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The Map Room covers everything about maps, from collecting to the latest in geospatial technology. Since March 2003, a total of 2471 entries have been posted.
MapHist is abuzz with excitement over the news that an English translation of Christian Jacob’s apparently significant 1992 work on the history of cartography, The Sovereign Map: Theoretical Approaches in Cartography throughout History, is now available. Is there any more information out there beyond what exists on the publisher’s page?
The Ohio Geological Survey has announced a 1:500,000-scale map of the state’s bedrock geology: “The map shows the distribution of 46 bedrock formations or combinations of formations occurring at the surface or immediately beneath the surficial deposits (mostly glacial) that commonly conceal much of the bedrock in Ohio. The accompanying text explains not only the characteristics and distribution of the state’s various bedrock formations, but also details the many economic mineral commodities, environmental characteristics, and geological hazards associated with the bedrock units.” $15. Via Maps-L.
If you’ve been following this blog’s entries about how digital mapping data providers compile their data (see the Surveying category archives), you’ll know that since time immemorial — or at least the 1940s — mapmakers have compiled their road data by driving the roads. But in Wired’s October issue, there’s a story about how Tele Atlas is moving away from that, thanks to their acquisition of GDT, a company founded by Don Cooke that tried to avoid driving when compiling road data:
Adamant about compiling data, instead of looking for it out the window, Cooke started with road classification information from the Census Bureau and determined rough speed limits so he’d have a sense of which routes were most efficient. Next, GDT acquired detailed aerial photography of major cities. “We could look at a street and see which way cars were parked, even tire rubber going into intersections, and deduce 85 percent of the turn restrictions and one-way attributes,” Cooke says.
See previous entries: Thomas Guides, Navteq on KPCC; NY Times: Navteq in New York; Again: TeleAtlas in Berlin; The New Yorker on Maps and Directions; Again: NavTeq in San Diego; Another Profile: Navteq in New York; TeleAtlas in Santa Fe; More on Digital Map Field Researchers; CNet Profiles TeleAtlas; SF Chronicle: Digital Map Field Researchers; Backcountry Mapping; Online Maps’ Foot Soldiers.
The Library of Congress’s Geography and Map Division is a huge resource of digital images of old maps. On Wednesday they reached a symbolic but impressive milestone: they posted their 10,000 digitized map to their web site: Samuel de Champlain’s 1607 map of the northeastern coast of North America. Via MapHist.
Google Transit, the trip planner that includes public transportation data, started last December (see previous entry) with Portland, Oregon as its single city, presumably as a proof of concept. Today they’ve added five more cities: Honolulu, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Tampa, and Eugene, Oregon. See also Google Maps Mania.
Maps for Canadians is an online campaign to get the Canadian government to reverse its decision to stop printing paper topographical maps. They encourage people to write the Minister of Natural Resources and their local member of parliament; note that postage is free when writing an MP. Via Cartography.
See previous entries: Canadian Topo Map Update: CCA Conference Items; Paper Maps: Doomed in Canada, But Not Elsewhere?; Canadian Topo Map Update: CBC Coverage; Canadian Topo Map Update: Globe and Mail Coverage; Canadian Government Abandoning Paper Topo Maps?
A renowned dealer who admitted stealing nearly 100 rare antique maps was sentenced Wednesday to 3½ years in prison after one librarian described him as a “thief who assaulted history.”
E. Forbes Smiley III, a 50-year-old resident of Martha’s Vineyard, also was tentatively ordered to pay restitution of $1.9 million, though that figure may change. He is scheduled to report to prison Jan. 4.
The sentence’s length is closer to what the defence was asking for than what the libraries were demanding.
U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton said she wanted to send a dual message with the sentence.
“If you steal human treasurers, then you will go to prison, but if you help recover them, this will be taken into account and weighed in the balance,” she said.
Earlier in this afternoon’s sentencing hearing, representatives of six libraries had urged a stiff sentence for Smiley. (Associated Press coverage: Boston Globe, Hartford Courant, International Herald Tribune, Newsday; the Chicago Tribune covers the Newberry Library’s statement.)
See previous entries: Prosecutors File Brief, Explain Smiley’s Motives; Forbes Smiley’s Sentencing Memorandum; Forbes Smiley Asks for Leniency; British Library/Forbes Smiley Update; Forbes Smiley Case: More on the British Library’s Brief; British Library Demands Harsher Sentence for Smiley.
