Sunday, August 31, 2014

International geographical trolling

So Canada's NATO Twitter account tweeted this:

To which the Russians tweeted this response:
This is surely a positive development in international relations.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

BizarreRecords.com

Want to spend some time being creeped out by disturbing LP album covers?  Head over to BizarreRecords.com for gems like this:

Friday, August 29, 2014

Vintage jacket

I'm pretty sure it doesn't have South Sudan on it either. On the other hand, if Putin keeps up his antics, if this guy wears it long enough maybe it will become more accurate.
Now That's a Vintage Jacket

Thursday, August 28, 2014

You don't just paint over Mordor

I think there's something slightly criminal about having to paint over something this thoroughly awesome.  I would think the landlord would want it left there... give them their deposit back and then charge the next tenants extra for the privilege of living with something so precious, I would.
All Good Journeys Must Come to the End

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Muppet Wizard of Id

Did you know that Jim Hensen once did a pilot for a Muppet-esque take on the Wizard of Id?  It featured a map joke:

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

PMS GPS gum

My wife found this rack of novelty gums in a candy shop on the Oregon coast a few months ago.  I've only now gotten to posting it:

Monday, August 25, 2014

Hot and Cold (guest post)

Hello! Guest contributor Amanda Murphyao here with a map of the world:


(Image links to source.)

Sunday, August 24, 2014

World History: The Comic

Blog friend Amanda has found a page from World History: The Comic by Zak Ziebell. This one is about the Byzantine empire.  There's much more to be found there.
Some pages from the Byzantines chapter I’ve been working for awhile on.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

4-dimensional map of California drought

This is an insanely innovative map.  And timely.  As if any other evidence was even need to prove xkcd's Randall Munroe is a cartographic genius.

The "title-text" at the actual webcomic says:
58% of the state has gone into plaid


California

Friday, August 22, 2014

Face tracking

This one is a bit more off-the-beaten-path cartographically speaking, but it is a legitimate form of mapping and projection.  An article explaining the project by Nobumichi Asai is here, but it's in Japanese:


OMOTE / REAL-TIME FACE TRACKING & PROJECTION MAPPING. from something wonderful on Vimeo.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Berkhamsted

Look, I know we've done a bit of a rash of this sort of thing, but I swear it's not intentional.  Article
phallus shaped map of Berkhamstead

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Un-zoo

ArchDaily reports that Danish architecture firm BIG has come up with Zootopia, an innovative plan to reimagine the 1960s-era Givskud Zoo in Denmark that would create a cage-free, design-forward layout for captive animals and the humans who love to gawk at them.  The centerpiece of the zoo has an interesting theme:140731_EYE_1

Monday, August 18, 2014

Snake fight (guest post)

Hello! Guest contributor Amanda Murphyao here with another globe cartoon:
(Image links to source.)

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Blind map

In the 1830s, Samuel Gridley Howe developed an embossed alphabet known as Boston Line Type. This atlas, printed in 1837, made use of this type to present geographical information for students at the New England Institution for Education of the Blind  Scans of the rest of Howe’s atlas can be seen on the David Rumsey Map Collection website:

NHMap
New Hampshire
OhioMap
Ohio
FloridaMap
Florida

Friday, August 15, 2014

Worst. Hurricane. Ever.

Randall Munroe's xkcd: Producing a mind-puddlingly wonderful map-based webcomic about once per month so as to make the world a better place. The "title-text" at the actual webcomic says:

'Finding a 105-year-old who's lived in each location and asking them which hurricane they think was the worst' is left as an exercise for the reader.



Thursday, August 14, 2014

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Proof

I'm fairly decent at most math.  I thoroughly disliked proofs


Monday, August 11, 2014

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Free T-shirt

Still on the Shark Cafe story arc, Sherman's Lagoon strip by Jim Toomey, this time with a joke about California's budget woes (which have since largely been resolved... kinda.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Inevitable?

This is one person's (Claire Wyckoff) vulgar thing to do with their exercise tracking device':
Running Sucks, Except When Your Route is Also a Peen

Thursday, August 7, 2014

When was the USA most like an eagle?

Making animals or people out of maps is a fairly common cartographic venture.  Here's one from the Library of Congress by Joseph Churchman from 1833.  It's not a particularly good fit... and it kinda looks more like a large-footed pigeon rather than the eagle it's supposed to be.  But the atlas it was published in was significant.
EagleMap

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Borderline

Bill Mahar has presented an immigration-themed satire of Dr. Suess's iconic "Oh, The Places You'll Go":
maher_map.jpg

Immigration issues lend themselves rather well to map-themed political cartoons:
150908 600 Welcome cartoons
Steve Breen

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Streets have no name

Kennith Field—who is also a professional cartographer, a former cartography professor, and the editor of The Cartographic Journal—assembled this map of all the streets in the US that have no name:
Click to view a zoomable version
Map by Kenneth Field  Acknowledgements: "Tom Tom data used and published under licence using Esri technology."

Monday, August 4, 2014

Children's book cartoon (guest post)

Hello! Guest contributor Amanda Murphyao here with a cartoon illustration from "I'll be you and you be me" by Ruth Krauss, illustrated by Maurice Sendak:

(Image links to source at Brain Pickings.)


Sunday, August 3, 2014

Humans on the move

(Mostly Eurocentric) human migration and culture in a 5-minute video:

Saturday, August 2, 2014

There's a starving kid in Europe...

This map is from a 1918 book by the United States Food Administration, titled Food Saving and Sharing: Telling How the Older Children of America May Help Save From Famine Their Comrades In Allied Lands Across the Sea. “Remember,” the text asked its readers, “that every little country on the [map] is not merely an outline, but represents millions of people who are suffering from hunger.”


Article in Slate

Friday, August 1, 2014

Road to crazytown?

I don't think we've done a photo of a GPS unit in a while:
But We've Run Out of Gas!