Map of the Week #101 - Australian Drought Maps

Those of you who are regular readers of the Australian Crop and Livestock Report (my brother is one at least) published by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics know that they have had a horrible drought over the last couple of years. While they have had some rain in November, the map on the left shows how dry things have been this Spring (yes it's Spring there and toilets flush the other way). The map on the right shows the effect on the wheat crop. You will probably want to click on them to be able to read anything.

Map of the Week #100 - Map of 100 Maps!

In honor of the 100th Map of the Week I have gone back, looked at the places I have mapped and made of map of these locations. This is based on the tags below which is not a perfect science since my tags have not been consistent. Sometimes I tag a state when a city is featured, sometimes I forget to (sorry Washington). Sometimes the state seems less relevant to the subject matter. The "USA"tag is also misleading because I tend to use it only for nationwide maps of the U.S. The map above shows all the countries that have been featured. Below are the cities, states and provinces. Yes I do have a pretty obvious bias towards northerly and familiar regions. I will try to look beyond my narrow realm at least a few times in the next 100 maps. Stay tuned.

Map of the Week #99 - [murmur]

Murmur (excuse me it's [murmur]) is a cool multimedia project established in Toronto. You can click the link below, choose a neighborhood and bring up a "mental map" such as below. Clicking the red dots will bring up audio files that are stories told by everyday people who have a connection to those locations. Below is their own description of the project:

[murmur] is a documentary oral history project that records stories and memories told about specific geographic locations. We collect and make accessible people's personal histories and anecdotes about the places in their neighborhoods that are important to them. In each of these locations we install a [murmur] sign with a telephone number on it that anyone can call with a mobile phone to listen to that story while standing in that exact spot, and engaging in the physical experience of being right where the story takes place. Some stories suggest that the listener walk around, following a certain path through a place, while others allow a person to wander with both their feet and their gaze.
The stories we record range from personal recollections to more "historic" stories, or sometimes both -- but always are told from a personal point of view, as if the storyteller is just out for a stroll and was casually talking about their neighbourhood to a friend.