Who Dat Nation?

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints for conquering the United Countries of Football

50 Equal States

Tired of little states being over-represented in the Senate? Do you wish that all states had equal electoral vote power in national elections? Neil Freeman at Fake is the New Real has a solution. Redraw all fifty states so that they have relatively equal populations:



Interestingly, the only state that gets to keep most of its original shape is Missouri. Does that mean the Missouri already has the "perfect" population to represent 1/50 of the US population?

Via The Map Room

2009 UCF Conference Championships

Conference Championships this weekend in the United Countries of Football.

Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. We'll see these two Football "Countries" fight it out in two weeks! Peyton Manning will play against his old "home team" (he was born in New Orleans, and his Dad, Archie Manning, used to play for the Saints).



So, were all these playoffs necessary? At the end of the day, the two teams with the best records in their conference go to the Super Bowl.

My early prediction is that the Colts will win another Super Bowl. But good on the Saints for finally making it to the big game.

2009 UCF Divisional Playoffs

Divisional Playoffs this weekend in the United Countries of Football.

As a sports fan, I was happy to see the Colts win and the Cowboys lose. As a poor mapmaker, I was happy to see the Ravens lose so that I wouldn't have two purple Football Countries.



Next week, for the first time in NFL history, both Conference Championship games will be held indoors. I'm looking for a Colts/Saints Super Bowl.

Ike Underground and Simplified

Transit Map Theme Week continues here at Cartophilia.

The representational diagram style of the London Underground map has become the worldwide standard for maps of rail systems. Why not highway systems? Several variations of the United States highway system presented as a simplified diagram have turned up lately.

As a tribute, Cameron Booth has created his own Eisenhower Interstate System in the style of H.C. Beck's London Underground Diagram:



In detail:


Last year, I highlighted Chris Yate's The Eisenhower Interstate System (simplified). This month Chris informed me that he has created a new, revised edition that addresses many of the errors and omissions of the original:



Finally, for your amusement, another take on simplification: A Numeric Topology of the United States Eisenhower Interstate Highway System available as a poster from Hedberg Maps:



Hedberg Maps; their motto says it all: "Life's Too Short for Bad Maps"

2009 UCF Wildcard Weekend

Last week I introduced the end-of-2009 NFL season United Countries of Football map.

Tonight, after an exciting overtime win by the Cardinals, the Wild-Card round of the playoffs have ended. Four Football Nations have been vanquished: Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New England and Green Bay. The new map stands at this:



Aside from my disappointment at the Bengal's loss and the Cowboy's win, I did pick 3 out of 4 correctly. However, I have a problem with the map. Once again I used poor color choices and now the Minnesota Vikings' and the Baltimore Ravens' territory is colored with the same shade of violet!

Therefore, next weekend, I will find myself rooting for the Vikings over the Dallas Cowboys (I would anyway), and I will naturally be rooting for the Indianapolis Colts over the Ravens. Then all things will be map-color-well.

#525

Say No to Graduate School (Especially in the Humanities)

Happy New Year, Carto-fans!

I am already well on my way to succeeding with my New Year's resolutions:

New Year's resolution #1: Break that crack cocaine addiction once and for all. So far so good... haven't had a craving once this year... or ever.

New Year's resolution #2: Continue to resist the urge to go back to graduate school.

Since graduating from Library School, back in the dark ages, before Al Gore invented the Internet, it has been suggested to me that I ought to go back for a second master's or a PhD. I have occasionally given it more than 30 seconds of consideration. But fortunately, I have consistently resisted the urge. I could spend years, and thousands of dollars, but who can guarantee that it would pay off with a better job... or any job?

Last year, Thomas H. Benton gave this same advice in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

I include this link to his article, Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go, because (1) it is good advice to undergraduates, and (2) it comes with a spiffy map related graphic.

Most undergraduates don't realize that there is a shrinking percentage of positions in the humanities that offer job security, benefits, and a livable salary (though it is generally much lower than salaries in other fields requiring as many years of training). They don't know that you probably will have to accept living almost anywhere, and that you must also go through a six-year probationary period at the end of which you may be fired for any number of reasons and find yourself exiled from the profession. They seem to think becoming a humanities professor is a reliable prospect — a more responsible and secure choice than, say, attempting to make it as a freelance writer, or an actor, or a professional athlete — and, as a result, they don't make any fallback plans until it is too late.

