MetaFilter posts tagged with maps

Unclaimed land

echo target — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:45:21 -0800

Looking to found your own Independent Republic of Metastan? Land is hard to come by, and barring sudden volcanic activity, they're not making any more of it. The Law of the Sea (1982) says that the ocean can't be claimed, and Outer Space Treaty of 1967 puts the moon off-limits. But your fledgling nation still has a couple of choices of unclaimed land parcels: Bir Tawil between Egypt and Sudan, and Marie Byrd Land (lower left) in Antarctica. Bir Tawil, meaning 'Deep Well,' sits on the Sudanese side of the border that Egypt claims, and the Egyptian side of the border that Sudan claims. Both countries would rather have the Halaid Triangle to the east, which is much larger and borders on the Red Sea. Apparently a tribe from the Eqyptian side uses it as grazing lands, but there's not much to fight over, so maybe you can work something out. If 770 sqare miles of desert isn't enough, perhaps your fledgling nation would be more interested in Marie Byrd Land, a mountainous part of Antarctica not claimed by any nation. Okay, there's not much there, either. But you'd better get while the getting's good: the US is planning to reopen a base there (basically a gas station, but still.)

Theme Park Maps

Wild_Eep — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:43:35 -0800

Theme Park Maps showcases those hand-drawn brochures that showed where the roller coasters and bumper cars were at your favorite theme park.

Maps, maps, maps!

kmz — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:14:15 -0800

Do you like maps? How about historical maps? Oodles of links to even more maps? Then the PCL Map Collection hosted by the University of Texas might be for you. And if you're ever in Austin, you can go to the PCL and browse the 250,000+ maps that the online collection is culled from. The PCL Maps Collection was posted on the blue eight years ago. Hopefully the length of time since then and the depth of the collection means it's ok to repost.

Watching the ships roll in, 2.0 style

madamjujujive — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:27:50 -0800

MarineTraffic is a live map recording ship traffic based on AIS data. The site mainly covers European and North American coasts and includes info on vessels and ports, plus a gallery with some cool ship photos. Similar: see ShipAIS for live vessel movements from around the UK.

Walking the territory redraws the map.

gleuschk — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:58:28 -0800

Destination: Argleton! Visiting an imaginary place. A fake town in Google Maps.

Safe Bike Routes Made Easy

netbros — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:19:05 -0800

Ride the City maps the best or safest urban bicycle route from point A to B. Presently featuring multi-lingual maps from New York, Chicago, Austin, Louisville, San Diego, and Seattle. Their blog posts updates about new cities added to the grid, or other topics relating to urban bicycling.

Ghost Walk

emjaybee — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:21:01 -0800

The Infamous Witch. El Protector. Opryland. The Strange Case of Scenic Drive. Blogger Aunt B. of TinyCatPants uses Google Maps to link to the "locations" of her original Nashville-area ghost stories, one for every day of October. Link takes you to the map; start with "The Infamous Witch."

It's a small world after all

jefficator — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:51:54 -0800

"Less than 10% of the world's land is more than 48 hours of ground-based travel from the nearest city." In August, archeologists discovered what may be the oldest map in the world. Years ago, MetaFilter introduced us to the concept of the "upside-down map". But a new map released Friday attempts to illustrate how our improved transportation network has managed to consolidate distances on earth.

Maybe not getting out of jail for free, but certainly a big help.

NoraCharles — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 06:47:21 -0800

The history of Monopoly has been a long one, but the game also helped change history through its participation in providing hidden maps and tools to help British POWs during WWII.

High quality antique maps of London & British Isles

slimepuppy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:05:08 -0800

MAPCO's aim is to provide genealogists, students and historians with free access to high quality scans of rare and beautiful antique maps and views. The site displays a variety of highly collectable 18th and 19th century maps and plans of London and the British Isles... See also Old London Maps for more maps and articles about old London and its sights. (in part via warrenellis.com)

Monopoly and Google maps mashup

pompomtom — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:01:58 -0800

Tomorrow, Monopoly City Streets begins, introducing a world-wide game combining google maps and the classic family fight-starter. Buy any street in the world, build houses, hotels and more. Remember, property always goes up, and your siblings always cheat.

Attention Map Nerds

marxchivist — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:26:45 -0800

Atlas of Historical County Boundaries. The Newberry Library has an online atlas of U.S. States and how their county boundaries have changed over time. Once you have your state on the screen, type in a date and you will see the historical county borders over the current borders. In the future they promise to have shapefiles available for downloading.

