StateTable: US/Canada states, provinces, territories and minor possessions as CSV, SQL, HTML form elements, PHP arrays, and more.
All the countries in the world, as a text list,
CSV and API (from the very handy and open
Factual).
Also:
FreeMapTools, including
“how far can I travel from any point on the Earth in a certain time, using a form of ground transportation?”, and “
If I dug a tunnel straight through the planet, where should I emerge?”
(previously)
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Jan 27, 2012 -
11 comments
GeoCurrents is blog dedicated to "map-illustrated analyses of current events and geographical issues", run by Martin W. Lewis, a Stanford senior lecturer. For the past week, they've been posting a series of articles on
imaginary geography. See below for a list of the posts so far:
[more inside]
posted by daniel_charms
on Jan 6, 2012 -
8 comments
The official Google Earth plugin is one free download that makes all sorts of cool stuff possible in your browser. There's
a full screen version of the program (complete with underwater views and 3D buildings) which can be searched by entering queries at the end of the URL. There's
a framed version with support for layers, historical imagery, day/night cycles, and the Google Sky starmap.
Less useful but more fun are Google's collection of "experiments" demonstrating the possibilities of the Earth API, including
a "Geo Whiz" geography quiz,
an antipode locater,
a 3D first-person view of San Francisco,
a virtual route-follower, and
MONSTER MILKTRUCK!, a crazy fun driving simulator that lets you careen a virtual milk truck through the Googleplex campus, ricochet off the Himalayas, or explore any other place you care to name.
Lots more can be found in the
Google Earth Gallery -- highlights include
a look at mountaintop removal mining,
a real-time flight tracker,
a guide to trails and outdoor recreation,
a 360 panorama catalog,
geotagged Panoramio photos,
and the comprehensive crowdsourced
Google Earth Community Layer.
And while it's too large to view online, don't miss loading
the Metafilter user location map into a desktop version of Google Earth!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 9, 2011 -
15 comments
Everybody knows
TVTropes is the best and most
time-
killing-est way to learn about the clichés and archetypes that permeate modern media. But dear reader, there is
so much more. Enter
Useful Notes. Originally created as a place for tropers to pool factual information as a writing aid, the subsite has quietly grown into a small wiki of its own -- a compendium of crowdsourced wisdom on a staggering array of topics, all written in the site's signature brand of lighthearted snark. Though it reads like an irreverent and informal Wikipedia, its articles act as genuinely useful primers to complex and obscure topics alike, all in service of the project's five goals: "To debunk common media stereotypes; to help you understand some media better; to educate, inform and sometimes entertain; to promote peace and understanding (maybe); and... to facilitate world domination." Sounds about right. Click inside for bountiful highlights... if you dare.
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Dec 26, 2010 -
43 comments
With the U.S. Midterm elections less than a week away, we can expect to hear more about the Red State/Blue State dichotomy. Journalist Dante Chinni and political scientist James Gimpel are among those who maintain that it's not that simple. They say we are
a patchwork nation and divided U.S. counties into 12 categories:
Boom Towns, Campus & Careers, Emptying Nests, Evangelical Epicenters, Immigration Nation, Industrial Metropolis, Military Bastions, Minority Central, Monied 'Burbs, Morman Outposts, Service Worker Centers, and
Tractor Country. Find out how they classified
your county. [more inside]
posted by weathergal
on Oct 28, 2010 -
39 comments
Everything you ever wanted to know about lighthouses -
The Lighthouse Directory -
"which provides information and links for more than 12,900 of the world's lighthouses."
posted by awfurby
on Oct 5, 2010 -
15 comments
Star forts from above (Google Maps links):
Alba Iulia,
Arad Fortress,
Almeida,
Bourtrange,
Coevorden,
Estremoz,
Goryōkaku,
Naarden,
Neuf Brisach,
Nicosia,
Palmanova,
Retranchement,
Terezín,
Willemstad.
More.
posted by nthdegx
on Jun 8, 2010 -
47 comments
Jo Guldi writes
a fascinating entry about social engineering and geography in the 1970's. "The geographers located answers in American zones of isolation and hopelessness. Bill Bunge organized his fellow professors into the Detroit Geographical Expedition, leading frequent trips to document the slums of Detroit and later Toronto. Their findings were equally provocative. In 1968, the Society published a map entitled “
Where Commuters Run Over Black Children on the Pointes-Downtown Track.” Life and death, they argued, were not merely the commodities available to any hard-working American, but hung upon the thread of a special kind of privilege, the privilege of safe territory."
Guldi is a historian at the Harvard Society of Fellows.
[more inside]
posted by cashman
on Feb 12, 2010 -
10 comments