Cartophiliac Jr. often speaks of getting a PhD in his chosen field in the Humanities. I hope he also works on his burger grill and deep-fry skills...

Just Don't Go, Part 2

New Year's Resolution #3: Continue to provide amusing map related illustrations whenever I see something that tickles my fancy, and I have the time and/or inclination to post it here.

There, I think that covers everything.

Happy 2010!

2009 United Countries of Football

The NFL 2009 regular season has come to an end. For the third year, I am playing around with the imaginary United Countries of Football.



What if the fans of each team formed their own country, and by the end of the season, Divisional Champions have "conquered" their foes? Why the cartogram? See the original post for more details.

The Heart of America

Public Option Please advocates for a publicly-funded health insurance program to come out of the current health care reform debate in the United States. The winner of their recent promotional art contest has been announced:



According to the Washington Post:

Amy Martin of Los Angeles, created her striking image of red and blue blood vessels coursing through a map of the United States when she was home sick with the flu, and a few weeks later, organizers said, lost her job and health insurance. “A healthy United States is dependent on healthy American citizens — which is why I presented America as a vulnerable living system.” She’ll spend her $1,000 winnings on insurance premiums, they said.

Via Kelso's Corner

It's Beginning to Look Like an Ebay Christmas

According to Ebay:

Every minute, every second, every nanosecond — someone's taking advantage of eBay to find that special item they love. Others use eBay to sell great stuff. It's a match made in shopping heaven.

The Ebay animated map shows sales throughout the day yesterday; the so-called "Black Friday" of Christmas shopping. It makes the United States look like it has been decorated with Christmas lights...

At least if you do you Black Friday shopping on Ebay (or Amazon), you don't have to worry about being trampled to death...

HT to Matt

What's Cooking on Thanksgiving?

The New York Times has a series of maps showing search terms being used Wednesday at Allrecipes.com, providing clues to what dishes are being served around the nation today:

AT&T Fights Back With Big Map

Unable to get any traction in the courts, AT&T has taken to the airwaves to fight Verizon Wireless: Map vs. Map.



Nice postcards, Luke. I thought I even saw a couple map postcards in the mix...



Via Mashable

New Map Tie and the Big Five Oh Oh!

This is Cartophilia
post #500!

(Queue the balloons
and music!)

That's post #

D
.5K
1111101002
1F416

I forgot to note my 2nd Anniversary back in September but, by golly, I'm not going to let this milestone go unnoticed!

Woot!

Ok, enough of that. Today I am going to highlight this nifty map tie.

Ms. Cartophiliac found it last week at a thrift store. Score!

I find the way the tie designer mashed together geographic features to be reminiscent of the Calendria map from earlier this month, as well as Island Girl and Coastal Merger

UPDATE 11/19: And of course, the Mapkini!

On to 1,000!

AT&T Sues Verizon Over Coverage Map

For several weeks, the Verizon Wireless commercial mocking AT&T for their coverage has caught my eye:



I thought at the time that there had to be something wrong with those maps. I could not believe that AT&T customers were that limited...



It turns out, AT&T agrees. They have filed a lawsuit, claiming that Verizon is misleading "consumers into believing that AT&T doesn't offer ANY wireless service in the vast majority of the country."

So, what the map really shows is 3G coverage, whatever that is. AT&T apparently offers less 3G coverage, but most of the country is covered for standard cell phone service.

Full disclosure: I am a Verizon Wireless customer, but sadly, I have not received any sort of considerations from them. Hey! I'm easy. For a significant discount on my cell phone service, I could become a shill for Verizon. Can you hear me now?

UPDATE 11/20: I see that AT&T has lost their battle...

Franken Adds Alaska and Hawaii

For those of you who were suitably impressed by Al Franken's Stupid Human Trick... Good news! It gets even better!

Begich begs, so Franken adds Alaska, Hawaii to his freehand map of the USA

McUSA

Stephen Von Worley, at Weather Sealed, asks the question, "Just how far away can you get from our world of generic convenience?" How far can you get from a McDonald's restaurant?

