November 2010
- National Geographic Maps Video
- National Geographic Traveler contributing editor Andrew Evans stops by National Geographic’s map division in this short video; it’s a bit of a puff piece (“best place on Earth for maps” and all that) but an interesting, if brief, look behind…
- Londonist Still Wants Hand-Drawn Maps
- Londonist continues to look for hand-drawn maps; there will be an exhibition of them next April at the Museum of London. They’ve been steadily publishing submissions over the past year, and want more. Previously: Londonist Wants Hand-Drawn Maps….
- Chicago Transit Map Wallet
- Via Cartophilia: this wallet showing a map of the Chicago transit system is made from Tyvek….
- Natural Disaster Hot Zones
- io9 has produced a map of the world’s natural disaster hot zones. “Most of the disasters we’ve highlighted here are caused by nature, and only occasionally helped along by humans. … How did we decide where disaster hot zones…
- Google Earth 6
- Google Earth 6, released today in beta, includes improvements to how Street View and historical imagery are integrated, plus 3D trees. Yes, trees: species-accurate but not necessarily individual-tree-accurate. (Stefan says: “The rest of Google Earth is pretty much the same,…
- The OSS’s Wartime Cartographers
- GSU Magazine, which I think is the alumni magazine of Georgia State University, has a short article about geographer Jeremy Crampton’s research on the work of cartographers in the Office of Strategic Services (the predecessor of the CIA) during World…
- 1699 Thornton Map Discovered, Will Be Auctioned
- A one-of-a-kind map of northeastern North America created in 1699 by well-known cartographer John Thornton was discovered in a house in rural Scotland after the death of the house’s owner. The 68×80 cm vellum map, which shows details of Newfoundland fishing…
- ‘The End of Maps’
- “Is [this] where we’ve ended up, with a younger generation that can’t go three blocks without being told by a electronic voice where to turn?” asks Jeff Stricker in Saturday’s Star Tribune. Another one of those GPS-vs.-paper-maps pieces we see…
- Map Books of 2010
- Once again, to help with your gift shopping, I’ve compiled a list of noteworthy books about maps that were published in 2010. There are 10 books on the list this year: they include new atlases, web mapping manuals, a…
- David Sparks’s Election Maps
- David Sparks’s isarithmic history of the two-party vote, which adds gradations to choropleth maps of U.S. presidential election results, has been making the enthusiastic rounds of the Internets this week (Daring Fireball, MetaFilter, Talking Points Memo). The above video,…
- A Talk About Designing the New York Subway Map on Dec. 7
- Eddie Jabbour writes to let us know about an event at the Museum of the City of New York on December 7 about designing New York subway maps “for the riding public.” Featuring John Tauranac and Massimo Vignelli in addition…
- Renaming Place Names in Oregon
- If you’re at all interested in the process of changing pejorative place names to something more acceptable to the present day — the sort of thing covered by Mark Monmonier’s From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow — then you’ll be…
- The History of U.S. Road Maps
- On The Chronicle of Higher Education’s Postcards blog, Lawrence Biemiller has a chat with James Akerman about the history of road maps in the United States….
- Review: National Geographic Atlas of the World, Ninth Edition
- National Geographic Atlas of the World, Ninth Edition National Geographic, 2010. Hardcover with slipcase, 424 pp. ISBN 978-1-4262-0634-4. National Geographic’s world atlases go in a different direction than other world atlases on the market. Instead of a relief map palette…
- MapQuest Introduces My Maps — Wait a Minute
- MapQuest’s new tool allowing people to save and share their own personal maps is called My Maps. The MapQuest Blog introduces the feature. Are they absolutely sure that name is a good idea … ?…
- German Street View Coverage Expands
- Google’s limited coverage of Germany in Street View, which rolled out earlier this month in a few public areas and a single village, has now expanded to 20 cities; Google Earth Blog has a list. Previously: Street View’s Limited Rollout…
- More Maps of Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire’
- In this post (reprinted on io9), Adam Whitehead discusses the size of Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms in George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. One map shows just how big Westeros is: “about 3,000 miles…
- Bennett’s OpenStreetMap Book Reviewed
- On GIS Lounge, Caitlin has a review of Jonathan Bennett’s OpenStreetMap: Be Your Own Cartographer, which she calls “an excellent reference volume for anyone wanting to become involved with this wiki-style geographic data collection project.” Previously: Another OpenStreetMap Book….
- Hand-Drawn Map Exhibition in Philadelphia Area
- Another exhibition of hand-drawn maps is now under way in the Philadelphia area: Nowhere: Selections from the Files of the Hand Drawn Map Association runs until December 19, 2010 at Arcadia University’s art gallery. Curated by HDMA founder Kris…
- Rare 1784 Map of the U.S. Being Auctioned Next Month
- An extremely rare copy of Abel Buell’s New and Correct Map of North America (1784), one of only seven known to exist, is being auctioned by Christie’s on December 3. Buell’s map is the first map of the United…
- The Future of Standalone GPS Devices in Cars
- This New York Times article examines whether GPS receivers for cars will get pinched between in-dash navigation systems on the one hand and smartphones with navigation apps on the other. Via @gpstracklog. Previously: TomTom Not Worried by GPS-Equipped Smartphones….
- Ten Centuries in Five Minutes
- An animated look at a thousand years of European history through changes in the political map. Pity it’s cropped and doesn’t indicate the years. Thanks to Heather Kinsinger for the link….
- Stereotype Maps of the World, Unite!
- Via Cartophile, @mrgeog, and @gergmuure, here are three maps of the world according to stereotypes. The second map is by our old friend Yanko Tsvetkov. I think the third map is the most offensive of all. Previously: Mapping European Stereotypes;…
- Google Rolls Out New Map Data in 10 More Countries
- Google’s switch to its own map data, compiled from various sources, for the United States and Canada has not been without its problems, but this week the company has made the switch in 10 more countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark,…
- Magellan, Mio and Navman Switch to Tele Atlas
- GPS Tracklog reports that GPS receivers from Magellan, Mio and Navman — all owned by MiTAC — are switching from Navteq to Tele Atlas as their map provider. Since TomTom owns Tele Atlas, does that mean that Garmin is the…
- Sulfur Dioxide from Mount Merapi
- This image maps sulphur dioxide emissions from the erupting Mount Merapi volcano in Indonesia: “This image shows concentrations of sulfur dioxide on November 4–8, 2010, as observed by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA’s Aura spacecraft. Sulfur dioxide…
- Christoph Gielen: Aerial Photography of U.S. Suburbs
- CNN has a piece on Christoph Gielen’s amazing photographs of suburban landscapes — read: sprawl — taken from a helicopter. Via @mrgeog….
- Mapping America
- A fourth collection of maps has been published by Black Dog: Mapping America: Exploring the Continent by Fritz Kessler. (The previous volumes are 2007’s Mapping London and 2008’s Mapping England, both by Simon Foxell, and Mapping New York, edited…
- Two More GIS Books
- Two more GIS books to mention: Web GIS: Principles and Applications by Pinde Fu and Jiulin Sun, from Esri Press (via Esri Mapping Center); and Spatial Analysis and Modeling in Geographical Transformation Process, edited by Y. Murayama and Rajesh Bahadur…
- Make Your Own Scratch-and-Sniff Map
- Nicola Twilley explains how to make your own scratch-and-sniff map. “The first step, of course, is to decide what smells you are mapping.” Oh dear….
- Vietnam Objects to Map World’s Boundaries
- China’s new, official Map World service has annoyed the Vietnamese government (press release) because it shows the disputed Paracel and Spratly Islands as Chinese territory. Remember, kids: one country’s official boundaries are another country’s diplomatic insult. Previously: Map World: Online…
- Mapping the Real Stars of Imaginary Worlds
- 3-D Starmaps is a website by Winchell Chung about science fiction star maps: it has resources for science fiction writers interested in generating their own star maps (including how to plot them on a three-dimensional grid), discusses the real-world locations…
- Nicaragua ‘Opportunistically’ Blamed Google Maps for Border Incursion
- Ogle Earth has done some digging into the history of the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border — disputes over which date back to the 1850s — and comes to the following conclusion: Given all this information, we can conclude that the narrative…
- France Is Bacon
- Dear Sir, France is bacon. That is all. You’re welcome. Via @cartophilia….
