Cartographic Comparisons
Kai Krause, a computer-graphics guru, caused a stir a few years ago with a map entitled “The True Size of Africa”, which showed the outlines of other countries crammed into the outline of the African continent. The goal was to make “a small contribution in the fight against rampant Immappancy.” Kai coined this phrase “immappancy”, meaning insufficient geographical knowledge. HA! We are all guilty. Did you have any idea that the world’s largest countries could actually fit inside Africa? Long lasting incorrect visual maps have trained our brains to see Africa...
Read MoreNewspaper Map
Today’s map for Maps in the News is just that, a newspaper map. It is an interactive map of the locations of all the newspapers left in the world. There are bright buttons all over it, and the legend to the right shows the color code for each language. There are also filters by language to make it easy as pie to plan your trip around the availability of newspapers you can actually read. There appear to be no newspapers in Greenland. Click on the map to take you to the interactive version. I have no idea who is making this map, or I would tell you. Let me know if you figure it...
Read MorePronounce Wisconsin Map
Today I am launching my “Maps in the News” Wednesdays with a map close to my heart. Many of you know I have had the great pleasure of teaching in Wisconsin for about five years now, from Cedarburg to Muscoda and some places in between. Wisconsin seeped into my heart, both because I am very fond of some of its residents, and because it is just plain interesting. However, the place names in Wisconsin are set up to separate the wheat from the chaff: the locals from the intruders in other words. No one, but no one not born and bred in that state could figure out how to pronounce some...
Read MoreMaps in the News: 12/2012
Near my growing-up-house in Orange County, which the rest of the country (not the residents) believe is a part of Los Angeles County, Realtor Matthew Greenberg found tens of thousands of maps stashed in a 948-square-foot Mount Washington cottage. He was told to throw away whatever he found in order to sell the place. Thank goodness he didn’t. John Feathers lived in the cottage and obsessively collected old and new maps. Feathers died last February and the property needed to be sold. Greenberg, the realtor, walked in a saw this stash of cartographic wonder and reported it to the...
Read More
Listen to Me!