Netflix Queues: Chicago Loves Benjamin Button

The New York Times has pulled together 2009 data from Netflix to show rental patterns by neighborhood, in a dozen cities.

A Peek Into Netflix Queues



The #1 Netflix rental for Chicago (and in most other communities) in 2009 was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

HT to Matt

Swindon's Magic Roundabout

In what looks to me like a driver's nightmare: Swindon's Magic Roundabout.



Constructed in 1972, the roundabout consists of five mini-roundabouts arranged in a circle. Its name comes from a popular children's television series The Magic Roundabout. Depending on your BBC survey, it has been voted the fourth or seventh scariest junction in Britain.


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A few weeks ago, Ms. Cartophiliac's friend sent a hilarious YouTube video of the roundabout in action, with a Benny Hill soundtrack. Sadly, it has already been taken down. But below are several more videos to give you a flavor of the experience.







Here is one recommended by Jude (see comments):



And for those of you new to driving through roundabouts, here is a useful instructional video:



And finally, my favorite Roundabout:

Interactive Ship Traffic Map

Since 2004, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has required vessels to carry an AIS (Automatic Identification System) transponder on board, which transmits their position, speed and course, among some other static information, such as vessel’s name, dimensions and voyage details. All this data has been pulled together into an academic, open, community-based project: MarineTraffic.com



Here we see ships "squeezing" through the Straits of Gibraltar.

The data is uploaded in the database in real time, and the positions on the map are correct to within one hour.

The project is currently hosted by the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece. While the system is not intended as a method to enhance safety at sea (in other words, don't use this tool to avoid collisions), the creators intend this data to be used as research to simulate vessel movements in order to contribute to the safety of navigation as well as provide design models for the spotting of the origin of pollution and creating efficient algorithms for sea path evaluation and for determining the estimated time of ship arrivals.

It is also just fun to watch the ships moving about.

My first fear about this tool, was that it might be used for evil purposes. Couldn't pirates use this tool to plan their next attack? Fortunately, the mapping tool does not extend to the Horn of Africa waters near Somalia.

Via Coming Anarchy

Olympic Torch -- Family Circus Style

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games website has created an interactive map of the path the torch will take on its trek across Canada:



Now, of course I understand why an Olympic Committee would choose a path that squiggles to and fro across the country. They want to hit all the provinces and major population centers, to build community and excitement about the games. However, upon seeing this map, the first thought that came to my mind was one of Billy's meandering path maps from the Family Circus comic strip:





While digging up the two map/strips above, I found another Family Circus map...



My apologies...

Olympic map via that fine Canadian map blogger, The Map Room

Google Street View Guys

I've always wondered what it would be like to be a Google Street View camera car driver...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Dayton Real-Time Bus Schedule Map

A very clever use of Google Maps. A real-time bus route map for Dayton, Ohio:



The author, "dmcmanam", says on DaytonMostMetro:

If you want to know the Dayton RTA routes and view the location of the buses then check out the website I'm building -
http://geek-mafia.appspot.com/

It is based on Google Maps and shows the bus routes and schedules. At this point I'm looking for feedback about what features to add next and what people like and dislike about the site. Currently 5 routes are mapped and adding a route takes me a few hours to generate the GPS data such as location of the stops and to convert the timetable posted on the Dayton RTA website to the Google Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format my system uses.

When I know that there is some local interest in a cool transportation website I'll add the features people request.

The DMM board should be very useful for me - I was born and raised in Dayton but spent the last 15 years elsewhere so I have few local contacts. I appreciate all feedback on the site, positive or negative. I am aware of 1 technical issue currently in the Mozilla browser the page does not always come up and you must repeatedly click "Refresh" until the map shows. No known issues in Safari or Chrome.

Just noted above, I have also had trouble loading this app in Firefox, so try IE or something else.

Here Comes the Flood II

Using data from NASA, here is a Google map tool that allows you to speculate on possible consequences of global warming and rising sea levels.

Below is Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay area under an additional 10 meters of water.






Here Comes the Flood I

John Quincy Adams Twitters His Way to St. Petersburg

On August 5, 1809, John Quincy Adams, future president, and son of a former president, set sail from Boston on his way to St. Petersburg. President James Madison had appointed Adams minister plenipotentiary to Russia. Like most learned men of that time, Adams kept a journal of his activities (like a blog) with lengthy descriptions of this thoughts and activities. In addition, he also kept a ledger with brief one-line-a-day entries (not unlike Twitter). Since August 5, 2009, the Massachusetts Historical Society has been posting John Quincy Adams's line-a-day diary entries on Twitter, exactly 200 years later.

They have also created a Google map to chart his progress (his shipboard Tweets included latitude and longitude):

Yuppie Locator

Jessica at TownMe.com has sent me this amusing tool to mash up Google maps with Census data to rank city neighborhoods based on different factors - e.g. Yuppieness, cougars, baby mommas etc. You're able to see which neighborhoods are more concentrated with these different factors. Below is a the Yuppie Locator for San Francisco:



You can do a search for other major cities. They also rank the city with an index, on a scale from 0-100, for a certain factor. The index is located to the right of the map. If you click the 'read more' panel, you're able to see how they defined and described the index and exactly which pieces of census data they used.

