First You Make the Maps
How cartography made early modern global trade possible.
Maps and legends. Beautiful!
Tags: mapping
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Barely Maps
Minimalist cartography.
The map we need if we want to think about how global living conditions are changing - Our World in Data
While a geographical map is helpful if you want to find your way around the world, a population cartogram is the representation that we need if we want to know where our fellow humans are at home.
Shipmap.org | Visualisation of Global Cargo Ships | By Kiln and UCL
A beautiful visualisation of shipping routes and cargo. Mesmerising!
You can see movements of the global merchant fleet over the course of 2012, overlaid on a bathymetric map. You can also see a few statistics such as a counter for emitted CO2 (in thousand tonnes) and maximum freight carried by represented vessels (varying units).
Sessions Map
This is nifty—a map of all the Irish music sessions and events happening around the world, using the data from TheSession.org.
If you’re interested in using data from The Session, there’s a read-only API and regularly-updated data dumps.
What would happen if a nuclear bomb went off in your backyard? | Outrider
Hot nuclear blasts in your area.
(like Eric’s HYDEsim)
Explore Georeferenced Maps - Spy viewer - National Library of Scotland
This is a fascinating way to explore time and place—a spyglass view of hundred year old maps overlaid on the digital maps of today.
Google Maps’s Moat
A fascinating bit of cartographic reverse engineering, looking at how Google has an incredible level of satellite-delivered building detail that then goes into solving the design problem of marking “commercial corridors” (or Areas Of Interest) on their maps.
Google Maps in Space
You can use Google Maps to explore the worlds of our solar system …and take a look inside the ISS.
Mapping in HTML – a proposal for a new element – Terence Eden’s Blog
I quite like this proposal for geo element in HTML, especially that it has a fallback built in (like video). I’m guessing the next step is to file an issue and create a web component to demonstrate how this could work.
That brings up another question: what do you name a custom element that you’d like to eventually become part of the spec? You can’t simply name it geo because you have to include a hyphen. geo-polyfill? geo-proposal? or polyfill-geo? proposal-geo?
Mapping the Sneakernet – The New Inquiry
When it seems like all our online activity is being tracked by Google, Facebook, and co., it comforts me to think of all the untracked usage out there, from shared (or fake) Facebook accounts to the good ol’ sneakernet:
Packets of information can be distributed via SMS and mobile 3G but also pieces of paper, USB sticks and Bluetooth.
Connectivity isn’t binary. Long live the papernet!
what3words | Addressing the world
In this English language alternative to latitude and longitude coordinates, the Clearleft office is located at:
cross.rooms.quick
Mapping Mountains · Mapzen
Everything you never wanted to know about conveying elevation information on maps, delivered in Peter’s always-entertaining style and illustrated with interactive examples.
Building Inspector by NYPL Labs
A wonderful Zooniverse-like project from the New York Public Library:
Help unlock New York City’s past by identifying buildings and other details on beautiful old maps.
The proto-internet | Intelligent Life magazine
Mapping the submarine cables of the Victorian internet.
And by the way, why did nobody tell me about Cartophilia before now? I’m very disappointed in you.
OpenGeofiction
OpenGeofiction is a map of an imaginary world, created by a community of worldbuilders. You can take part in this project too.
Seasonal posts × Katy DeCorah
This is such a simple little adjustment, but I think it’s kinda brilliant: tweaking the display of your site’s maps to match the season.
The Nor: A Paranoid Cartography
James walks the site of London’s old wall, documenting the instruments of London’s new wall.
He wrote about his experience in “All Cameras Are Police Cameras.” It is a history lesson, a present lesson, and a future lesson, all in one.
Beautiful Maps
Cartography porn.