August 2009
- It’s Hot Underground
- Here’s a new Tube map for you. Transport for London has released a map showing how hot it gets on London Underground station platforms (PDF). Which is to say, very. (And I thought Paris Metro stations were bad.) The…
- Drawing with a GPS
- On a similar note, have a look at this New York Times article from earlier this month, which talks about people who use their GPS units to create drawings from the traceroutes of the paths they take. For example: Pedaling…
- Cycling in Toronto: A Time-Lapse Video
- Using a GPS, Toronto cyclist James Redekop has recorded his bike routes from 2004 to 2009 — more than 8,000 kilometres’ worth — and created a nifty time-lapse animated video. Torontoist has more. Via Richard….
- Two 17th-Century Atlases Rediscovered in Oxford Library
- Times Higher Education has the fascinating story about how two rare 17th-century Portuguese atlases came to be found in the bowels of the library of the Queen’s College, Oxford….
- 1859 Map Falling Apart, Costs Too Much to Restore
- An 1859 map of the Michigan counties of Genesee and Shiawassee in the possession of the Swartz Creek Area Historical Society is falling apart, and the society is wondering whether it’s worth spending the $3,000 to $5,000 it will cost…
- Mapping the Afghanistan Elections
- Geocommons has a map of the Afghanistan presidential election results that also includes a number of other, related data layers. Off the Map discusses some of the data and behind-the-scenes work. Via BBC News dot.life and Google Maps Mania….
- WSJ Map of U.S. Unemployment
- The Wall Street Journal has yet another map of state-by-state unemployment rates in the United States, with the required slider showing the monthly rate since December 2007. Michigan’s rate is now up to 15 percent. Via MapHawk. Previously: Another Animated…
- Navteq Claims Real-Time Traffic Data Saves Time, Reduces Emissions
- A study sponsored by Navteq argues that having a GPS navigation system with real-time traffic data lets drivers spend less time behind the wheel — between two and a half to four days a year, depending on the country —…
- The OpenStreetMap Alternative
- Something must have gotten into the drinking water, because OpenStreetMap is getting all kinds of press lately, where it’s portrayed as a no-cost alternative to more costly map data. Dan Sung has an interview with OSM founder Steve Coast that…
- BibliOdyssey: Puzzle and Game Maps
- BibliOdyssey had another fine post earlier this week, this one collecting items that “share the common characteristics of being a jigsaw puzzle or board game incorporating a map, and being produced before 1900.” (It’s probably worth mentioning that Risk only…
- GOES 14 Full-Disk Thermal Infrared Image Shows Hurricane Bill
- The first full-disk thermal infrared image of the Earth from the GOES 14 geostationary satellite, taken on August 17, shows Hurricane Bill forming in the Atlantic. In this image, the hotter a surface, the darker it appears; from the…
- Ortelius: Mac Mapping Software Is Now Available
- Ortelius, the Mac mapping application I first blogged about two years ago, is finally available. I’ve downloaded the trial version (it’s only a 30-megabyte download); I’ll play around with it and tell you what I think (which should be…
- Quest: Trail Maps of the West
- Quest: Trail Maps of the West, an exhibition of maps on loan from members of the Rocky Mountain Map Society taking place until October 4 at the Loveland Museum and Gallery in Loveland, Colorado (just south of Fort Collins), “features…
- Map Thief Sentenced in the Czech Republic
- Piotr Stanisław Peron, a 47-year-old Pole with Canadian residency, was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison by a Czech court for stealing two 16th-century maps from an Olomouc library, the České Noviny reports. Peron was also expelled from the…
- Hapgood Disproves Global Warming!
- Oh, look. Someone is arguing that a 16th-century map of the world by Oroncé Fine (Orontius Finnaeus) is proof that global warming caused by human activity isn’t happening. Problem is, he’s using Charles Hapgood’s weird theories about an ancient…
- Twitter Working on Adding Location
- Twitter is working on adding location to tweets: We’re gearing up to launch a new feature which makes Twitter truly location-aware. A new API will allow developers to add latitude and longitude to any tweet. Folks will need to activate…
- Fluid Forms: Stuff Made from Custom Topography
- Austrian design company Fluid Forms creates things from customer-submitted topography. Bowls, clocks and tables are carved out of a laminated block of wood; lampshades are produced on a 3D printer; and silver brooches (pictured) are first 3D printed in…
- Map Thief Apprehended in Spain
- News of another case of map theft from Spain: an unnamed 47-year-old Hungarian national has been detained in the midst of what appears to be a robbery tour of map collections in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. Nearly 70 stolen…
- Michele Battiste
- The Southeast Review interviews Michele Battiste, a poet whose work frequently makes use of map themes and imagery. Place is one of those big ideas I can’t fully grasp, so I won’t try to explain. I like maps because they…
- Shaw Galleries Opens in Pittsburgh
- The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review covers the opening this weekend of Shaw Galleries, which deals in antique maps and prints. (Its owner is Kurt Shaw, the art critic for the Tribune-Review. Small world.) Via GeoCarta….