UPDATE: Moments after posting this map, I visited The Map Scroll. Chachy has also featured this site... AND used San Francisco for his example. LOL... great minds think alike. I think Chachy may live out there... I only chose SF because the data map for Dayton was pretty boring...

Google Maps Loves Gina

Someone loves Gina so much, he left a message that can only be seen from space...



Via @PostSecret

#410

The Incredible Shrinking City

This weekend I was back to Michigan for some family stuff. Coincidentally, on the road I was listening to The KunstlerCast podcast that I had just downloaded to my ipod a week or so ago. In this particular podcast, James Howard Kunstler gave a virtual walking tour of Detroit, Michigan, using Google Street View.



Since I was already very familiar with many of the sights and landmarks he noted, I did not need to see the Google views to appreciate the podcast, but I think it is terrific combination of two popular (and free) technologies. I hope he does more of this.

The Kunstlercast is a weekly podcast "about the tragic comedy of suburban sprawl" and other urban issues. Another recent topic was President Obama's high-speed rail proposals. Kunstler describes himself as "one of the world's loudest critics of suburban sprawl and the impending fossil fuel shortage."

Sunday evening, after returning home, while catching up on map blogs, I came across this one from The Map Scroll: The Shrinking of Detroit.



In the last 50 years, the population of Detroit has lost more than half of its population. "About 30% of Detroit is now vacant land — about 40 square miles, by one estimate. Forty square miles is roughly the size of San Francisco."

In an article, posted last week, The Telegraph notes that several U.S. cities, including Detroit and Flint, are dealing with vacant houses by tearing them down and creating new "green space".

Will Urban Agriculture be the next step?

#405

More Google Maps Gone Bad

Google Maps Gone Bad


#220

Where Is Local Girl?

Caroline Clifford is a UK web comic blogger, known as Local Girl. I find her comics and stories about her daily life amusing (if sometimes a little TMI...).

Local Girl has embarked on a summer adventure traveling through Canada and the United States by bicycle, bus and train. She has created a Google Map that allows her fans to know Where Is Local Girl?:



She started in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is working her way through the Maritimes before heading south. I especially like the custom marker pin she has created using her comic icon.

Perhaps at some point she will cross paths with Evan on his "crazy ass" adventure.


#214

Where In The World Is This?

It is an island... somewhere on the planet Earth:



If you can identify it, visit Where On Google Earth? and post your guess.

Gary Arndt is a world traveler, and every 2-3 days he posts a new contest to identify a location from Google Earth.


#213

Google Maps Finds Me

Earlier this month, Google Maps added my town to their Street View feature. Now you can "drive" down my street and see my home:



I showed the feature to one of my co-workers and he was a bit freaked out... but then I think he also worries about black helicopters and other creepy conspiracy theories.

But then again... maybe we do need to worry about Google Maps Gone Bad...


#206

Flight of Manhattan

Fun with MapQuest and Google Maps.

First it was Bill Renken's Errant Isle of Manhattan, on Radical Cartography: "What would happen if Manhattan itself decided to take a tour of the oceans, stopping at other cities to refuel and have a good time."

First stop: Chicago



Jason Kottke speculates on a visit to San Francisco



Seth Holladay takes the island to Boston



However, the first thing I thought of, after viewing these fantastical maps, was the series of science fiction books by James Blish; Cities in Flight. Centuries into the future, the invention of massive antigravity devices allow entire cities, including New York, to get up and leave the planet. These "Okies", as they come to be known, struggle to get by as they offer their services to less industrialized planets.






UPDATE 6/10: Just came across this entry in the Worth1000.com B2B: Miniature Worlds contest: Colony City By funkwood

Foolish Pangea

Google Earth Blog has preserved the 2008 Google Earth April Fools Joke. "Well, it turns out there is an April Fools Joke in Google Earth today after all! If you turn on the "Geographic Web" layer and then zoom all the way out (38000+ miles away from Earth) the Earth's continents merge into the theoretical Pangea (the way the continents may have appeared hundreds of millions of years ago)."

Unfortunately, they only kept the joke up for one day. April 1. I'm glad someone saved it.

via The Map Room

Google Maps Gone Bad

"Two young men take a turn down the wrong street view."

Thanks to Marilyn at Intelligent Travel blog

And yet more map blogs

The longer I do this, the more I find other bloggers doing the same or similar things... centered around their love of maps.

Three more map related blogs I've come across lately. Both related to making and using maps:

Making Maps: DIY Cartography

This blog highlights resources that ... help you to make better maps. [T]his blog also provides examples of creative and provocative maps and material on map making and understanding, culled from contemporary and historical sources.

Google Maps Mania

An unofficial Google Maps blog tracking the websites, mashups and tools being influenced by Google Maps.

Map the Universe



The author is "a paper pushing drone located in a cublicle somewhere in Canada", interested in antique and collectible maps.

Mike Turner gets my attention

While it is unlikely I will ever vote to re-elect my congressman, Mike Turner (R-OH) knows how to get my attention:



Putting a map on your franked postcard will always make me take a second look before it ends up in the trash...

See the original, from Google Maps:


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