September 2005
- California Wildfire Maps
- Ryan Miller writes, “I was looking to find a map showing where the Los Angeles wildfire was, and this map viewer was very helpful. It’s easy to use, and it has a few convenient layers to use.” The server is…
- Google and NASA
- The big news this week for Google watchers this week is the announcement Wednesday of a memorandum of understanding between Google and NASA’s Ames Research Center. Press releases from ARC and Google; news coverage from the San Jose Mercury News…
- Radical Cartography
- Radical Cartography is a marvellous collection of a variety of different maps from several different people. Lots of different subjects, too many to list. Go see. Via Cartography, whose description is better….
- School Project Maps Road Hazards
- Schoolchildren in Liverpool, as part of a safety project called “Our Walk to School,” have mapped their local areas in an attempt to highlight road and traffic hazards; the maps, on A4 paper, have been collected in an atlas which,…
- Maps in Our Lives
- Through January 6, a Library of Congress exhibition in the corridors of the Madison Building called Maps in Our Lives: “The exhibition explores four constituent professions represented by ACSM [the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping], the nation’s primary professional…
- Campus Orientation Maps
- I misspent three years at the University of Alberta; this opinion piece in the student newspaper there, The Gateway, has this to say about the quality of the campus orientation map: “It sucks.”…
- Google Earth: Indian Reactions
- Once more into the breach. India is the latest country where concerns are being expressed about the high-resolution imagery in Google Earth, now that several Indian cities have had their photos updated. As usual, the concern is about sensitive installations…
- New GPS Satellite Launched
- A satellite launched Sunday is the first in a series of eight new GPS satellites that will, among other things, add a second civilian frequency once more of the satellites are launched. Space.com’s coverage is full of geeky detail….
- First Post-Hurricane Rita Images
- Kathryn Cramer reports that the first post-Hurricane Rita images from the areas hardest hit by the storm have been posted by NOAA. As was the case with Katrina, the interface — starting with a base map index page — is…
- C&D for iPod Subway Maps
- iPodSubwayMaps.com has received cease-and-desist letters from the New York and San Francisco transit authorities, who are invoking their copyright on their system maps, which the site breaks into iPod-screen-sized pieces that can be parsed via the scroll wheel. The developer,…
- Forbes Smiley Profile
- E. Forbes Smiley III has not talked to the media since the news of his arrest on map theft charges broke in July. The Hartford Courant, however, has interviewed friends, neighbours, colleagues and detractors to piece together a portrait of…
- Blaeu’s Atlas Maior (1665)
- Gadling points to a new release from über-expensive book publisher Taschen: a reproduction of Joan Blaeu’s 1665 Atlas Maior. The original was in Latin and in 11 volumes; the modern version is nearly 800 pages, weighs 7.2 kg, and, from…
- State Comptroller Threatens Google
- Ogle Earth reports that New York state comptroller Alan Hevesi is the latest politician to freak out about Google Earth as a potential tool for terrorists. But Hevesi does it in a particularly odious manner, invoking his status as trustee…
- Canadian Government Abandoning Paper Topo Maps?
- The Canadian government wants to get out of the business of producing paper topographical maps, according to an e-mail from World of Maps president Brad Green (reprinted on Cartography). As of January 2007, when the lease on the Canada Map…
- That Roman Villa Discovery Story
- I’m totally the last person to be reporting this. A couple of weeks ago, Ogle Earth pointed to the story of Italian blogger Luca Mori (whose site seems to be down at the moment), who used Google Maps and Google…
- Counterfeit Maps, Lost Drivers
- To save money, some Chinese GPS manufacturers use counterfeit maps instead of official ones; as a result, Shanghai drivers who buy the cheaper units are getting lost. Via GeoCarta and Very Spatial….
- Satellite Imagery Desktop Wallpaper
- UCSB graduate student Jeff Hemphill’s home page has a marvellous collection of satellite and Landsat images as desktop wallpaper. They’re all in 1280×1024 resolution — too bad for those of us with widescreen monitors. Via both Very Spatial and MetaFilter….
- British Library: Mercator Atlas Online
- The British Library’s new Turning the Pages online gallery, which presents rare books in a Flash-based interface where you physically turn the pages with your mouse pointer (a bit overdone, but it works), includes Mercator’s sixteenth-century atlas of Europe. Via…
- Hurricane Rita Update
- Fantastic multidimensional satellite imagery of Hurricane Rita from NOAA; via Spatially Adjusted. Also, you can now track Hurricane Rita with Virtual Earth; via Scoble. On an organizational note, I’ve combined entries about Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita into a new…
- Coronelli’s Globes on Display
- Géo212 reports that Coronelli’s globes are on display in Paris for the first time in 25 years, as part of the reopening of the Grand Palais. See coverage from the Nouvel Observateur and Radio France Internationale; if you don’t read…
- Tracking Hurricane Rita, Part Two
- Directions has compiled a page of links to U.S. government maps related to Hurricane Rita; this will be updated as new information becomes available, they say. James Fee, in re ESRI helping various government agencies: “It seems that everyone has…
- Open Source GIS Guide
- GIS Unshackled: A Guide to Open-Source Tools: a look at some of the open-source software packages, from databases to scalable vector graphics, that can be used in lieu of established commercial software. Via Very Spatial….
- Katrina Maps and Photos: Behind the Scenes
- Tyler Mitchell talks about the behind-the-scenes work to process approximately 1,500 NOAA images from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and upload them to the Katrina Image Warehouse, using open-source software; the basics were up and running within 48 hours. Via…
- Forbes: Mapping the Web’s Future
- Forbes has a big-picture introduction to Google Maps applications and the growing trend of geotagging as much information on the web as possible. Via Cartography….
- German Election Results
- Webmapper critiques the media’s interactive maps of Germany’s recent Bundestag elections. I agree with Edward: my favourite is Der Spiegel’s flash map: it loads quickly and shows both local constituency results (red and black, a more appropriately Stendhalian version of…
- Oh No, Not Again: Tracking Hurricane Rita
- There are several resources for keeping tabs on the next volley of tropical storms to hit the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean. NOAA’s Storm Tracker page for Rita and Philippe has tracking maps and satellite photos. Google Earth…
- Virtual Earth Roundup
- Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference last week was the occasion for some Virtual Earth announcements. Directions got a heads-up prior to the conference; Andrew Coates has some notes from the Virtual Earth session, which covered using the API for commercial use…
- American Ethnic Geography
- American Ethnic Geography: the web site for a second-year geography course at Valparaiso University has an excellent collection of map galleries; the maps — mostly GIFs, some PDFs — provide a wealth of interesting information on North American demographics: ethnicity,…
- The Full Moon Atlas
- The Full Moon Atlas: “A complete series of interactive lunar maps, with more than 2,500 geographic formations (including craters, mountains, lakes, seas and valleys) identified simply by moving your mouse cursor over the feature.” Javascript required; doesn’t work properly in…
- Treasured Maps
- Treasured Maps, an exhibition of more than 80 rare maps and atlases from the New York Public Library’s Map Division holdings, is on now through April 9, 2006 at the NYPL’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library (Fifth Avenue and 42nd…
- Coding the Google Maps API
- About a month ago, our friend John Resig spent a week on Google Maps: “I’ve been working a number of contract jobs — all of which have centered around the usage of the Google Maps API, a powerful tool for…
- Google Imagery Updates
- While I wait for the long-promised Mac version of Google Earth (hint), I note with interest that both Google Earth and Google Maps got their satellite imagery updated (Google Earth Blog, Google Maps Mania). But a separate enhancement is even…
- More British Library Theft Coverage
- More coverage of the recent theft of three maps from the British Library from the Hampstead and Highgate Express; the article seems particularly clueless, and tries to draw in other missing items that are as likely to be misplaced as…
- Map Projection Pages
- Carlos A. Furuti’s Map Projection Pages comprise the most extensive resource on projections that I have yet seen online, including why a given map projection is used and the math involved in creating a projection. Thanks again to peacay. See…
- NOAA’s Historical Map and Chart Collection
- NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey’s Historical Map and Chart Collection “contains over 20,000 maps and charts from the late 1700s to present day. The Collection includes some of the nation’s earliest nautical charts, hydrographic surveys, topographic surveys, geodetic surveys, city…
- 1895 Electoral Atlas of Canada
- From Canada’s National Archives, the Electoral Atlas of the Dominion of Canada, which publishes scans of the original 1895 maps of federal electoral districts; these would have been in use during the 1896 election. Thanks again to peacay (whose new…
- Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives
- The Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives is the professional organization for map librarians and cartographic archivists in Canada; their web site lists their published maps and books, and has some resources for map cataloguing. I’ve volunteered to catalogue…
- More Post-Katrina Maps and Photos
- Glenn of GISuser.com has been collecting photos, maps and other graphics related to hurricanes — Katrina in particular, naturally — on his Flickr account. Late to the party, but Microsoft has put in a solid, if buggy effort with…
- Real-time Cell Phone Map of Graz
- Continuously changing real-time maps of cell phone usage in Graz, Austria, created by MIT researchers by tracking anonymous data from thousands of mobile phones, will appear as part of Kunsthaus Graz’s “M City: European Cityscapes” exhibition between October 1…
- Smiley Suspected in British Library Thefts
- The Montreal Gazette also covers the news that three maps were stolen from the British Library (see previous entry). The Gazette article focuses on a map of particular significance to Canadian history — a 1578 map of Martin Frobisher’s discoveries…
- More Post-Katrina Maps
- It’s been a few days since I last posted on Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Here are a few more links. Apologies for letting them accumulate. ESRI’s Hurricane Katrina Disaster Viewer is, according to ESRI’s Lisa Kensok, who submitted this…
- Antique Maps of Iceland
- Antique Maps of Iceland: “All antique maps of Iceland (older than 1900) that are in the collection of the National and University Library of Iceland and the Central Bank of Iceland have been converted to a digital format and…
- Killer Maps
- It’s hard to believe that Google Maps was only released last February, especially when you consider how a huge web-based ecosystem has sprung up around it since then. But it didn’t spring from nothing. Killer Maps, the cover story for…
- Three Maps Stolen from British Library
- Three early maps — two 17th-century maps of North America and a 16th-century world map — have been taken from the British Library, The Independent reports in today’s edition. The maps were taken earlier this year, in March and June;…
- Map of Pluto
- Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have generated a colour map of Pluto; it’s a bit of a stretch to call the map “detailed,” but on the other hand it’s rather amazing to have any detail on a map of…
- Outage
- The Map Room was unavailable for nearly seven hours today; my hosting provider was knocked offline by the power outage that hit Los Angeles this afternoon. All my sites were offline until just a few minutes ago. More posts tomorrow….
- Google Earth Privacy and Security Roundup
- When the satellite-photo version of Google Maps came out earlier this year, there was some apprehension about the impact of these high-resolution photos on individual privacy. For example, some nervousness about being able to see the car in your driveway….
- Adrian Leskiw’s Fictional Road Maps
- The Map Realm: The Fictional Road Maps of Adrian Leskiw is a marvellous collection of hand-drawn and digitally made highway maps of non-existent places conjured straight from Adrian’s imagination. I love this stuff. I used to draw maps of…
- September 11 Digital Archive
- To mark the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the September 11 Digital Archive has used the Google Maps API to create an interactive map of New York with photos (blue markers) and stories (red markers) from that day. Via…
- Forbes Smiley Case: LA Times on Library Security
- Today’s Los Angeles Times has a story about the Forbes Smiley case that focuses on the security measures adopted by rare book libraries. (If the site asks that you register, clear your latimes.com cookies.)…
- Big Eartha
- With a diameter of 12.5 metres, the 1:1,000,000 scale, three-ton Eartha, built in the lobby of map publisher DeLorme, is the world’s largest rotating globe. Housed in a three-story glass atrium at the company’s headquarters in Yarmouth, Maine, Eartha…
- Mountain Bike Trails and Other Tyrolean Maps
- Maps from the government of Tirol, one of the Austrian Länder, including this map of mountain bike trails in that Alpine region. Thanks, Glenn….
- Wrong Map Costs City $15,000
- Via GeoCarta, a report that an inaccurate map was responsible for the city of Gearhart, Oregon encroaching on private property during bridge construction. From the article: “City Manager Dennis McNally told the City Council Wednesday the city had poured the…
- Pugsley Collection of Early Canadian Maps
- The W. H. Pugsley Collection of Early Canadian Maps at McGill University: In 1971-72 Dr. William Howard Pugsley, a McGill alumnus, donated a collection of 50 early Canadian maps, dating from 1556 to 1857, to the McGill University Libraries. Dr….
- NACIS Annual Meeting
- The North American Cartographic Information Society’s 2005 annual meeting takes place in Salt Lake City on October 12-15. John Krygier reports that David Rumsey (about whom see previous entries: 1, 2) will be the keynote speaker, “which is a great…
- British Immigration Maps
- The BBC’s Born Abroad feature maps the concentrations of immigrants (defined as people born outside the British Isles) and the change in the number of immigrants living in Britain over the past degree. Based on an Institute for Public Policy…
- Virtual Earth API for Commercial Use
- Virtual Earth hacks have either been few and far between or they just haven’t been getting any attention (see previous entry; the same could be said about Yahoo! hacks). I wonder whether the announcement that the Virtual Earth APIs are…
- More About Flood Maps
- Forbes reports that FEMA’s outdated flood maps meant that many people in Hurricane Katrina’s path didn’t have flood insurance because, according to those maps, they weren’t in a flood plain and didn’t need it. More generally on inaccurate flood maps…
- More Map Podcasts
- I mentioned the Very Spatial Podcast a few entries back. A couple of other GIS- or cartography-themed audio programs have turned up since then. (These two audio programs have been referred to as podcasts, but that’s not strictly true unless…
- Airline Route Maps
- Cartography has a great post about online collections of airline route maps, at the eponymous Airline Route Maps and elsewhere. See previous entry: Old Airline Route Maps….
- LA Times Trail Maps
- The LA Times has put together a collection of maps of trails in southern California. The maps are PDFs, and you’ll have to register to get at them. Via Gadling….
