Mapkini and Curtain

Today I received several photos from a Carto-friend who must remain nameless. The first one I'll show you is the shower curtain from his bathroom. I'm showing this one first as your warning. The rest of the photos are probably safe-for-work... unless you work for a very prudish employer... We'll get back to shower curtains in a moment...



This Carto-friend sent me these photos of his fiancé in the best bikini bathing suit ever.

Now, he tells me that she said it was OK for me to post these. He'd better be right, because he's getting married next week. Congratulations!

Strictly for geographic study purposes, I think we need to take a closer look at this mapkini...

This mapkini is made up of a map of United States. I think it very appropriate that the top is pieced together with Western states:



Out west, they have huge... tracts of land!



The mapkini bottom is made from Southern states...



But most interesting is the back of the mapkini bottom, with its fascinating mash-up of Montana, Kansas, Idaho and the Baja Peninsula!



This mapkini is (or was) from Victoria's Secret. However, after an extensive search of their website (again, strictly for geographic purposes) I have been unable find it available.

So, back to my Carto-friend's shower curtain. He tells me that he is pleased with the accuracy in detail of the map. Not only is it up to date with all of the changes in Eastern Europe over the last few years, it even shows Cyprus in its current divided state.



However, for some inexplicable reason, Tasmania is shown in a different color than the rest of Australia. Is there something Taz trying to tell the rest of Oz?



Thanks again, Carto-friend. Happy wedding and good luck!

Real Power Grids

More serendipitous cartography.

The other day I was asked a question at the library reference desk:

"What are the power grids in the United States?"

The first thing I thought of was one of my favorite boardgames, Power Grid (see earlier post on the Power Grid game):



Of course, what she wanted to learn was how the national power grid is arranged for distribution of electricity. With only a little bit of searching, I found these maps on the Department of Energy website. Interestingly there is no "national power grid" in the United States. The continental United States is divided into three main power grids:



This one reminds me of the game map above:

Electricity is generated as it is used. There is very little ability to store electricity. Because of this instantaneous nature, the electric power system must constantly be adjusted to ensure that the generation of power matches the consumption of power. On continental U.S. power grids, roughly 150 Control Area Operators serve this function by using computerized control centers to dispatch generators as needed.

Folks that are interested in finding ways to enhance electrical power generation in this country, without additional greenhouse gasses, are looking for alternatives. Coincidentally, an old friend of mine told me that he has completed a Master's Degree in Alternative Energy. He is primarily interested in wind power. We've had interesting discussions on generation and distribution of wind power. One of the problems is that many of the best locations for wind power generation are far from the most populated areas:



The Aleutian Islands of Alaska have the greatest potential, but also possibly insurmountable roadblocks to distribution to the rest of the national grids (let alone the rest of Alaska). Some of the best areas for generation near population centers are along Lake Michigan and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Unfortunately, many of the people living there, and many in the Tourist Industry, are opposed to development of wind farms in these areas. NIMBY

I just noticed that the latest issue of Wired magazine has a cover story on
7 Ways to Fix the Grid "Demand for electricity is expected to increase by as much as 40 percent in the next two decades—more than twice the population growth rate." The article offers proposals on ways to make distribution of energy in the United States more efficient, and includes this and other mappish graphics:



Finally, since I mentioned greenhouse gasses earlier, I'll throw in this recent post from The Map Scroll titled, "Australia is the Canary in the Global Warming Coal Mine." Interesting reading.

Wearing Maps

Looking for a piece of fabric with a map on it? Who doesn't want to wear a shirt made of out map fabric?

From the The True Up blog:


From J & O Fabrics:


From Geography Matters:


From Warm Biscuit:


A former associate of mine made this shirt for me from some map fabric she found:


#288

National Geographic Exploration Experience

The good folks at National Geographic sent me a book that is both interesting and fun: National Geographic Society Exploration Experience: The Heroic Exploits of the World's Greatest Explorers, by Beau Riffenburgh. At first I thought it would simply be a rehash of all the famous explorers I learned about in school (Columbus, Magellan, Coronado and Champlain) and they are here, but also included are explorers of Australia, Siberia, Africa, Antarctica and the Arctic. But wait! There's more! When I opened this book, I became very excited, like a kid with his first pop-up book. Not only does each page offer historical and biographical information on each explorer, and the obligatory red, blue and black lines on maps tracing their routes of exploration, but nearly every page also includes an insert. Neatly devised pockets contain reproductions and facsimiles of maps, letters, drawings, treaties, journals and news articles:

Here is an example of the traditional exploration map found in the book. Different colored solid and dotted lines. Exploration of Australia! Now that's a chapter I missed in high school geography class:



Here are two examples of the inserts.

A sketch map drawn by Alexander von Humboldt, of part of the Orinoco River, in what is now Venezuela:



A map of the route taken by the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition through central Africa, redrawn for Henry Stanley after his return:



In addition to rich narrative, beautiful illustrations and intriguing inserts, this book also included a bonus CD-ROM with an additional 35 rare historical maps from the archives of the Royal Geographic Society.

Henry Stanley's 1875 hand drawn pencil sketch of Lake Victoria Nyanza:



A Tibetan picture map of the Mount Everest Range, from 1898, by Laurence Austine Waddell:



I love this book and I haven't even finished reading about all of the explorers... Highly recommended as a holiday gift for that history buff or map lover in your family.