Maps from Memory

Illustrator Ellis Nadler started a group on flickr for maps drawn From Memory. There's a nice variety of artistry and accuracy here. One of the better ones is Montreal de memoire from Axel Drainville.

User 4ojos has some very nice maps on flickr. Here's Goa.

 
For some enjoyable inaccuracy here is the Nadler's Brazil featuring Rio on the wrong side of the Amazon and in the wrong hemisphere.

His Australia's a little off too...



...but not as bad as the one drawn by his "highly educated" friend.

Nadler simplifies London in case you get lost.

Here's his solar system in case you get lost there.


There's many more fun maps on this group so go waste some quality time! 

Map of the Week-Enclavistan

A recent article in The Economist, titled The Land that Maps Forgot highlights the complex nature of the northern border between India and Bangladesh. The countries have been negotiating a possible land swap in order to solve the problem of enclaves -  islands of Indian and Bangladeshi territory within the opposite country. There are also counter enclaves (islands within islands) as well as the world's only counter-counter enclave.

This detail of the Cooch Behar district shows the border with Indian enclaves in pink and Bangladeshi enclaves in green. Some counter enclaves are apparent such as the ones numbered 33 and 41. These are Bangladeshi areas within Bangladesh, but surrounded by Indian territory.

The full map is shown below. The age of this map is not clear from the article or from its source page but Bangladesh is "East Pakistan" so it's at least 40 years old and may date back to the original partition of Pakistan.

Thanks to my brother (aka "your brother") for his diligent reading of The Economist.

Maps in Unexpected Places-Restaurants

I love ethinc restaurants-especially ones with nice maps on the walls. Here are some examples taken from my iPhone:

A portion of a map of the Middle East from the Athena Restaurant in Glenside, Pennsylvania.

At Punjab in Arlington, Massachusetts - a map of...Punjab!

Los Paisanos, a Salvadoran place in Somerville, Mass. has this clocklike wall display showing the currency and provinces of El Salvador.

Here is a close up of the map part.

 Even the napkin holder has a map of sorts.

Map Changes for 2010 and beyond

New State in India?

 

New transit line for Vancouver                                           

  - opened in August, 2009


















Proposed Purple Line would serve the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC.  The line would run from Bethesda to New Carrollton.

Rerouting the Chicago River? 

Michigan's attorney general has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to seal off the most direct routes from the Chicago River into Lake Michigan to keep Asian carp out of the Great Lakes.










Stay tuned for these and other exciting map stories as the year progresses.

Map of the Week 111- Anchors Away!

Last Wednesday off the coast of Egypt, a ship's anchor severed some cables limiting internet access to 75 million people, primarily in Egypt, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This has had significant impacts on the high tech economy in India and on western companies that have outsourced their tech support there. This story appeared in the Guardian along with the map below of undersea internet connections and lots of hand-wringing about the world's fragile infrastructure.


If you want an even more detailed map of the world's internet infrastructure and feel like spending $250 then take a click on the map below.