- Map Events in Colorado
- Denver is going to be a busy place for map lovers this month. The International Map Collectors’ Society’s symposium takes place between September 18 and 23, and is held in conjunction with the Rocky Mountain Map Society’s antique map fair,…
- Ryhiner Map Collection
- The Ryhiner Map Collection “consists of more than 16,000 maps, charts, plans and views from the 16th to the 18th century, covering the whole globe. Together with the 20,000 manuscript maps of the State Archives, the Canton of Berne owns…
- Terrorist Map Revealed as Parking Map
- Truck driver Ahmad El Maati was suspected of ties to Al Qaeda, and detained and allegedly tortured in Syria and Egypt, in part because of the presence of a map of government installations in his truck when he crossed the…
- More New Orleans Flood Maps
- More flood maps of New Orleans (see this morning’s entry). Kathryn Cramer, whose blog has turned into an immense resource for Hurricane Katrina information, links to a Google Maps hack that shows the approximate water depth in flooded areas; because…
- WPA Survey Maps for Los Angeles
- Also from the USC Digital Archive, WPA land-use survey maps for the City of Los Angeles, 1933-1939: The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted a land use survey from December 18, 1933 to May 8, 1939 for the city of Los…
- Sea of Korea Map Collection
- The USC Digital Archive’s Sea of Korea Map Collection consists of original old maps, dating from 1606 to 1895, in English, French, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Latin, German and Russian. It was formed by digitizing the combination of two private collections…
- Florida Maps
- A simply massive collection of historic maps of Florida — “over 3,100 Florida maps from the 1500s through the present” — from Exploring Florida, an online educational resource. Via Plep….
- The Gough Map
- The Gough Map is the oldest surviving road map of Great Britain. (Pictured above; east is at the top of the map.) The map itself dates to around 1360, but was discovered by Richard Gough in 1774, and donated…
- Ten More Mapping Blogs
- I posted links to a lot of new blogs next month, but Cartography’s roundup of cartography and related blogs last week brought a grand total of seven more blogs to my attention. Plus, I was already aware of Ed Parsons’s…
- Mississippi Channel; New Orleans Flood Map
- Over on GeoCarta, Roger goes beyond the latest satellite and aerial photography of New Orleans (which is what’s getting the lion’s share of attention); he looks at NOAA’s survey of the damage to the Mississippi River shipping channel and has…
- Mapping the Northwest Passage
- Of Maps and Men: In Pursuit of a Northwest Passage is an online exhibition from the Princeton University Library; it’s got an excellent collection of map scans: this page has 12 of them, dating from 1528 to 1907, which reflect…
- Google and Katrina
- In addition to the Forbes article I mentioned yesterday, both the BBC and New York Times (free registration required) cover the use of Google Maps and Earth by ordinary users to collect and distribute information about the disaster — i.e.,…
- Your Fault for Living There
- A lot of insensitive things have been said about the people of New Orleans after the hurricane hit. To people who say it’s their own damn fault for living in an area subject to hurricanes, Troll Princess has this response….
- Hurricane Katrina: Google Maps and Other Imagery
- I’ve been getting e-mail from people asking about the state of various locations in and around New Orleans and other areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. I’m not the best person to answer such questions — I’m just someone from small-town…
- More New Orleans Satellite Photos
- Orbimage’s satellite photos of New Orleans post-Katrina, here and here, are in black and white; as a result, the detail is much sharper and the flooded parts of the city are much more visible, as the example above (courtesy…
- Russian Maps of China
- Maps of central Asia and western China produced by Russian cartographers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from the China Historical GIS project. Thanks to Language Hat for the link. See previous entry: Soviet Topo Maps; Old Russian…
- Hurricane Katrina Update
- I’ve been reorganizing my categories a bit; my Hurricane Katrina entries now have their own category. More satellite imagery: Before and after satellite images from GlobalSecurity.org. Landsat’s before and after images seem to have more detail than the others. NASA…
- Cartotalk
- Cartotalk is an online forum for cartographic professionals, with lots about map design….
- Great Apes Atlas
- The World Atlas of Great Apes and Their Conservation, which I believe was launched yesterday, “provides a comprehensive overview of what is currently known about all six species of great apes — chimpanzee, bonobo, Sumatran orangutan, Bornean orangutan, eastern gorilla,…
- Motor Boating on Navigation Software
- Another review of navigation software from the September 2005 issue of Motor Boating magazine (see previous entry)….
- Hurricane Katrina: More Satellite Images
- (Updated) More satellite imagery from the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina is being made available. Space Imaging’s Image Gallery has images of New Orleans before Katrina and Mobile, Alabama after Katrina (via Cartography). Digital Globe’s Hurricane Katrina Media Gallery has…
