Geography statement

A familiar refrain.

Happy new year.  May this next one not suck.

I want my solar parity

John Farrell over at Energy Self-Reliant States made this interactive and animated map mash-up that shows " which major metropolitan areas can beat grid prices with local solar first, and how quickly unsubsidized solar could take over America's major metropolitan areas."

Link to see when your city can bask in off-grid rays: http://energyselfreliantstates.org/content/mapping-solar-grid-parity

While I'm thrilled that some cities begin to achieve parity as early as 2013, I gotta wait until 2026 to get mine.

Where is the love?

Some time ago I did a big reveal of Carmen Sandiego that included speculation about the romantic connection between Carmen and Waldo (of "Where's" fame).  Here's another on that theme:

Boulder warming

When I first moved to Colorado many moons ago there was a front page article with a photo about a couple who had proudly made a map showing how an earthquake would drop most of the western United States, including the Rocky Mountains, into the Pacific Ocean, leaving much of the Denver Metro Area as beachfront property.  This couple was very serious and fervently believed in this theory of theirs.... or so the article claimed.  I've not been able to find that article (although I haven't actually tried) but what appears above is an artist's rendition of kinda the opposite... as in this is what it might look like looking south for almost everything east of Denver to become ocean... again I should say, since back during the Cretaceous it all was ocean... as one can see in this animation.    But actually this could be a convoluted global warming type theme... so we'll add this other one by Chip Bok which is very much global warming oriented and call it a a day.

Kringus reveals plans

This is farther in to the same "Kringus" story line form Scott Kurtz' outstanding Player vs. Player webcomic. This is where we finally find out what Kringus is up to.  If you think this is sinister, y'ain't seen nuthin' yet.  Later Kringus story arcs go way into the deep end. 

But even as fun as the Kringus stories can be, my favorite Christmas map-related comic is this one:
http://blueskygis.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-love-christmas.html

Kringus does GPS

Here's a treat: Player vs. Player by that giant in the webcomic industry (pun intended) Scott Kurtz.  This episode comes from towards the beginning of one of the first "Kringus" story arcs that Kurtz did. Notice the GPS device labeled on the diagram. This story arc starts here:
http://www.pvponline.com/2007/12/03/kringus-risen-part-1/

These "Kringus" story arcs have become rather elaborate in recent years.  Well worth the time of looking them up through the comprehensive archive. 

RSA Animate: whiteboard globe

RSA Animate is a series of amazingly well-drawn whiteboard diagrams of interesting talks on various fascinating topics. In this one Matthew Taylor explores the meaning of 21st century enlightenment.  Don't let the fun drawing of the globe early on distract you from the fascinating presentation.

Rex Morgan M.D.

Rex Morgan M.D. by Woody Wilson & Graham Nolan.  Not only is the a folding map in panel 3, but there's a reference to a map light in the car in panel 6.  Do people still call interior car lights map lights?

The story arc this belongs to involves some Alzheimer-y elderly folks (who are nevertheless having relations) wandering off from the retirement community ... and I think getting themselves kidnapped by rather incompetent, very mild crooks.

Mapping Tozo

David O'Connell's Tozo is a rather popular webcomic that's got a rich story line and has been running for almost 5 years now. Like Girl Genius, it's in the Steampunk style and, also like Girl Genius, it takes place on an Earth parallel, in Europe.  The setting is a stand-in for Venice, but the papacy has headquartered there rather than Rome..... and there's something mysterious happening on the European mainland involving an asteroid.  

Panel 2 there is the first glimpse of the map of Nova Venezia there is the offices of its ruler the Doge, Lady Celestine.... although this version of Venice doesn't quite look like ours.

She's scheming there against our hero, Detective Tozo, who is having a conversation with Professor Borello, who made him that little mecha-golem Klikker in that first panel, who was preceded by Tikker who the professor also made, but who ran off and became a spy for the resistance against the Spider Empire on the mainland.

 The Doge, Lady Celestine, resplendent in her palace... with her globe to the side.  This is the front page for Chapter 2.

 The evil Count Carlo on the cover of Chapter 3.  Note the map on the dresser to the left.

 Part of the background story explaining The Shard, The Spider Queen, and so forth.  There's that map again.

 Uh-oh! War has broken out between The Doge and the Papacy.  That's not good!

Read the whole story at Tozocomic.com

You are not getting things done

It's a "you are here" gag in Ziggy, by Tom Wilson (this time without the paranoid parrot). 

Antique GPS

Classic atlas.

Muppet cartography

A new Muppet Movie was released a few weeks ago. Here's a Sesame Street video about making maps featuring Ernie:




I remember when making maps was that simple. There was a great exercise in elementary school where we used a few drops of green, brown, yellow and white paint on blue paper. We folded the paper and unfolded it to make a Rorschach image... and that was our topographic map of our new imaginary land which we had to write a report about. It was one of the most fun learning experiences of my life.

Faithful

In this Sherman's Lagoon strip by Jim Toomey from September of 2005 our friendly sea creatures are  contemplating another road trip... using a folding map with fins... at the bottom of the sea...Comics!

California 'toonin' two-fer

Here's a California-themed two-fer.

The first is a  about a drought California had in 2008 by Patrick O'Connor

The second is about California's former governator, Arnold Swarchenegger and his troubles with the state's budget in 2009 by RJ Matson:

And finally a T-shirt design from "Busted Tees"

Own the world

Here's Lio by Mark Tatulli. Crazy little kid.

DNA of the Christopher S. Bond Sciences Center at MU

 

Some of you out there may know about the University of Missouri.  And some of those may know about the Christopher S. Bond Sciences Center.  But were you aware of the shape of the sidewalk out front? 

It's on the campus map too.

Musical mapping

Remember the musical subway animation from a while ago?  Today's animated map combines gaming with music and mapping.  Isle of Tune is an online (and now mobile) game and music-maker that allows the user to map out roads for cars to drive on and make music. What you're seeing above is the map that plays Beat It.  Try it out!

It does remind me a bit of the Honda commercial from a few years back where they cut rumble strips in a road to play the William Tell Overture  with a car... call me a music snob, though, but it sounds (annoyingly) flat to me:

There is no geography in summer

Today we have a One Big Happy by Rick Detorie.  These precocious kids get up to more mischief than Dennis the Menace.... although that's partly because Dennis hasn't been very menacing in ages.

Successful fail two-fer

Some time ago I worked with a software product called "PhotoMapper".  It was a viewer for the massive amount of aerial photography that the company I was working for was producing.  I actually taught their technical staff how to make the high resolution imagery, much of which became the first set of high resolution imagery that populated the technology that became Google Earth..... Of course that doesn't mean there weren't some interesting glitches along the way.

.... and obviously they haven't all been cleared up.

Geographically dependant

The second-to-last panel reference to geography makes this a map-related (and funny) Dilbert by Scott Adams.  Great way to start off the work week, no?

Hawaiian Punch

I figured that this week I'd knock out another state specifically referenced in the map-related comics blog... though this one isn't quite a comic.  It's almost certainly Photoshopped.... and that is a can of Hawaiian Punch.

28 states mentioned, 22 to go.

Animated/interactive Arab Spring

Last Spring Slate.com did an interactive animation that updated as events of the "Arab Spring" unfolded.  It's still there, but they haven't updated this in a while.  It's still a pretty brilliant news/information delivery system.

No way out

Here is Jef Mallet's Frazz strip having fun with a GPS and getting lost in a corn maze.

Oddly enough the GPS locations recorded by many mobile devices while they're at rest can look very much like a hairball.  When at rest the mobile device's location measurements can get confused by picking up location signals from cel towers. 

Round and round the world she goes

Today's two-fer has two different spins on the same punchline.  The first is from Jim Meddick's Monty.The second is from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, by Zach Weiner.  I'm a bit surprised to see that this is at least the second time Newark has been referenced in this blog... although it's certainly not the first time New Jersey has been the butt of jokes in map-related comics.  But this is the first time Utah has been referenced... so we're up to 27 states referenced in map-related comics.  Which state will be next?  Which state will be last?

...have to watch the show

What if there was a long lost screenplay by Muppet creator Jim Hensen that hadn't been movie-ized yet?  What if that were made into a graphic novel?  Fortunately for us, the brilliant cartoonist Ramón Pérez has done just that with Tale of Sand, due to be released any day now. Note the discarded map being blown into the canyon.

While you're waiting for that to come out, do, certainly, have a look at Mr. Pérez' masterwork webcomic Kukuburi, which is one of my most very favorite things, although it's updated far too infrequently.  Read it from the beginning and bask in it's surreal loveliness.

Recycled world art

Here's a wall map of the world made out of recycled computer parts.  Fun!

Close-up view:

Who the bleep is Colonel Bleep?

The closest thing that I used have to a Thanksgiving-themed map-related comic is one involving a traditional song and bad directions:

I had scheduled this post to include a request for something better, but then one Nadia posted to the Portland GIS group a link to a map of Thanksgiving ingredients.  And while it's only a little cartoony, I'll take it.

If you have any better Thanksgiving-themed map-related comic let me know.

In the meantime today's map animation involves a vintage TV cartoon that tried to jump on the new Sputnik-inspired space-age craze: Colonel Bleep (1957 Robert Buchanan).

I found a tool online TubeChop that should let me zero-in on the specific map-related part of the cartoon (so that you don't have to sit through all 10 minutes of it):



The quality of the animation is even worse than the standard Hanna Barbara cartoon, although to be fair this is a pilot.  And what the devil is Colonel Bleep riding? A warp speed unicycle? Sheesh!

And the description of his sidekicks, Squeak and Scratch is not to be missed:

With Colonel Bleep are two unusual companions to share his exciting adventures. First, there is Squeak, a happy-go-lucky boy of the present, very much like you! Except that Squeak is a puppet and cannot speak a single word. Because as you all know, a puppet cannot talk for himself… Second there is Scratch -- an expert on the past, who, like other cavemen, should really have become extinct several thousand years ago.

Body blow!

Many moons ago there was a boxing arcade video game known as "Punch-Out!". This game gave the world a number of cultural memes, the one that crawls into my head most often is "Body blow!".  Here the Perry Bible Fellowship (warning: occasionally NSFW), takes a literalist twist on that theme.  I don't know whether that first panel ever appeared in the original video game (it probably did), but it's certainly worth having some fun. PBF is drawn by Nicholas Gurewitch, Evan Keogh, Jordan Morris, and Albert Birney.

Lego globe

My friend Rob suggested this one: The Lego fist punching out of the Lego globe. This is from artist Nathan Sawaya's "Art of the Brick" Lego exhibit that was at the American Swedish History Museum in Philadelphia in 2008.

Of course that's not the only Lego globe on offer.

There's the more generic examples:

There are versions with more colorful texture:

 And there's even a huge version that also comes in the form of an online jigsaw puzzle: