Map of the Week-Deepwater Drilling and Spilling

The New Orleans Times-Picayune has some very detailed coverage about the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. There are lots of maps and graphics showing how the spill happened, what BP is trying to do to contain it, fishing closures and the extent of the damage. You can also read some fascinating comments. Blame an accident by a British oil company on whatever US politician you don't like. Choose the comments that work for your agenda!

Here is an image from NASA. Not pretty.




Below are forecasts of the extent of the oil slick for today and tomorrow.

They also have a map animation. Click on the image below to see.    

Map of the Week-Thinking Big in St. Paul

The Minnesota Historical Society is sponsoring an exhibit called "Minnesota on the Map" at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. The exhibit runs through September 7th and features four centuries of maps from the Society's collection. Below is an unusual example. Published by the St. Paul Board of Trade in 1871, it shows the "projected" railway system for 1900. The map was a response to an earlier map from that year published in the St. Paul Press. The Press map showed the "dominating influence of the St. Paul system" of railroads but displayed "extreme modesty" in "underrating the future of the Great Metropolis...."

The main detail that stands out is the St. Paul & London Inter-Continental Double Track Railway, featuring a "most magnificent" suspension bridge over the Atlantic Ocean.

Other details emerge when zooming in on the map such as the Sub-Oceanic tunnel under the Pacific to "Peek-in" that will be excavated by "gopher power" and the "Balloonic Route" to the North Pole. The text at the bottom details the need to move Minneapolis and the small town of Kandiyohi far to the north to accommodate the growth of the Metropolis. It also mentions that Duluth will be "wiped out entirely, as it deserves to be for having the temerity to exist."

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.

MOTW #83

One of my pet peeves is when worthwhile, timely information gets put on the web and then is never updated. This example is cited as a "recent map" from a company that works with newspapers to put maps on their web pages. The map shows "Rummage Sales"* in the "Siouxland" for the weekend of April 14th - note that the date at the top is today. This is/was useful information and if they kept it up to date could be still.** If not take it off or the residents of Ascot/Broadmoor should be expecting visitors this weekend, sale or not.

*I'd like to see a map showing what regions of the country use what terms to describe yard/garage/tag/rummage sales

** I can think of several other ways they could improve this site but I've already gone on for too long here.

MOTW #80

Yes it's another toilet map. But this one's cool because it shows you how much use they get. It's also helpful to me as I go by Langone Field often on my bicycle and didn't know I had that option. All the fields should have these as I recently watched a softball game and we all had to take turns sneaking into the woods. The Aquarium toilet gets an awful lot of use considering how often it's out of service. This map is from the Boston Globe.

MOTW #61

The Philadelphia Inquirer published a really good map showing 2006 murders in the city. If you click the map below you can go to the interactive map. Click on any dot to get details about the crime - victim, race, time , weapon, etc. You can also use these as filters to see only daytime murders or murders by "hand". Keep in mind that this a an entire year 's worth of data and in most of the city murder is really not that common an occurrence. Really we have lots of nice neighborhoods! I'm serious!

MOTW #49

Click on your favorite city and see today's front page courtesy of the Newseum.


Note that you can do this worldwide