http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/ A weblog about maps. Copyright 2009 Jonathan Crowe. Some rights reserved. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/ Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:59:54 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.21 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss en-CA rss@mcwetboy.com (Jonathan Crowe) rss@mcwetboy.com (Jonathan Crowe) 45.60073876.494434 Rebecca Riley writes to let us know that a show of her recent map paintings is taking place at the Cheryl McGinnis Gallery in New York. 75 Mile Radius runs from January 13 to March 2. The subject of... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/rebecca_riley.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/rebecca_riley.php Art http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/rebecca_riley.php#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:59:54 -0500 Jonathan Crowe A survey of its members by the British Automobile Association (AA) revealed some interesting attitudes towards car-based GPS navigation devices (which in the U.K. are referred to as "satnav"). Some highlights: 61 percent agreed that their GPS had prevented them... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/aa_survey_revea.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/aa_survey_revea.php Driving Directions http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/aa_survey_revea.php#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:44:52 -0500 Jonathan Crowe In October, a group of British graduate students was fined by the Chinese authorities for illegal map-making activity, the Daily Telegraph reports. (See also AFP coverage: Google, Yahoo; AFP reports three students, the Telegraph only two.) The students were researching... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/british_student.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/british_student.php Censorship & Security http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/british_student.php#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 10:29:05 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Samuel Arbesman has done a map of the Milky Way in the style of Harry Beck's London Underground map. "I have attempted to actually make this map as accurate as possible, where each line corresponds to an arm of... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/milky_way_tube.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/milky_way_tube.php Astronomy http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/milky_way_tube.php#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:53:31 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Via The Where Blog (which needs to clean up its comments), an interesting find on the Communes of France Wikipedia entry: a user-generated map of every commune in France. (The French commune is equivalent, more or less, to a... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/communes_of_fra.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/communes_of_fra.php Miscellany http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/communes_of_fra.php#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:28:16 -0500 Jonathan Crowe On a day like today, with a whole pile of snow waiting outside for me to shovel, Leszek's link to the National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center, which at this time of year provides all kinds of snow-related information,... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/mapping_snow_co.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/mapping_snow_co.php Weather & Climate http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/mapping_snow_co.php#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:11:41 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Textile artist Leah Evans makes hand-sewn map quilts. The maps themselves "are not consciously based on specific places," she writes. "For me they are intimate explorations of map language and imagined landscapes." At right: "Development." More at Designboom; via... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/map_quilts_by_l.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/map_quilts_by_l.php Art http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/map_quilts_by_l.php#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:02:20 -0500 Jonathan Crowe UNOSAT situation maps (via Ogle Earth; Stefan has created an image overlay for use in Google Earth). A map of where the Gaza rockets have been landing in Israel, viewable either in Google Maps or Google Earth (via Catholicgauze).... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/mapping_the_gaz.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/mapping_the_gaz.php Current Events http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/mapping_the_gaz.php#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:36:12 -0500 Jonathan Crowe A map released by the European Commission and the World Bank models the accessibility (and isolation) of various parts of the world. It's a heat map that shows the travel time to major cities (here defined as 50,000 or... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/global_map_of_a.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/global_map_of_a.php Transportation http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/global_map_of_a.php#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:25:49 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Catholicgauze has a (very brief) interview with the (unnamed) cartographer behind the Atlas of True Names, which I told you about last month. Of particular interest is the following statement on future products: "We continue quite soon with the French,... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_atlas_of_tr_1.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_atlas_of_tr_1.php Languages & Linguistics http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_atlas_of_tr_1.php#comments Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:13:20 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Those pissed off by the redrawn map of the Middle East may appreciate the implicit payback in the following. A Russian academic is ardently predicting that the U.S. will break apart from internal pressures in 2010, with six pieces... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_divided_sta.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_divided_sta.php Miscellany http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_divided_sta.php#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:47:32 -0500 Jonathan Crowe "The public often saw the end product of the map creation process, but was largely limited to scribbling on paper when it came to creating maps of its own. Beginning in 2005, this paradigm turned upside down." Sean Gorman's article... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_rise_of_use.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_rise_of_use.php Hacks & Mashups http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/the_rise_of_use.php#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:17:37 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Korean design firm Zero per Zero has done some interesting things with urban transit maps; in addition to subway maps of Seoul, Osaka and Tokyo that look like Beck diagrams through a fisheye lens, they've done a rather unique... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/heartshaped_map.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/heartshaped_map.php Mass Transit, New York, Tokyo http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2009/01/heartshaped_map.php#comments Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:48:10 -0500 Jonathan Crowe The Boston Globe's Drake Bennett takes a look back at the year in maps; I spoke to Drake a while back about potential items for this article, some of which made it into the final product. Highlights include local stories,... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_boston_glob_1.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_boston_glob_1.php Miscellany http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_boston_glob_1.php#comments Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:52:42 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Apparently, Ralph Peters's proposed redrawn map of the Middle East has generated a lot of controversy in Pakistan; Fasi Zaka tries to calm things down by pointing out that the map is only an intellectual exercise -- some people... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/redrawn_middle.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/redrawn_middle.php Miscellany http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/redrawn_middle.php#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:44:40 -0500 Jonathan Crowe At the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, from February 15 to May 10, 2009, All Over the Map is one of four exhibitions that are part of the Center's "Journeys" series. This exhibition "focuses on rare historical... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/all_over_the_ma.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/all_over_the_ma.php Art, Exhibitions http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/all_over_the_ma.php#comments Fri, 26 Dec 2008 09:36:09 -0500 Jonathan Crowe The New York Times profiles Dr. Robert W. Gaskell, who is working on producing topographic maps of various planets and moons of the solar system. Just now Dr. Gaskell is mapping all of Mercury and eight moons of Saturn. He... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/using_stereopho.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/using_stereopho.php Astronomy http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/using_stereopho.php#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:18:32 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Google Maps's traffic is rapidly closing in on MapQuest, and a MapQuest executive is alleging that it's because Google Maps gets favourable placements from Google search results, Investor's Business Daily reports. Search engines send their users to their own mapping... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/google_vs_mapqu.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/google_vs_mapqu.php Online Maps http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/google_vs_mapqu.php#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 10:29:54 -0500 Jonathan Crowe John Krygier has nice things to say about The Natures of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of the Natural World, by his colleague, Denis Wood (Krygier and Wood co-authored Making Maps) and John Fels, and reprints the blurb he wrote for... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_natures_of.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_natures_of.php Books http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_natures_of.php#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:41:19 -0500 Jonathan Crowe A visualization of immigration to the U.S. from 1820 to 2007 by Ian Stevenson. Via Andrew Sullivan.... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/visualizing_us_1.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/visualizing_us_1.php Demography, Historical Maps, Video http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/visualizing_us_1.php#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:59:46 -0500 Jonathan Crowe The City of New York's health department has, since last November, been mapping the city's rat population in an effort to get a better handle on its rodent control efforts. Time has an article: Today, rodent complaints by residents from... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/mapping_rats_in.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/mapping_rats_in.php Health, New York http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/mapping_rats_in.php#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:45:07 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Charlie Frye has an interesting post up on the ESRI Mapping Center blog about the challenge of having to make a map with "unfit" data. "Unfit data will never work to make a good map. It's a fact," he writes.... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/making_maps_wit.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/making_maps_wit.php GIS http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/making_maps_wit.php#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:38:39 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Researchers from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, have mapped mortality from natural hazards in the United States; using data from 1970 to 2004, their research showed that "chronic" natural hazards like severe seasonal weather and heat waves were... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_death_map.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_death_map.php Demography, Weather & Climate http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/the_death_map.php#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 08:26:11 -0500 Jonathan Crowe MARTIAN -- "MARs Tools for Interactive ANalysis" -- depicts a number of layers relating to Martian geology -- or rather, areology -- via the Google Maps -- or rather, Google Mars -- API. Via Google Maps Mania. Previously: Topo... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/martian_mapping.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/martian_mapping.php Astronomy http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/martian_mapping.php#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:59:32 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Another Google Earth imagery update; details at Google Earth Blog and/or Google LatLong. Yahoo's expanded its international map coverage. "We’ve added detailed coverage to 45 new countries, with new data in a further 30 countries," says the Yahoo Geo... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/online_map_upda.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/online_map_upda.php Google Earth, Online Maps, Satellite & Aerial http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/online_map_upda.php#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:35:03 -0500 Jonathan Crowe It's been a busy month for Google's Street View, what with new imagery coming to New Zealand, expanded imagery in Australia, a doubling of U.S. coverage, and its availability on Nokia S60 and Windows Mobile (iPhone was last month). Meanwhile,... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/a_google_street.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/a_google_street.php Mobile Devices, Online Maps http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/a_google_street.php#comments Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:09:53 -0500 Jonathan Crowe Last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai have apparently triggered India's long-simmering moral panic about maps, satellite imagery and security in general, and Google Earth in particular. A petition has been filed before the Bombay High Court demanding a ban on... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/indias_mapping.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/indias_mapping.php Censorship & Security, Google Earth, Surveying http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/indias_mapping.php#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:27:55 -0500 Jonathan Crowe The Christian Science Monitor looks at four "offbeat" atlases, all published in 2008: two rather pricey atlases of architecture; The Art Atlas, which "explores how inspiring new art forms have traveled, from the cave drawings of ancient Europe and... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/four_offbeat_at.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/four_offbeat_at.php Books http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/four_offbeat_at.php#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:23:30 -0500 Jonathan Crowe I'm late in reporting this, so you probably already know that early this month Nokia announced a beta of version 3.0 of its Nokia Maps software. New features include pedestrian directions and terrain relief maps. Nokia's maps are also... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/nokia_maps_30_b.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/nokia_maps_30_b.php Mobile Devices, Online Maps http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/nokia_maps_30_b.php#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:00:57 -0500 Jonathan Crowe On the Virtual Earth evangelist blog, Chris Pendleton has a post pointing to several articles on creating thematic and heat maps with Virtual Earth.... http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/making_heat_map.php http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/making_heat_map.php Hacks & Mashups http://www.mcwetboy.net/maproom/2008/12/making_heat_map.php#comments Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:21:39 -0500 Jonathan Crowe