Tag Archives: maps

Map Monday: Relentless Spread of Filthy HUMANZ

Reposted from cnn.
The past century has been defined by an epic migration of people from rural areas to the city. In 2008, for the first time in history, more of the Earth’s population was living in cities than in the countryside. The U.N. now predicts that nearly 70% of the global population will be city dwellers by 2050.
Looking back through the decades, these snapshots from space — created exclusively for CNN by NASA’s Landsat department in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey — reveal the impact of this vast population shift on cities around the world.
Images from space track relentless spread of humanity

Map Monday: Voting in America

Tomorrow is election day. To celebrate, I want to highlight the University of Richmond (“Go Spiders!”:http://richmondspiders.cstv.com/) and their “Digital Scholarship Lab”:http://digitalscholarship.richmond.edu/ who have a very cool online exhibition of electoral statistical maps on “their website”:http://americanpast.richmond.edu/voting/index.html. (warning: auto-playing video)

Personally, I love seeing data presented in new ways. As a history major and a bit of a cartographic nerd, these time-lapse maps represent the ultimate in teaching tools. Things I’ve learned by putzing around this site:
* “The populist party had a surprisingly heterogeneous geographic appeal.”:http://americanpast.richmond.edu/voting/thirdparty.html
* “African-American populations haven’t really left the south — and there’s still a lot of empty space out there.”:http://americanpast.richmond.edu/voting/aawpopulation.html
* “Looking at the 2000 election results by county makes me wonder how it could’ve been so close.”:http://americanpast.richmond.edu/voting/aawpopulation.html
Psyched to make your voice heard? Find out where you need to go to “cast your vote”:http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http://maps.google.com/mapfiles/mapplets/elections/2008/us-voter-info/us-voter-info.xml tomorrow using Google Maps.

Map Monday: Hook-Up Maps


Interested in finding someone in your neighborhood looking hook up? Maybe you’re the more romantic type and want someone to share a crisp autumn evening with. Maybe you just can’t stand seeing movies alone. Hey, I’m not judging.
“Hookupmaps”:http://hookupmaps.com/ is a new Google Maps mashup that combines a familiar and easy to use mapping interface with the Craigslist personals section. Unlike most mashups which just add mapping to an existing feature set, hookupmaps actually makes it easier to respond to ads with a built-in response form that kicks the hell out of the arcane Craigslist UI.
Not sold on trolling the ‘net for a date? Read this “environmental plea”:http://www.slate.com/id/2202431/ from Slate.com on the latest green trend, locasexuality.
Previously featured on Duenos:
* “Man Test, Inc”:http://duenos.net/article/388/ManTestInc – An introduction to the business of “honey trapping,” in which wives and girlfriends hire someone to test their partner’s fidelity.
* “m4intern”:http://duenos.net/article/445/m4intern – An amazing blog put together by a DC resident to showcase the best Craigslist personal ads specifically targeting the intern population. These can be very scummy.
* “Map Monday Tracking Troublemakers”:http://duenos.net/article/459/MapMondayTrackingTroublemakers – Another novel use of maps, although the motivations are perhaps more pure here, the giggles are sadly absent.

Map Monday: Walkable Neighborhoods

Many of my recent Map Monday tools have been more than just maps, but rather they have been tools that have harnessed mapping functions in order to tell a more complete story. Whether it be “keeping your neighborhood safe”:http://duenos.net/article/459/MapMondayTrackingTroublemakers or “tracking the Olympic medal count”:http://duenos.net/article/470/MapMondayTheOlympics, maps are very useful as a way of understanding or interpreting data. This Map Monday feature is an excellent example of that principle.

“WalkScore.com”:http://walkscore.com/ is a website that rates neighborhoods by how walkable they are, and then serves as a forum/information hub for everything to do with urban walkability. This isn’t anything spectacularly new, but what is new is the way that the site’s rankings–walk scores–are determined. Rather than relying on anecdotal evidence and peer review like “WikiTravel”:http://wikitravel.org/ or other wiki-based sites, WalkScore runs addresses through the Local Google API to find amenities close to that address and then, based on the proximity and variety of the amenities found, rates the location from 1-100. Of course there’s more to it than that, and if the social scientist in you needs to read more, check out “their methodology page”:http://walkscore.com/rankings/ranking-methodology.shtml for more.
http://walkscore.com/rankings/, or just view the "138 Walkers' Paradise neighborhoods":http://walkscore.com/rankings/walkers-paradises.php. Not interested in all this hippie bullshit and kind of feel like jumping in your Navigator and running over some wildlife? Check out the "Why Walk?":http://walkscore.com/walking-matters.shtml page for some reasonable explanations of why walking is right for you, me, and everyone.

Map Monday: The Olympics

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Track the Olympic medal count geo-spatially with Google Maps! I know, I talk too much about Google Maps but seriously, I’ll stop talking about them when they stop innovating. Anyway, check out this cool feature “here at Google Maps Olympics.”:http://maps.google.com/help/maps/2008summergames/
Previously featured on Map Monday:
* “Google Walking Maps”:http://duenos.net/article/462/MapMondayGooglewalkingmaps: Google adds functionality for trip-planning pedestrians. Combine that with GPS and Street View and you’ve got yourself a toolkit.
* “Tracking Troublemakers”:http://duenos.net/textpattern/index.php?event=article&step=edit&ID=459: A local blogger uses online mapping to patrol his own neighborhood.

Map Monday: Tracking Troublemakers

This is a whole different take on maps as community organizing tools. Richard Rogers, a local blogger for the “Mount Vernon Square”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Vernon_Square neighborhood of Washington, DC, is sick of all of the “troublemakers” in his area. By using publicly-available aerial photographs and a simple graphics editor, Rogers is creating a record of the problem as far as he sees it. Even more than that, this map can act as a place for coming together around the issue of neighborhood troublemakers.

The blogosphere makes it easy to combine postulations (_the alley between Ridge and N Streets NW is a favorite travel route of the trouble makers, as well as a new marketplace for drugs._) with harder data like the range of MPD CCTV cameras. It also makes it easy for relevant parties to discuss the issue. For example, the comments section after the post contains a discussion between readers and author about exactly where and why “troublemakers” are hanging out.
In case you don’t want to jump over to “Rogers’ blog”:http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2008/7/14/Quick-Neighborhood-ViewNews and check it out yourself, here’s a legend for the map:
Yellow blocks — Suspected residences of neighborhood trouble makers
Red areas — Suspected usual range of crime cameras
Red arrows — Favorite hangout and loiter spots of neighborhood trouble makers
Yellow arrows — Hangout spots of neighborhood trouble makers during the day only
Blue arrows — Recent incident locations
Previously featured social-engagement through maps:
* “Governments shame property owners for heat waste”:http://duenos.net/article/249/Governmentsshamepropertyownersforheatwaste
* “Google Earth highlights crisis in Darfur”:http://duenos.net/article/140/GoogleEarthhighlightsCrisisinDarfur

Map Monday: Making international legislation

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/who-is-involved-the-making-of-international-legislation with extra thanks going to designers Cécile Marin, Emmanuelle Bournay. Previously featured on Map Monday: * "Potential Powder Kegs":http://duenos.net/article/435/MapMondayPotentialpowderkegs - Arms and landmine stockpiles around the globe. * "Thermohaline Circulation":http://duenos.net/article/433/MapMondayThermohalineoceancirculation - The current that keeps the world temperate. Will it last forever? * "Deforestation in Borneo":http://duenos.net/article/432/MapMondayDeforestationinBorneo - The hand of man over time on one tropical island.