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Twelve Mile Circle –...
Inland Northwest, Day 1 (Staging) Was there a name for that largely empty space beyond Washington’s Cascades Range and into the Idaho...
11 months ago
104
11 months ago
Was there a name for that largely empty space beyond Washington’s Cascades Range and into the Idaho Panhandle? A little research suggested the Inland Northwest, or perhaps a now lesser-used designation, the Inland Empire (not to be confused with a similarly named area of...
Maps Mania
How Big is it Really?
2 months ago
Maps Mania
Drinking & Eating in the Sun
4 months ago
Transit Maps
Book Review: “Iconic Transit Maps” by Mark Ovenden, 2024 After 2003’s Metro Maps of the World and 2015’s Transit Maps of the World (our review here), this is...
8 months ago
119
8 months ago
After 2003’s Metro Maps of the World and 2015’s Transit Maps of the World (our review here), this is Mark Ovenden’s third offering on the subject of global transit maps and diagrams. The question to be asked, then, is simply – is a new book on the same subject worth it? In a...
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Valley Metro Light Rail and Streetcar, Phoenix, Arizona, 2025 Submitted by a few people—sorry for the delay in getting to this!—including Shameek, who says:...
2 months ago
39
2 months ago
Submitted by a few people—sorry for the delay in getting to this!—including Shameek, who says: Phoenix is opening the new southern light rail extension and splitting the system into two separate lines, so naturally they released a new map! I like some of the ideas in here,...
Maps Mania
The History Quiz Map!
5 months ago
Maps Mania
Before New York
6 months ago
Musings on Maps
“We Like Fighting Games” As he waited rather glumly for “the Feds” to arrive at his home, as his stepfather predicted, Airman...
over a year ago
115
over a year ago
As he waited rather glumly for “the Feds” to arrive at his home, as his stepfather predicted, Airman First Class Jack Douglas Teixiera may have pondered why he had posted classified maps of heated battle fronts in the Ukraine War … Continue reading →
somethingaboutmaps
Projection Cards I had a whimsical idea a few months ago: map projection trading cards. Something nerdy and...
over a year ago
98
over a year ago
I had a whimsical idea a few months ago: map projection trading cards. Something nerdy and map-related that you could collect and exchange at conferences. I poked around at some design ideas for a while, and here’s what I’ve come up with so far. This is the front side of the...
Transit Maps
Submission – Historical Map: Relief Map of Street Railway System in Pittsburgh and Vicinity, 1910 Submitted by Marc, who says: Hi ! I enjoy the historical maps, especially. Here’s my all-time...
a year ago
125
a year ago
Submitted by Marc, who says: Hi ! I enjoy the historical maps, especially. Here’s my all-time favorite historical map — a hand-made relief map of the Pittsburgh streetcar system, from 1910. Transit Maps says: Oh, I just love this, Marc! This fantastic map was included as part of...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Great American Beer Festival (and More) I hinted at ulterior motives in the last article about my long weekend in Denver. I didn’t travel...
10 months ago
98
10 months ago
I hinted at ulterior motives in the last article about my long weekend in Denver. I didn’t travel all the way out there just to casually tour around. Indeed, I had a very specific purpose in mind — checking off a bucket list item in fact — attending the Great American Beer...
GeoCurrents
The Controversial Expansion of Gray Wolves in the United States As discussed in the previous post, the gray wolf has made a remarkable but controversial recovery in...
a month ago
26
a month ago
As discussed in the previous post, the gray wolf has made a remarkable but controversial recovery in Europe. The same is true in the United States. In the mid twentieth century, wolves were found only in Alaska, far northeastern Minnesota, and the western half of Michigan’s Upper...
Maps Mania
How Climate Change is Destroying Crops
6 months ago
GeoCurrents
Zoogeographical Regions & the Architecture of Continents: The Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace If the division of the terrestrial world into continents is partially but misleadingly rooted in...
5 months ago
43
5 months ago
If the division of the terrestrial world into continents is partially but misleadingly rooted in geology, as recent GeoCurrents posts have argued, we must also ask whether it reflects the distribution of animal and plant life. Are continents, in other words, entities of...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Southern Heat, Part 6 (Houston) The heat really cranked up as we entered Texas, never dropping below a daily high of 100° Fahrenheit...
over a year ago
87
over a year ago
The heat really cranked up as we entered Texas, never dropping below a daily high of 100° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius). Here my hybrid working vacation transitioned completely to pure work for a day. That’s where I needed to attend meetings at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston...
Adventures In...
