’re interested in buying a globe of a world not the Earth, you have three options available. The Moon Replogle makes a 12-inch globe of the Moon that is touted as being NASA-approved. It rests on a clear plastic…; posted to Astronomy, Globes | Apr 3, 2009
Mapping Galaxies to Two Billion Light Years: The Six-Degree Field Galaxy Survey has released a map showing the position and clustering patterns of more than 100,000 nearby galaxies — of course, by “nearby,” they mean “within two billion light years.” The map, which covers 80 percent…; posted to Astronomy | Apr 3, 2009
Tabula Peutingeriana: Olivier Ruellet blogs about the Tabula Peutingeriana (in French), which is as good an excuse as any to revisit this unusual medieval artifact. Inherited by Konrad Peutinger in 1508, the Tabula was a medieval copy of a fourth- or…; posted to Antique Maps | Apr 3, 2009
Village Mob Blocks Street View Car: Google has faced a lot of criticism for its Street View service, but this past Wednesday was the first time, I think, that they faced an angry mob when one of its cars tried to photograph streets in Broughton, a…; posted to Censorship, Security & Privacy, Online Maps | Apr 3, 2009
U.S. Unemployment and Job Losses: The Center for American Progress has an interactive map showing state-by-state unemployment rates and job losses, with a timeline dating back to 2005. It’s not a pretty picture: “Employers have laid off 4.4 million workers since the recession began,…; posted to Current Events | Apr 2, 2009
Still Another Nikon GP-1 Review: Have you read my review of the Nikon GP-1 GPS unit? You have? Good. Now here’s another one for you, by Christian Løverås. He compares his geotagging workflow using a separate GPS receiver to his workflow with the GP-1…; posted to Geotagging | Apr 1, 2009
April Foolery: Apart from some rather obscure industry in-jokes and an atrocious pun, the focus of this year’s geospatial-industry silliness seems to be Google Street View and its impact on privacy. Google Earth Blog announces that the next-generation Street View will include…; posted to Censorship, Security & Privacy, Driving Directions, Fun, GIS | Apr 1, 2009
Red River Rising: Google LatLong points to a couple of resources for residents of the Fargo-Moorehead area affected by the flooding of the Red River: this My Map, put together by the owner of several Fargo-area radio stations (see above), and this…; posted to Current Events, Google Earth, Hacks & Mashups, Satellite & Aerial | Apr 1, 2009

The Map Room

A Weblog About Maps

April 2009

About The Map Room