- Amtrak Routes as Subway Diagram
- Cameron Booth writes: “A while ago, you featured my U.S. Interstates as London Underground Diagram poster on The Map Room. Along a similar line, here’s a link to my latest project: a subway-style map of Amtrak’s passenger rail routes….
- ICA Maps of the Month
- For most of the past year, the International Cartographic Association has had a Map of the Month section on its website that has featured maps and atlases from public institutions and private publishers from around the world. “At the moment…
- Bing Maps Architect Profiled in WSJ
- Today’s Wall Street Journal has a profile of Bing Maps architect Blaise Agüera y Arcas that focuses less on the horse-race aspects of Bing’s competition with the Google and more on Agüera’s idiosyncratic creative methodology. Interesting….
- Cartograms of the 2010 U.S. Midterms
- Benjamin Hennig has plotted the results of the U.S. congressional elections on a population-based cartogram (which evens out the very large, sparsely populated districts with the small, densely populated urban districts that don’t show up well on a geographical…
- Nicaraguan Incursion into Costa Rican Territory Blamed on Google Maps Error
- Nicaraguan troops crossed the border into Costa Rica and raised the Nicaraguan flag; the commander apparently cited erroneous maps from Google that showed the territory as belonging to Nicaragua: About.com Geography, Fast Company, Search Engine Land. (The border is shown…
- Rev. Badger’s Misfits
- The Harvard Crimson reports on an exhibition at the Harvard Map Collection that looks at “cartographic curiosities”: Rev. Badger’s Misfits: Deviations and Diversions runs until January 5, 2011 at the Pusey Library. One highlight, cited both in the Crimson article…
- Reversing the Mercator Effect
- Stephen Von Worley has some fun reversing the distortions of the Mercator projection, which exaggerates the size of things at the poles in order to achieve consistent compass bearings. He imagines what would happen if Greenland was on the…
- The New York Times Maps the 2010 U.S. Midterm Elections
- The New York Times’s election results maps — House, Senate, gubernatorial — are, as usual, awesome. Pickups are clearly indicated, so you can see at a glance what’s changed. You can drill down to county-level results easily, and a…
- Upcoming Changes to Bing Maps
- Bing Maps updates announced earlier this week: bird’s-eye aerial views will soon be available without requiring a Silverlight plugin, and the current 3D maps control will be removed….
- GPS Tracklog Reviews DeLorme GPS/Communicator Combo
- GPS Tracklog has a two-part review of the DeLorme Earthmate PN-60w GPS receiver and SPOT satellite communicator combo: the SPOT review went up last month; the PN-60w review showed up this morning. The SPOT communicator allows you to send…
- Street View’s Limited Rollout in Germany
- Google’s Street View has launched in just a few locations in Germany, including sports facilities, public areas, and the village of Oberstaufen, which baked Google a cake. Google Earth Blog, Google Maps Mania….
- The Geospatial Revolution Project, Episode Two
- The Geospatial Revolution Project’s second episode went up today; it covers how GIS is used by the City of Portland, by UPS, and by efforts to bring supermarkets into disadvantaged communities. Via All Points Blog and Google Earth Blog….
- Map Art Exhibition in Dayton, Ohio: Constructed Territory
- Constructed Territory, an art exhibition by “artists who incorporate maps, cartography, and topographical examination into their work,” runs until January 9, 2011, at Wright State University’s Robert and Elaine Stein Galleries in Dayton, Ohio. This exhibit will feature 32 artists…
- Schwartz Donates Maps to University of Rochester
- Cartographic historian Seymour I. Schwartz, who previously donated his map collection to the University of Virginia, apparently had a few maps left over for the university in whose medical school he taught: he has donated 40 maps and drawings…
- A Book Roundup
- A brief review of Rachel Hewitt’s history of the Ordnance Survey, Map of a Nation (previously) from the Financial Times. Via All Points Blog. Making Maps reports that Denis Wood’s Everything Sings: Maps for a Narrative Atlas (previously) is now…
