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Beard or no beard? The McWetlog, 19 Nov 2008 at 10:32 AM
I shaved my beard off for Halloween; it was the first time in seven years that I'd gone beardless. Those who'd never seen me without one -- Jennifer, for example -- were kind of shocked. So was I: the... more >
World War II Escape Maps The Map Room, 18 Nov 2008 at 6:20 PM
Over the past few months there has been some discussion on MapHist about "escape maps" -- maps handed out to Allied pilots and air crews during World War II, printed on fabric (cloth, silk or rayon) and intended to... more >
On LiveJournal The McWetlog, 18 Nov 2008 at 4:15 PM
So help me, I actually have a LiveJournal account -- not so much for posting entries there, because, you know, I already have a blog or six, but to read and comment on friends' journals there. If you're on LiveJournal... more >
The Washington Post on Waldseemüller The Map Room, 17 Nov 2008 at 6:38 PM
An article in today's Washington Post looks at the mystery about where the information found in Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 map -- the first one to label the New World as "America" -- came from, and interviews John Hessler, author... more >
Bad Mapping Data and Emergency Response The Map Room, 17 Nov 2008 at 6:22 PM
Bad mapping data has serious consequences in at least one area, Chad argues: "Emergency responders can’t get to some locations because the map data they have is WRONG. ... That kind of a mistake really is the difference between life... more >
Argentina Appears in Google Maps The Map Room, 17 Nov 2008 at 6:07 PM
Finally! Argentina gets roads and streets -- and municipalities -- in Google Maps. It was one of the larger remaining countries without significant coverage. Bolivia, Paraguay and the Guianas still look pretty empty.... more >
Mapping England The Map Room, 15 Nov 2008 at 6:55 PM
A curious review of Simon Foxell's Mapping England in the Times earlier this week; it took about half the piece to actually come around to the book: It's not the world's best-edited book -- there are factual slips and... more >
Champlain Map Auctioned for £130,000 The Map Room, 15 Nov 2008 at 6:48 PM
A 1612 map of New France drawn by Samuel de Champlain -- briefly the subject of an investigation by Harvard curators who thought it might be a copy that went missing a few years ago -- has fetched £130,000 at... more >
Errors in Google’s Transit Ads The Map Room, 15 Nov 2008 at 6:44 PM
Google "has added New York City transit directions and brought its ads to the Big Apple, wrapping an 'S' shuttle train that runs between Grand Central and Times Square. Trouble is, the directions it gives in the ads aren't always... more >
The KML Handbook The Map Room, 14 Nov 2008 at 3:51 PM
The Google Geo Developers Blog announces the publication of The KML Handbook, written by the tech writer who wrote the KML 2.1 and 2.2 documentation, Josie Wernecke. Quoth the announcement: "It explains all the various elements and features of... more >
CNN on The Atlas of the Real World The Map Room, 14 Nov 2008 at 3:28 PM
The Worldmapper team's Atlas of the Real World continues to get lots of media coverage; the latest is from CNN. The Atlas "has redrawn the map giving vivid new insights and bringing economic, social and environmental data to life,"... more >
Where 2.0 2009: Call for Proposals The Map Room, 14 Nov 2008 at 11:36 AM
Where 2.0 2009, the conference's fifth iteration, will take place from May 19 to 21, 2009; proposals are due by December 2. O'Reilly Radar outlines some of the topics the conference may cover.... more >
Historians and GIS The Map Room, 14 Nov 2008 at 11:22 AM
A debate on the question of what GIS can offer world history, based on this article by J. B. Owens (PDF), triggered a lengthy discussion on MapHist earlier this month. Unfortunately, the MapHist discussion was sidetracked by a throwaway comment... more >
East Is West The Map Room, 13 Nov 2008 at 4:51 PM
xkcd is back again, with some questions about terminology. It's all about your starting point. (Thanks, Frank.) Previously: xkcd on Driving Directions; Upcoming Hurricanes; D&D Map of Online Communities.... more >
NYCityMap The Map Room, 13 Nov 2008 at 4:44 PM
The New York Times's Verlyn Klinkenborg takes a look at the City of New York's mapping portal, NYCityMap: At first, NYCityMap feels a little clunky, especially if you’re used to navigating in Google Maps. But what’s interesting are its hidden... more >
More 2008 Election Maps The Map Room, 12 Nov 2008 at 11:01 AM
Jason Kottke, who's been collecting 2008 U.S. presidential election maps, posted these two maps of "Obamaland" and "McCainland" -- the counties that voted for one or the other -- not in red, blue or purple, but in stark, one-bit... more >
Three Mapping Errors in the News The Map Room, 12 Nov 2008 at 8:18 AM
Sometimes a mapping error is just a mistake, as when a textbook inadvertently leaves the upper peninsula of Michigan off a map of the U.S. (via GeoCarta) or when a certain V. Putin's Web site shows four Russian-occupied islands as... more >
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Snakes on Film, 8 Nov 2008 at 9:32 AM
"Rat snakes aren't that big," says Indy, as they try to pull him out of the sand pit with one. You said it, Indy; not only that, but I'm not sure anything called a rat snake comes in that size... more >
More Cartograms! The Map Room, 6 Nov 2008 at 7:07 PM
Mark Newman is once again getting an awful lot of online attention for his maps and cartograms of the 2008 U.S. presidential election results; he did the same thing for the 2004 presidential and 2006 congressional results (see previous... more >
The Onion’s Election Map The Map Room, 6 Nov 2008 at 5:59 PM
The Onion also has an election map. It's what you'd expect. Via MAPS-L.... more >