Update #1, 5:30 PM
The AP story is also available via the Belleville News-Democrat. Kim Martineau’s story for the Hartford Courant contains some additional information, notably the following:
The money Smiley will make selling his home on Martha’s Vineyard and his summer house in central Maine is expected to cover only a fraction of what he owes. As he heads off to jail broke, with his business in tatters, few of the map dealers he betrayed are holding their breath waiting for payment.
Also that, as David pointed out, state sentencing — on three larceny charges — has been delayed to next month, sentence to be served concurrently.
Update #2, 6:00 PM
The AP story is also accessible at the Stamford Advocate. For background, this Bangor News story filed prior to sentencing is a good summary.
Update #3, 8:20 PM
The Times reports that the British Library “was extremely disappointed by the leniency of the sentence imposed.”
[British Library scholarship and collections director Clive] Field said: “In the library’s view, a term of imprisonment of 42 months — equivalent to around 12 days for each of the 98 maps Smiley admitted to stealing — and financial restitution of £1 million, do not adequately reflect the seriousness of the offences.
“Nor do they represent a commensurate punishment of Smiley for his serial thefts, or a serious deterrent to other would-be thieves of cultural property.” He added: “It will go down in criminal and library history as one of the largest, most prolonged, premeditated and systematic of all thefts from libraries, and with no mitigating circumstances.”
The New Haven Independent’s coverage is extensive, and includes anecdotal material from the hearing, plus photographs.
The AP wire story has been updated: Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The first wire story is being mirrored all over the place; this is a major story. See also the Reuters wire story.
Update #4, Sept. 28 at 1:55 PM
University news coverage from the Harvard Crimson and Yale Daily News.
Forbes Smiley’s web site has been taken down; I wonder when that happened. Via MapHist.
Post your thoughts in the comments; that’s what they’re there for.
Update #5, Sept. 28 at 8:05 PM
NPR covered the story as well (via Map the Universe).
Update #6, Sept. 29 at 8:00 AM
The New Haven Register’s coverage highlights some interesting information that may have been in earlier news stories, but I didn’t register it.
On Smiley’s upcoming state sentence:
He faces another sentencing, on state first-degree larceny charges Oct. 13 in Superior Court. Both sides have agreed to a cap of five years on that sentence, which will be served concurrently with the federal sentence.
On Smiley’s prison time:
Arterton agreed with a request by Smiley’s attorney, Richard Reeve, to put off Smiley’s reporting to prison until Jan. 4, 2007, so he can continue identifying maps. She also agreed to recommend Smiley serve his time at a “satellite camp” at Fort Devon in Massachusetts because it has a medical facility for his heart problems. The federal Bureau of Prisons will make the final decision.
Update #7, Sept. 29 at 9:15 AM
The FBI put Smiley’s stolen maps on display; WTNH has footage. Windows Media only, so I can’t view it. Via Map the Universe.
Update #8, Sept. 29 at 4:50 PM
Kim Martineau’s story in yesterday’s Hartford Courant. Via MapHist.
The Conservation GeoPortal is an index of conservation maps and GIS datasets. No maps or data is available on the site itself, just searchable metadata; it points to stuff elsewhere online. More here. Via Maps-L.
A collection of late-19th-century bird’s-eye-view maps of Texas cities will be on display at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas (near Amarillo), from March 17 to June 10 next year. This is presumably the same exhibition that was on display in Fort Worth earlier this year, so if you missed it then, you’ve got another chance.
See previous entries: Texas Bird’s-Eye Views; Exhibition Roundup: Fort Worth, Texas; Hannibal Missouri.
The 100th anniversary of Phyllis Pearsall’s birth was celebrated in the UK on Monday. She founded the A-Z Map Company in 1936 to publish a (now-legendary) map of London — which she compiled by walking 3,000 miles’ worth of London streets — that replaced contemporary offerings that were decades out of date. Pearsall died in 1996; more about her here and here. There are also two books about her: her memoir, From Bedsitter to Household Name: The Personal Story of A-Z Maps; and Sarah Hartley’s biography, Mrs. P’s Journey. Via MapHist.
A choropleth map of Flickr photos as a KMZ file for Google Earth; it shows how many photos from each lat/long grid have been uploaded to Flickr. I was intrigued to see that unexpected places like St. Helena and Greenland have had photos uploaded. (What, no photos from Tristan da Cunha?) Via FlickrBlog.
Gawker’s New York City Subway Smell Map, a Google Maps mashup with attitude: “Created from reports sent in by Gawker readers, the map displays particular smells — horrific and sublime — encountered throughout New York’s subway stations.” And you thought the Gawker Stalker map was something. Via MetaFilter.
In 2002, Temple University began working on a flood map of the Pennypack Creek watershed, an area on the north side of Philadelphia that historically has been particularly prone to flooding. The resulting maps, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports in a special section on flooding, were, paradoxically, too good:
After seeing the finished product last month, the agency told Temple that there was a problem: The maps were too precise to be adopted by the federal government.
The researchers’ work was done in such exacting detail — literally house by house — that it was far and above FEMA’s longtime standards for floodplain mapping, said Martin Frengs, an official at the agency’s regional headquarters in Philadelphia. The maps’ quality, he explained, must be uniform across the country because they are the foundation of the National Flood Insurance Program, which FEMA administers.
Temple’s renditions would be Michelangelos in a Grandma Moses gallery.
The Inquirer shows the differences in detail between Temple’s and FEMA’s maps on this interactive map. Via MapHist.
This is a strange article; it talks about viewing fall colours and segues into using or buying a GPS receiver for that purpose. It also repeats the canard that a GPS renders paper maps unnecessary: “A foldable map is cheaper and just as portable as a GPS device, but doesn’t tell you directions the way a GPS unit does.” To me that’s like saying a compass renders a topo map obsolete. Then there’s this recommendation for choosing a fall colours route: “Make sure the one you choose is bordered by lots of green, indicating vegetation.” Electronic maps don’t necessarily do that. Via My Wonderful World.
Google Maps has added road data for Brazil — no address search yet, though — and updated the map tiles for Japan, allowing (apparently) hybrid mode. See also Google Maps Mania, Google Karten.
The theme for the fifth biennial Virginia Garrett Lectures on the History of Cartography is “Mapping the Sacred: Belief and Religion in the History of Cartography.” They take place on October 7 (lecture program) at the University of Texas at Arlington’s Central Library, the day before the fall meeting of the Texas Map Society (lecture program). Via First Printing.
Cartography reports an upcoming conference on cartographic design by the British Cartographic Society, to be held November 17 in Glasgow. It’s called The Map Designers: “this seminar will bring together cartographic designers, and designers from the world of media and GIS, to discuss how to make maps effective, exciting, irresistible and … readable.”
Free GIS Data GeoBlog points to GIS data available for free online; it’s another project by Glenn Letham, whom we’ve heard of before: he’s also behind Anything Geospatial and GISUser.com, among other things. Via Cartography and GPS Tracklog.
Steve Coast’s Where 2.0 talk on OpenStreetMap is now available in MP3 format from ITConversations. Via OpenGeoData.
See previous entries on OpenStreetMap: OpenStreetMap Animations; Ed Parsons on OpenStreetMap; OpenStreetMap: Manchester’s Next; OpenStreetMap to Map Isle of Wight; OpenStreetMap London Poster as Fundraiser; OpenStreetMap; London Free Map.
See previous entries on the Where 2.0 2006 conference, which took place last June: Where 2.0 Begins Today; Where 2.0: Day One; Where 2.0: Day Two; Where 2.0 Final Roundup.
GeoPress “is a WordPress plugin that allows users to quickly and easily embed location information in blog posts.” Via O’Reilly Radar, which covers it in some detail.
See previous entry: Google Maps WordPress Plugins.
Yahoo! has updated its AJAX mapping API to version 3.4; among other things, it now includes polylines and a traffic data layer.
Learning at the British Library has a section on maps — not a comprehensive archive, but a selection that illustrates key themes for educative purposes using examples from the Library’s collection. Four sections: ideas, lies and deception, war, and wealth and poverty. Via Things Magazine.
Attorneys for the British Library and Forbes Smiley have made their submissions regarding Smiley’s upcoming sentencing; now it’s the prosecution’s turn. In their sentencing brief today, prosecutors explained Smiley’s motives for stealing nearly 100 maps, the Associated Press’s John Christoffersen reports:
“He explained that his initial thefts were acting out of resentment toward persons at certain institutions that he believed had wronged him, individuals who he believed had slighted him or used certain of his research without accreditation,” prosecutors wrote. “Other thefts he explained resulted from some misguided sense of entitlement to the maps because he had, through collectors, provided better versions of the same map to the institution. He also acknowledged that stealing maps was profitable and he had mounting debts.”
Smiley’s sentencing is now scheduled for October 13 (Update: Or maybe the federal part is still next Wednesday; see this comment).
See previous entries: Forbes Smiley’s Sentencing Memorandum; Forbes Smiley Asks for Leniency; British Library/Forbes Smiley Update; Forbes Smiley Case: More on the British Library’s Brief; British Library Demands Harsher Sentence for Smiley.
Update, 10:10 PM: Tomorrow’s edition of the Vineyard Gazette covers both the prosecution’s and defence’s submissions.
Tinselman, aka Myst co-creator Robyn Miller, has compiled an archive of photos of scale models of cities on his blog. Most of the photos are from Flickr, such as this one, at right, of the Shanghai model by Andrew Currie. Via MetaFilter.
See previous entries: The Living Map; There’s Always Room for San Francisco.
Last year it was announced that MapQuest was moving into print maps. Wise commenters on that entry noted that it was not the first time that MapQuest had moved into paper, and in fact they had earlier laid off their workers on the print side of the business during the dot-com bubble (the company started with printed maps in 1967). Now it seems that, a bit more than a year later, they’re dropping the print side of their business, shedding 40 jobs and selling its publishing arm to former employees, to focus on their all-digital efforts. Again. It’s never a good sign when a company keeps changing direction, 180 degrees at a time. Via Cartography.
See previous entries: MapQuest’s Mobile Strategy; What’s MapQuest Up To?; MapQuest Goes Paper.
Via Map the Universe, an introductory article about map collecting from today’s edition — I guess by now it’d be yesterday’s edition — of the Sydney Morning Herald, using the local Antique Print Room as its backdrop and the earliest maps of Australia as examples.
The UN Environment Programme’s atlas, One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment, was announced in June 2005 and has been available as a free download since at least last February. (You can always buy the book, of course.) Now it’s available in online, with a Google Maps-based interface that will still take you to the complete text, before and after images, and Google Earth links. Via Here Be Dragons.
See previous entries: One Planet, Many People Redux; One Planet, Many People.
The 39-page sentencing memorandum written by Forbes Smiley’s defence attorney, Richard Reeve, is available online (PDF) from the Hartford Courant (see also the attached exhibits). The document responds to the memorandum submitted last week by the British Library, partially on legally technical grounds (a lot of stuff about the arcane details of sentencing guidelines), partially by refuting some of the Library’s arguments. It emphasizes the libraries’ faulty cataloguing, not only challenging their accusation that Smiley took more maps, but also highlighting a peculiar situation about Smiley’s cooperation:
Indeed, the F.B.I. investigation established that the relevant institutions were unaware that 40 of these 80 these maps were even missing before Mr. Smiley admitted their thefts, despite lengthy internal investigations by the institutions themselves.
It also argues that the British Library takes no note of the fact that Smiley is cooperating and that maps are in fact being returned: “[T]he British Library’s rhetoric neglects an important and fundamental truth: the Appian World Map [cited in Goldman’s brief with great flourish] will soon be back in its collection.”
Worth reading in its entirety; the Hartford Courant’s Kim Martineau has a story (to which the above documents were attached) that covers the bases very well, naturally.
See previous entry: Forbes Smiley Asks for Leniency.
Forbes Smiley’s sentencing has been postponed until October 13. No reasons as yet for the delay; the hearing had already been pushed back to accomodate libraries’ sentencing memoranda.
Update, Sept. 27: This applies only to Smiley’s sentencing in state court for three larceny charges; he was sentenced in federal court today as scheduled. See David Cobb’s comment.
In the wake of the British Library’s submission calling for a stiffer sentence than called for by the guidelines, Forbes Smiley’s attorney is asking for leniency, the Associated Press reports. Specifically, he’s asking for three years, rather than the five to six years suggested by the guidelines and the up-to-eight years asked for by the British Library.
“It is our view that he has cooperated honestly, openly and thoroughly,” Smiley’s attorney, Richard Reeve, wrote. “He made a decision almost immediately to assist in the investigation and attempted throughout to aid the government in whatever way possible and to help retrieve as many of the maps as possible. To reach that goal, he had to admit to conduct that would have never been uncovered.”