John Snow’s Cholera Map Reimagined John Snow’s map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak was revolutionary in that it clearly drew a...
a year ago
107
a year ago
John Snow’s map of the 1854 London cholera outbreak was revolutionary in that it clearly drew a visual connection between deaths and the locations of well pumps. It helped contribute to the idea that cholera was a water-borne disease and effectively marks the creation of the...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Indiana I-69 Time Zone Crossing If you’re driving along Indiana’s portion of Interstate 69, say from Evansville to Bloomington, you...
8 months ago
131
8 months ago
If you’re driving along Indiana’s portion of Interstate 69, say from Evansville to Bloomington, you are going to cross a Time Zone boundary. It happens between Mile Markers 37.5 and 39.0, about forty minutes north of Evansville at normal highway speeds. But please note that the...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Ontario, Bonus Days On what was supposed to be the final morning, we entered Toronto Pearson Airport to catch an 11:00...
a month ago
28
a month ago
On what was supposed to be the final morning, we entered Toronto Pearson Airport to catch an 11:00 am Sunday flight back to Washington, DC. We finally threw in the towel around 6:00 pm after American Airlines repeatedly postponed the departure due to mechanical issues with the...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Broomfield and Denver Weekend I’ve been traveling a lot lately. It feels like I just got back from the Pacific Northwest, and...
10 months ago
96
10 months ago
I’ve been traveling a lot lately. It feels like I just got back from the Pacific Northwest, and before that England, and then I’m heading right back out the door again. This should do it for awhile though; I need some rest. But this trip was a little different because I was there...
Maps Mania
Introducing Smart Maps
4 months ago
somethingaboutmaps
2024 Freelance Rate Survey Results Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer...
11 months ago
110
11 months ago
Thank you once again to everyone who participated in this year’s survey of freelance cartographer rates and business practices! Our apologies for the delay in posting the results; life has been busy for both Aly and myself. Before we get to the survey results, here are some handy...
GeoCurrents
Is Apple Maps Erasing Druze Identity by Calling the “Jabal al-Druze” the “Jabal al-Arab”? Armed conflict over the past few weeks in southern Syria between the Druze and Bedouin militias...
a month ago
30
a month ago
Armed conflict over the past few weeks in southern Syria between the Druze and Bedouin militias receiving help from the Syrian military have taken over a thousand lives. As reported in the Kurdish press, Tawfiq al-Hijri, Deputy Head of the Foreign Relations Office of the...
Maps Mania
Canadian Wildfire Smoke Forecasts
3 months ago
Adventures In...
How to make map textures for ArcGIS and stuff Here’s how you can take an image, turn it into a repeating texture, and apply it to the whole world....
a week ago
15
a week ago
Here’s how you can take an image, turn it into a repeating texture, and apply it to the whole world. We’ll make a cement-sourced gritty texture and then a water-sourced wave texture. We’ll use the Vector Tile Style Editor to make these textures global layers for ArcGIS, ready to...
Transit Maps
Historical Map: Trams of Brisbane, Queensland, 1957 A simple but nicely drawn map of tram services in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1957. The lack...
over a year ago
164
over a year ago
A simple but nicely drawn map of tram services in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1957. The lack of any sort of key for the routes means that users need to have some familiarity with the city to decipher where trams might go. The pamphlet that the map is part of includes...
Transit Maps
Submission – Official Map: Greater Copenhagen Rail Map, 2024 Submitted by Jakob, who says: The M4 branch extension to Copenhagen South has just opened, and with...
a year ago
174
a year ago
Submitted by Jakob, who says: The M4 branch extension to Copenhagen South has just opened, and with it, a much improved map compared to 2019 [My review of the 2019 map can be found here – Cam]. The Circle Line is now more spacious, junctions are labeled more clearly, and metro...
Adventures In...
The Dress: perceptual madness and what it means for mappers
a month ago
Maps Mania
The Marine Migration Map
4 months ago
Maps Mania
Where is Your Dinner From?
a month ago
Maps Mania
The 2024 Sea-Level Rise Map
4 months ago
Maps Mania
The Largest Gathering in Human History
3 months ago
James Cheshire
Newspapers and the 1976 Drought With each new temperature record that tumbles the UK, climate skeptics have a standard stock phrase:...
over a year ago
104
over a year ago
With each new temperature record that tumbles the UK, climate skeptics have a standard stock phrase: ‘it was this hot in 1976’. Of course it wasn’t, and crucially the planet overall was not as hot then as it is now. Parts of the UK media have had their part to play in fueling...
Maps Mania
Italian Map Rot
2 months ago
Adventures In...
van Gogh style wind map Here’s how to use compositing to tint flowing wind patterns by underlying terrain colors. Why?...
4 months ago
34
4 months ago
Here’s how to use compositing to tint flowing wind patterns by underlying terrain colors. Why? Because rather than a basemap providing some context around a layer that inherently blocks your view of it, you can leverage the amazing compositing blend modes of the ArcGIS Online Map...
James Cheshire
COVID inquiry heard Boris Johnson ‘struggled’ with graphs – if you do too, here are some tips James Cheshire, UCL and Rob Davidson, UCL In March 2020, the UK government’s chief scientific...
a year ago
135
a year ago
James Cheshire, UCL and Rob Davidson, UCL In March 2020, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance, presented to the nation a graph showing “the shape of an epidemic”. The red line depicting the number of predicted COVID cases rose to a steep peak before...
GeoCurrents
Part 2 of “The Myth of Continents Revisisited” Video Posted on YouTube The second half of my lecture on continents has been posted on YouTube and can be found here. It...
2 months ago
50
2 months ago
The second half of my lecture on continents has been posted on YouTube and can be found here. It begins with the geological conception of the terms “continent” and “continental,” and then pivots to show why the continental scheme is of little if any use for understating either...
Adventures In...
Storybook Cartography ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming...
over a year ago
107
over a year ago
ArcGIS Pro is a serious tool for serious GIS analysis. Are you ready for some seriously charming illustration style cartography? Ok! . . Children’s maps are a valuable thing. They are often the first impressions the world of geography has on every single one of us. What an...
Maps Mania
The Treasure Hunting Game
5 months ago
Maps Mania
The True Size of Africa
yesterday
James Cheshire
The era of the megalopolis: how the world’s cities are merging James Cheshire, UCL and Michael Batty, UCL On November 15 2022, a baby girl named Vinice Mabansag,...
over a year ago
102
over a year ago
James Cheshire, UCL and Michael Batty, UCL On November 15 2022, a baby girl named Vinice Mabansag, born at Dr Jose Fabella Memorial Hospital in Manila, Philippines, became – symbolically – the eight billionth person in the world. Of those 8 billion people, 60% live in a town or...
Map of the Week
Old World Language Families This isn’t a map, though there are small maps embedded, but an awesome graphic using the tree...
7 months ago
50
7 months ago
This isn’t a map, though there are small maps embedded, but an awesome graphic using the tree metaphor to detail the spread of languages. The size of the foliage represents the approximate population of speakers of each language. The graphic contains Indo-European and...
Adventures In...
Three Maps & the Truth You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each...
9 months ago
128
9 months ago
You may have heard that “all maps lie” and that’s right (also, here’s some required reading). Each map is a collection of compromises, whether they’re geomatic (your projection and scale choices), editorial (your choice of subject and what you’ve chosen to show and not show), and...
Maps Mania
EthnoGuessr
3 months ago
Adventures In...
How to make this thematic map, and stuff One of the great joys of working here at Esri is the opportunity to collaborate with amazing people....
a year ago
147
a year ago
One of the great joys of working here at Esri is the opportunity to collaborate with amazing people. Recently I had the opportunity to present at the User Conference about thematic mapping, with Sarah Bell and Kenneth Field. It was a lot of fun and we all surprised each other...
Adventures In...
I Got a Drone, part 1: Unboxing & Goals I heard regular people can just buy, and then remotely pilot, small flying robots with exquisite...
4 weeks ago
19
4 weeks ago
I heard regular people can just buy, and then remotely pilot, small flying robots with exquisite cameras. I figure these things have to have some utility in the mapping realm, so I got the cheapest one I could find that might get me going on making some basic maps. Why? Why not?...
Twelve Mile Circle –...
Inland Northwest, Day 7 (Abrupt End) What should have been a ten day trip ended unexpectedly on the seventh day. The previous evening our...
10 months ago
97
10 months ago
What should have been a ten day trip ended unexpectedly on the seventh day. The previous evening our kid who was watching the house called to tell us about our soaking wet basement carpet. Our ancient boiler was leaking. So we immediately contacted our insurance provider, a water...
Transit Maps
Submission – Historical Map: Duluth Transit Authority, 1982 Submitted by Darryl, who says: Going through old boxes in my basement, I came across this 1982 opus...
9 months ago
100
9 months ago
Submitted by Darryl, who says: Going through old boxes in my basement, I came across this 1982 opus from the Duluth Transit Authority. I may be biased because it’s the first transit map I ever saw, but I think it’s amazing, capturing the way the city nestles into the topography,...
Adventures In...
Tolkien Style Maps in a GIS: part 4, Assembly “There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” In this 4-part series...
a year ago
114
a year ago
“There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” In this 4-part series we’ll walk through the reckoning of a Lord of the Rings style fantasy map, right in ArcGIS Pro. We map-makers get to breathe honest to goodness geographic life into the seminal...
Maps Mania
The Future Risk Index Rides Again
5 months ago
Maps Mania
The Ultimate Tube Challenge
a month ago