- Wetland Loss Mapped in Louisiana
- A project is under way to map the land loss in Louisiana’s wetlands, the Daily Comet reports. The wetlands were last mapped in 1988 under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Center’s National Wetland Inventory; with several significant hurricanes since then,…
- More Map Shower Curtains
- Following up on this post, a number of readers have written in to provide additional links to map shower curtains. Several of you have noted that the curtain Jamie referred to is available at Target; it’s also available on…
- Colin Ellard Interviews
- A couple of interviews with Colin Ellard as he promotes his book, You Are Here (Where Am I? in Canada): one at Scientific American’s Mind Matters (via Matt), and one on WHYY’s Radio Times (search for the August 10,…
- My Third GPS
- You might remember that for the longest time, I was in the weird position of writing a blog about maps and mapping technology without so much as owning a single GPS receiver. That state came to an end last December,…
- Google Goofs Up in Arunachal Pradesh
- Stefan has the definitive account of what happens when Google Maps touches what has to be the live rail of cartography — erroneously publishing Chinese names of communities on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control in the…
- World Freedom Atlas
- The World Freedom Atlas is a project by cartographer Zachary Forest Johnson (who also has a blog). The Atlas combines a number of datasets from non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations that attempt to measure human rights, freedom, democracy and all…
- Map Shower Curtain and Bikini
- If you’re at all interested in map-related paraphernalia, then Jamie at Cartophilia is your guy. His latest find, from photos sent by a friend, is a map shower curtain and a map bikini: the bikini was from Victoria’s Secret and…
- Jalopnik’s Guide to Map Reading
- Jalopnik has a guide to map reading for those too reliant on navigation systems. “A dangerous norm is emerging. The widespread adoption of navigation systems is dumbifying the American navigator, making them incapable of reading a map, much less understanding…
- Titan’s Plains Named After Herbert’s Worlds
- The plains (planitia) of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, will be named after planets from Frank Herbert’s Dune series. The first of these, Chusuk Planitia, already appears on this map of Titan (PDF). The map looks spectacularly incomplete because Titan’s…
- The Guardian on OpenStreetMap
- The Guardian checks in on what OpenStreetMap has been up to lately. Via OpenGeoData….
- TomTom for iPhone Pricing
- Remember how I mentioned that iPhone navigation applications were expensive? Apparently, TomTom for iPhone will run close to $200 — but that’s including the hardware (a cradle to charge the iPhone and improve GPS reception) as well as the software….
- Engraved Rock Is 14,000-Year-Old Map: Researchers
- Spanish researchers claim that etchings made 14,000 years ago on a hand-sized stone represent a prehistoric hunting map: Journal of Human Evolution abstract, New Scientist, Daily Mail. From the New Scientist: Above recognisable depictions of reindeer, a stag and some…
- The Daily Mail on the History of the Ordnance Survey
- The Daily Mail looks at more than two centuries of the Ordnance Survey, contrasting old maps with the present day — and noting how many familiar features can be found on the Survey’s older map series. Via GeoCarta….
- ‘Explore Canada,’ Says Bing
- Bing Maps’s Canadian front page is being mistaken for a tourism promotion, The Globe and Mail reports. With the heading of “Explore Canada,” it is a bit confusing — until you realize that the top link is for the Alberta…
- Even More Book Reviews
- The Cleveland Plain-Dealer reviews Colin Ellard’s book on how people (and animals) navigate, You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall (in Canada, it has been published as Where…
- A New Map of Standardized Terrestrial Ecosystems
- The USGS has released a map of the lower 48 United States showing its “standardized” terrestrial ecosystems. An interactive version is online here. The methodology behind the map is discussed in this article. From the press release: Featuring higher…
- Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works
- An upcoming exhibition at the University of Texas at Austin’s Harry Ransom Center, Other Worlds: Rare Astronomical Works commemorates the International Year of Astronomy by “showcasing items from the center’s science collection that survey some of the most important…
- About Geocaching
- A rather good introduction to geocaching at About.com, via Matt….