But here’s the kicker:
Smiley admitted to taking two more maps only a few weeks ago, Reeve said. The court papers do not provide any details about those maps.
Hmm. That he was not previously forthcoming about those two extra maps hurts the credibility of his argument that he’s been cooperative; it also lends credence to the British Library’s accusation, yet to be supported by hard evidence, that he stole more maps than he’s admitting to.
See previous entries: British Library/Forbes Smiley Update; Forbes Smiley Case: More on the British Library’s Brief; British Library Demands Harsher Sentence for Smiley.
Update, Sept. 24: Harvard Crimson coverage.
News coverage of the British Library’s submission regarding Forbes Smiley’s upcoming sentencing continues to trickle in: here are stories from the Library Journal, the Vineyard Gazette and the Yale Daily News — the last covering libraries’ stepped-up security following Smiley’s arrest.
See previous entries: Forbes Smiley Case: More on the British Library’s Brief; British Library Demands Harsher Sentence for Smiley.
The Broer Map Library is a digital archive of scanned maps with heady ambitions — “to provide its collection of maps and atlases online in order to allow libraries and researchers who would not otherwise have access to such a large collection, have them available.” Founded in 2002, they claim a collection of 40,000 maps, with scanning apparently in progress and with plans to expand further. The ostensibly registration-only members’ section seems to be completely accessible; maps are in Zoomify format. Via Cartography.
Brady Forrest, covering FOSS4G2006 for O’Reilly Radar, links to some fascinating animations from the OpenStreetMap project.
This one tracks two days’ worth of courier activity in London:
There are also videos that track the growth in GPS traces for OpenStreetMap in London and the UK.
The blog associated with OpenStreetMap is OpenGeoData.
See previous entries: Ed Parsons on OpenStreetMap; OpenStreetMap: Manchester’s Next; OpenStreetMap to Map Isle of Wight; OpenStreetMap London Poster as Fundraiser; OpenStreetMap; London Free Map.
The Guardian adds to the coverage of the British Library’s brief asking for a harsher penalty for Forbes Smiley (see previous entry).
I must confess to some misgivings about the ferociousness of the libraries’ response to Mr. Smiley. He’s already facing five to six years in jail, on top of $1.8 million in restitution and 97 maps returned — and that’s with him cooperating. Adding two to three years, as the brief asks for, seems insufficiently meaningful — we’re not talking about 60 days vs. two years, for example. The penalty is qualitatively severe: there are people committing serious and violent crimes who face less. And I worry that harsher penalties, while satisfying the desire for exemplary punishment, will deter cooperation, and the point, I think, is to get as many maps back as possible.
If he’s not cooperating enough, then the libraries must prove it; they can hardly convict him on the basis of their suspicions, and cannot put the question (in the ancien régime sense) to confirm those suspicions. Fortunately, Goldman’s brief does not go down this route — it’s the public utterances that I find problematic.
I appreciate the frustration, but, you know, he was caught. He is going to jail. He has returned maps. He is paying restitution. The rest is quibbling over details. Important details, when each missing map is of immense value, but details nonetheless.
Le petit blog cartographique points to an archive of maps from Le Dessous des cartes, a shortly weekly program broadcast on the German-French arts and education network, Arte. The maps are from episodes from 1998 to 2001.
Today’s edition of the Lawrence Journal-World has a feature on orienteering, with a look at local clubs. For you young whippersnappers with your fancy GPS doohickeys, that’s like geocaching, but with only a compass and topo map.
An upcoming employment change is forcing Paul to scale back from blogging at Cartography, the Canadian Cartographic Association’s blog, so he’s looking for one or more people to share in the blogging duties. Bloggers should be CCA members — this has always ostensibly been the CCA’s blog even though in practice it’s been a one-man operation so far. I, for one, want to see that blog thrive.
Maps.com has launched a print-on-demand map marketplace called, naturally enough, Map Marketplace, which allows independent cartographers to submit and list their maps for sale on Maps.com’s site. The press release describes the venture as “a Cafepress.com for the mapping industry” — but, unlike CafePress, this does not appear to be for nonprofessionals, but for cartographers seeking a distribution channel for a product that might not otherwise be economically feasible to publish. There is a review process, after which Maps.com prints and distributes the map and keeps 70 per cent of the sale price. It will be interesting to see whether this enables any new maps to be published. Via Very Spatial.
On the Google Maps API Blog, an explanation of recent performance and imagery upgrades to the API. The improved imagery was noticed on Google Maps proper last week; this post includes a list of the areas that got those imagery upgrades.
Richard has managed to lay hands on a new Sony GPS-CS1, the small gadget that records time and location data and comes with software that allows you to add that location data to the photos you took at that time. His review is excellent and thorough: he runs it through its paces, shows how it works (apparently it does work with non-Sony cameras, sort of) and the results. In a nutshell: he likes the hardware, finds the software “pretty weak.” (Sounds like Sony.)
See previous entry: Geotagging Indirectly: ZoneTag, Sony.
CBC News: “An incorrect map and communications failure led to an Israeli air strike on a UN observer post that killed four peacekeepers. … According to [the IDF’s] confidential report, Israeli artillery were using a hand-drawn map that identified the clearly marked UN post in the Khiyam area of southern Lebanon as a base for the militant organization Hezbollah.”
(Artillery units use hand-drawn maps? What’s UTM for, then?)
The Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map Center launched its web site this week, map curator Ronald E. Grim announced on MapHist:
This initial version of the website includes digital images of approximately 200 maps from the Library’s collections. Our plans are to add more maps as they are scanned. These digital files are accessible through “zoomify.” The site also includes virtual tours of two past exhibitions, and a Map of the Month and a Maps in the News feature. The former will be updated monthly, while the second will be updated quarterly. The virtual tours and Maps in the News include educational suggestions for teachers at the K-12 levels.
In October 2003, I mentioned the BPL’s efforts to do something with their 350,000-map collection that had previously been more or less gathering dust. Much has happened since: the Leventhal Center was launched in July 2004 and hired Grim as its curator in January 2005. However, the collection was also frequently visited by Forbes Smiley: 10 maps were reported missing at the BPL after his arrest, but, according to court documents, he admitted to taking a total of 34 maps from the Library.
The Guardian looks at the privacy implications of location-based and GPS tracking services. “‘People are very willing to give up their privacy,’ [Tim Hibbard, who has a site pinpointing his current location,] says. ‘You just have to give them a good reason to do so. If you can assist a person in their everyday life, they will be more than happy to divulge their current location.” Via Kartentisch.
Concomitant with yesterday’s update of Google Earth’s layers, a new beta of Google Earth 4 has been released. New features include Japanese-language and timestamp support, but what caught my eye was a new UTM grid overlay (I’m big on UTM). Google Earth Blog, Ogle Earth, Cartography.
The British Library has unleashed its hired gun (see previous entry). In a court filing yesterday, the Library’s attorney, Robert Goldman, asks that Smiley be sentenced to up to eight years, rather than the five to six years agreed to by both the prosecution and defence.
The Hartford Courant and New York Times have the story; for the AP wire story, see, for example, the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, the Belleville News Democrat, Newsday, the Stamford Advocate and WTNH. See also Map the Universe.
Alternating between the lyrical and the legally arcane in his 16-page brief, Goldman argues for a departure from the sentencing guidelines, citing two cases where sentencing guidelines were thrown away; in one, the subject of Travis McDade’s upcoming book, The Book Thief (see previous entry), a thief who stole $1.3 million in rare books and maps from Columbia had his sentenced doubled. He also argues for a departure from the guidelines because there were seven victims, rather than one, because the thefts involved cultural resources, because some of the returned maps were damaged by the process, because of the impact on access to material and library security, and because of the damage to the libraries’ reputations.
Goldman writes that “[t]he harm caused by Smiley transcends monetary loss”:
Like a drop of oil on a still pond, the number of his victims spreads with time. Smiley’s victims include students, scholars, academics, the general public and individuals yet to be born who will not have the opportunity to sit at a desk, open a leather bound volume, and see the world as Archbishop Cranmer and others saw it in the 16th Century. No one can predict with certainty what book or image will spark the curiosity of a reader to learn, to dream, to explore, to accomplish.
The brief is available on the Hartford Courant’s web site — in Word format. Tsk. I’ve converted it to PDF and uploaded it here.
Smiley’s attorney dismisses Goldman’s brief, arguing that 80 maps would not have been returned without his client’s cooperation.
Smiley’s sentencing has been moved back to September 27 to accomodate other libraries’ submissions.
See previous entries: The British Library’s Hired Gun; Stolen Maps Meeting Kept Private; Forbes Smiley Case: Another Missing Maps Update; Missing Map Overlap; Yale Issues Statement About Smiley Investigation; Boston Globe on Libraries’ Suspicions About Smiley; Libraries Suspect Smiley in More Map Thefts; Is Forbes Smiley Getting Off Easy?; Three Missing British Maps Still Missing.
Following on last week’s imagery update, Google Earth today saw a major update to its layers, including new “featured content” layers such as, I was delighted to learn, trail data for U.S. national parks. Also, 3D buildings for Japanese cities. (See also All Points Blog, Ogle Earth, Slashgeo, ZDNet.)
Update, Sept. 15: The relevant Google Blog entry.
Earth Wallpapers is a collection of desktop backgrounds created from Google Maps satellite images. Each image comes in several sizes; the back end is powered by Flickr (the images are available through Flickr here). Copyright issues notwithstanding, these are some very pretty pictures. Via Kottke.
The Dubai tourism department has launched an online map of the emirate, AME Info reports. The map is available in a not-very-interactive Java-based interactive map and a copy-protected PDF. Nevertheless an interesting map of an, um, interesting place — the palm-, crescent- and world map-shaped artificial islands are on display here.
See previous entries: The World Islands; Dubai Aerial Photography.
MapCruncher, the Virtual Earth tool that allows you to integrate your map or image into their mapping system, is now natively supported by the API, the developers report.
See previous entries: Live Local/Virtual Earth Update; MapCruncher.
Breathing Earth is a Flash-based simulation that “displays the carbon dioxide emission levels of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates — all in real time.” Hover over each country for specific data. Via Cartography.
Symbols and map patterns from National Park Service maps are available for download, in PDF and Adobe Illustrator formats. Potentially useful for anyone making maps. Via Kottke.
The Blue Planet Globe, encased in a smoked acrylic box, simulates the earth’s rotation and seasonal changes in sunlight — for a mere $850. But on the Science Source catalogue page, there is a less-glamourous manual version for only $75. Via Very Spatial.
More features have been added to Windows Live Local, the eponymous blog reports, including people search, the ability to send address details to your mobile phone, and enhanced drawing tools that include the ability to draw shapes — i.e., enclosed polygons, not just points and lines, which is something I’ve been looking for. Virtual Earth has also added bird’s-eye imagery for more imagery, including, they say, thanks to James Fee’s complaint, Tempe, Arizona. Does this mean I can get somewhere complaining about the low-res imagery in rural western Quebec? No? Drat.
See previous entry: Major Windows Live Local Update.
Last month, Tony Campbell wrote on MapHist, “I do hope somebody will be tempted … to take on the task of compiling a listing of map forgeries/fakes and the references to them.” John Woram has now answered Tony’s challenge and has begun working on a fakes and forgeries page; it’s still in the very early stages of development, with more information to come later.
NOAA’s nautical charts are available for free download as raster images in BSB format, GPS Tracklog reports. Rich mentions that the files can be used in OziExplorer; NOAA has a list of software and an online viewer.
Map historian Peter van der Krogt has compiled a database of articles on the history of cartography from scholarly journals. “Originally that was intended for private use as an list of the articles in my own library. Later I started to use it for the section ‘contents of historic-cartographic journals’ in Caert-Thresoor. There are now almost 2600 articles in this database.” He’s outputted the database to the web as a simple list of articles, sorted by author. Searchable via your browser’s “find” function. Via MapHist.
Ongoing core router issues at DreamHost have made this site inaccessible for much of the last 12 hours. They promise that a major upgrade Monday evening will (hopefully) solve this problem (my sites will be offline again for 30 to 45 minutes at that point), but it’s possible that we’ll continue to have issues until then.
While this site is still up, I will remind you that I post downtime reports and pathetic whinges at mcwetboy.wordpress.com. See also dreamhoststatus.com.
See previous entry: Status/Outage Updates.
There are reports here and there that Google has updated its satellite imagery. The images are certainly loading differently for me: lower-resolution photos are being used at wider zoom levels, and they seem to be cached differently. More as more reports come in.
Update: Frank’s list of updated locations is the one everyone seems to be linking to.
The National Agricultural Imagery Program collects aerial photographs of farmers’ fields during the growing season. According to an NPR story, one of NAIP’s purposes is to check on what farmers are planting — to make sure that they