Musicartography

yiftach — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:01:38 -0800

A piano has 88 keys; Ohio has 88 counties. Cartographer Andy Woodruff noticed this fact while driving through Ohio to complete his Counties Visited Map, and decided, despite knowing nothing about music, to make a map based on this coincidence.

underground designs

nickyskye — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 06:21:50 -0800

The World's Best Alternative Subway Maps, including Eddie Jabbour's NYC Kick Map.

internet mapping

nickyskye — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:55:12 -0800

Internet Mapping Project l slide-showl more about it here. Please draw a map of the internet, as you see it. Indicate your "home". You can download a blank PDF here and email it to [Kevin Kelly] when done. In posting the images on Flickr I suggested that they would make great fodder for a creative scholar. Much to my surprise two days later, a professor in Argentina wrote the first paper with a first attempt to classify this initial set of maps. Other innovative mapping of the internet: The xkcd internet and online communities map. Data-Visualization maps. The Dmoz tree map of the whole internet. The DIMES map and related site. Mapping movements/feelings within the internet.

3D Mapping

netbros — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 17:44:55 -0800

Durango Bill's Home Page. With topics that include: 3D end-to-end tour of the Grand Canyon, the origin and formation of the Colorado River, and examples of river systems that cut through mountain ranges instead of taking easier routes around them in Ancestral Rivers of the World. But if geology and 3D mapping isn't your thing, Bill also entertains and informs with his evaluations of creationism and religious cultists, an energy/oil analysis, gaming probability analysis, graph and number theories and applied mathematics. Durango Bill is a busy dude.

California breaks off into the Pacific Ocean! Well, circa 1650.

desjardins — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 09:20:38 -0800

It would take over 50 years after the creation of this map before it was confirmed that California is indeed attached to the mainland of America. 20 Fascinating Ancient Maps (via). More zoomable historical maps at the World Digital Library. (previously)

Why we need Law & Order, SVU, Criminal Intent and CSI: New York

crossoverman — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:40:19 -0800

Murder: New York City. A map pinpointing murders in the five boroughs of NYC from 2003-09. Broken down by time of day, weapon used, age, sex and ethnicity of both victim and perpetrator. Not surprisingly, in the heat of summer the body count rises. Investigating homicides - a Q&A series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

There are zillions of locksmiths in the naked city

grobstein — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:53:20 -0800

High-priced emergency locksmith services clog up local business listings (and Google Maps), driving all the emergency calls to their numbers. It's happened all over the country. E.g., a 'brash new locksmith company' comes to Madison, WI.

Google Earth Typography

parudox — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:26:25 -0800

The alphabet in satellite imagery of Slavonia. [via]

shipping nerds, rejoice

lalex — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:41:17 -0800

"Now this is cool. Hellenic Shipping has a Google Maps mashup showing interactive, live data on the global shipping fleet." [via]

Search the Bible with Google Maps

Effigy2000 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:49:53 -0800

Biblemap.org is an interactive map system for the bible, which is great for visualising where certain biblical events are said to have occured. It's also great for people who don't subscribe to any kind of organised religion but do like looking at maps (like me!).

Civil War Maps

marxchivist — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:34:07 -0800

The Civil War Preservation Trust has a wonderful page of assorted American Civil War maps. Includes the excellent CWPT topographical maps [viewable online, download .pdf requires free registration], and historical maps. My favorites are the animated maps, on the map of the First Day of Chancellorsville you can toggle between the topo map and a present-day satellite view so you can see the effects of modern development on the battlefield. [via]

400 Years Ago

netbros — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:35:41 -0800

Have you ever wondered what New York was like before it was a city? Find out at The Mannahatta Project, by navigating through the map to discover Manhattan Island and its native wildlife in 1609. “The goal of the Mannahatta Project has never been to return Manhattan to its primeval state. The goal of the project is to discover something new about a place we all know so well, whether we live in New York or see it on television, and, through that discovery, to alter our way of life. New York does not lack for dystopian visions of the future…. But what is the vision of the future that works? Might it lie in Mannahatta, the green heart of New York, and with a new start to history, a few hours before Hudson arrived that sunny afternoon four hundred years ago?”

mapping snoops annotate North Korea

nickyskye — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:51:49 -0800

North Korea has a reputation as one of the most secretive, authoritarian, repressive countries in the world. But that doesn't stop Curtis Melvin, a PhD student at George Mason University, from trying to shine some light into the country's dark corners l His North Korea Economy Watch site, which includes The most authoritative map of North Korea on Google Earth l Gulags, Nukes and a Water Slide: Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil.