September 2009

Mapping Ice Sheet Thinning
Maps compiled from data from NASA’s Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat) reveal the extent of ice sheet thinning in Antarctica and Greenland. ICESat’s precise laser altimetry instrument, launched in 2003, has provided a high-density web of elevation…
posted to Environment, Satellite & Aerial |
Boston, Toronto Get Updated Station Maps
Boston’s MBTA is upgrading the maps in its stations; some of the neighbourhood maps haven’t been upgraded in 40 years. The system maps show services that will not be operational for another month, but that’s nothing compared to the trouble…
posted to Boston, Mapping Errors, Mass Transit, Toronto |
Peter Batty on Free Geodata, the Ordnance Survey and the USGS
The grass is always greener on the other side, Peter Batty argues in this rather funny “georant” at last week’s AGI GeoCommunity 09 in which he defends the Ordnance Survey, sort of, by pointing out that there are significant…
posted to GIS, Video |
More on Soviet Maps of the UK
Cold War era Soviet maps of the UK have gotten some mainstream media attention over the past month or so: the Guardian looks at a 1974 map showing invasion routes into Manchester, in the context of a local exhibition;…
posted to Manchester, Topo Maps & Trails |
myTracks 2.0
You may recall that iPhoto ’09 supports geotagging, but requires manual input or a camera with a built-in or connected GPS unit — GPS loggers aren’t supported. Enter myTracks 2.0, a 10€ program that supports a number of GPS…
posted to Geotagging, Macintosh |
Mapping McDonald’s
Stephen Von Worley has compiled a map showing the location of every McDonald’s in the lower 48 states, as an exercise in determining “just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience.” Where in the…
posted to Miscellany |
Sheepfilms on GPS
This fun short video from Sheepfilms reminds me of the funny videos done about Google Earth and Street View a while back — they all intersect the map and the interface with reality. Via Gadling. Previously: The Vacationeers: Google My…
posted to Fun, GPS, Video |
Trusting Your GPS Is Not a Legal Defence
Doing exactly what your car’s GPS tells you to is not only not an excuse, it’s also not a legal defence. A 43-year-old British man who followed his GPS’s directions to the edge of a cliff earlier this year has…
posted to Driving Directions |
Fare Zones, Thames to Return to Tube Map
London mayor Boris Johnson to Transport for London: put the Thames and the fare zones back on the Tube map (see previous entry). They’ll return to the map’s next version, due in September….
posted to London, Mass Transit |
Mapping the Martian Polar Caps
Astronomy reports that the Planetary Science Institute has released “the first detailed maps that show the amount of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) deposited in the polar regions of Mars. The maps reveal how the ice thickness varies with…
posted to Astronomy |
New Tube Map Omits Fare Zones and the Thames
Uh-oh. The latest version of the Tube map omits fare zones and the Thames. That controversy has ensued should come as no surprise to anyone who follows the mapping of the London Underground. (I expect that a parody based on…
posted to London, Mass Transit |
Three Exhibitions
An exhibition of Jedediah Hotchkiss’s Civil War maps is currently underway at the Library of Congress — in the corridor outside the Geography and Maps Reading Room at the James Madison Building, but it’s an exhibition nonetheless. Via MapHist….
posted to Antique Maps, Exhibitions |
The End of the World Islands
The Times reports that the World Islands, an artificial archipelago of several hundred private islands in the shape of a world map being constructed off the coast of Dubai, has been, like so many other Dubai construction projects, cancelled: “Mile…
posted to Miscellany |
Windows Driver Available for Nikon GP-1
Nikon’s GP-1 geotagger, which I reviewed here last March, has a USB port for connecting directly to a computer, but apparently the (Windows-only) driver had been delayed. It’s available now, though. Via Nikon Rumors. Previously: Still Another Nikon GP-1…
posted to Geotagging |
United Steaks of America
Via Cartophilia: Dominic Episcopo’s United Steaks of America….
posted to Art |
MapPoint 2010
The Bing Maps Blog announces the release of MapPoint 2010, and goes through some of its new features. Previously: MapPoint and Streets and Trips 2009. Buy Microsoft MapPoint 2010 at Amazon.com Buy Microsoft MapPoint 2010 with GPS Locator at…
posted to Software |
Osher Map Library Grand Reopening
The University of Southern Maine’s Osher Map Library is holding a number of events on the third weekend of October to celebrate its grand reopening: on Friday, October 16, a lecture by John Hessler on Thoreau; on Saturday the 17th,…
posted to Conferences, Libraries |
State Online Atlases
Western Illinois University librarian Linda Zellmer has compiled a list of state online atlases of various sorts, from online GIS to Google Maps mashups, and from general atlases to those limited to specific topics. Via MAPS-L….
posted to GIS, Online Maps |
Attaching a Garmin nüvi to Bike Handlebars
So I was thinking that using a GPS with maps and turn-by-turn navigation on a bicycle might be interesting, but a lot of the biking GPSes I’ve seen (i.e., Garmin’s Edge series) seem to be interested in awful things like…
posted to GPS |
The Globe and Mail’s Awful Canadian Unemployment Map
I’ve posted a number of maps showing U.S. unemployment rates, so I perked up when I saw that The Globe and Mail had an interactive unemployment map for Canada. Unfortunately, it’s terrible: it only shows the change in the…
posted to Current Events |