So, he created a map:



He created "a visualization of the contiguous United States, colored by distance to the nearest domestic McDonald’s!" Not too surprising, the Golden Arches® are never far from the horizon.

The answer to the question, by the way, is in South Dakota.

Don't get me wrong. I'm no McDonald's hater. Every few weeks, I treat myself to my favorite breakfast fast-food sandwich, the Sausage Egg & Cheese McGriddle®. MMMMmmmm sweet savory greasy goodness. However, when looking at the map at full resolution, it is hard to not think of the fat globules clogging my arteries:



Via The Map Room

Just Can't Stop Talkin' `Bout Secesh!

Unhappy people around the world and in the United States just can't stop talking about secession. As long as they keep providing interesting maps and illustrations, I'll keep covering them here.

Two from last month:

What would California look like broken in three? Or a Republic of New England? With the federal government reaching for ever more power, redrawing the map is enticing, says Paul Starobin.

"Divided We Stand", by Paul Starobin, Wall Street Journal.

In the American end times, our government will take one of two forms. One possibility is that federalism will give way to an all-powerful central government... The other option is decentralization—in the absence of a unifying national interest, the United States of America will fragment and be supplanted by regional governance.

"Who's most likely to secede?" by Josh Levin, Slate.

#470

The Scrambled States of America

What if all the states decided to try living in another part of the country?

In The Scrambled States of America, Uncle Sam narrates a story written and illustrated by Laurie Keller.



From Publishers Weekly:

"Keller endows each of the 50 states with a unique personality and, as all of them develop a case of wanderlust, she presents geography lessons as clever quips exchanged across state lines."

Not surprisingly, the states eventually decide they like it better in their "regular" spaces (Florida was too cold up north, and California found itself allergic to Wisconsin's cheese!)

This story is also available as a video and card game. Later, the states got back together to put on a talent show.

Children's books previously on Cartophilia:
The Little Man in the Map
Roxaboxen
Weslandia
There's a Map on my Lap!

O Shenandoah

The Library of Congress has an online exhibit of a very important map from the American Civil War. In O Shenandoah, I Long to Map You, Jennifer Gavin describes the cartographic efforts of Jedediah Hotchkiss. His hand drawn maps, many drawn from horseback, were "extraordinary for their accuracy." These maps were an essential tool used by Gen. Robert E. Lee in his many military successes.

On exhibit is Hotchkiss' Map of the Shenandoah Valley. The site allows you to zoom in to examine the detail:



I am reminded then, to share with you my two Civil War related map postcards. The first represents Lee and his generals examining a map (a Hotchkiss?)



Here is a map and panorama of people and events of the Civil War (click on image for a larger view).



This map is also available as a 1000-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle.

HT to Angela

Counties and Interstates

Last week, I posted the very popular Ohio is a Piano wherein Andy Woodruff at Cartogrammar mentioned his Counties Visited Map. Andy has noted every county in the United States that he has visited during his travels. I also know that Michael5000 has been recording his counties. Not to be outdone, I created my own:



Click on map for larger view.

I suppose each county recorder can use his or her own criteria, but I counted any county in which I have set foot, whether it was me driving, me as a passenger, or even got off a plane in an airport. Thus, any of the isolated green spots you see above were trips by air to places like Salt Lake City and Boston, with the exception of Niagara Falls, NY, by way of Ontario.

Unfortunately, I did mine the hard way... I took a blank county map and filled it in county by county with Windows Paint. It wasn't until I started preparing this post that I realized that Andy used a really cool tool at Counties.Visitedmap.com. The site creates your maps and keeps statistics for you. I may have to explore this further.

But wait! That's not all!

Last week, I also shared with you the Interstate Highway System as Transit Map and I wondered, how would my travels on the Interstate Highway System appear on that map. Here you go... another 40 minutes of my life I will never get back (but hey, you're reading this, so don't talk):



UPDATE: For those of you interested in collecting counties, Andy has provided some addional useful links:
The Extra Miler Club
Why do you think they call them counties?

UPDATE 8/14: I redid my counties visited map using the Counties.VisitedMap.com mentioned above. This is the one I'll keep up to date:

Its a Heat Wave! (Burning in my heart)

The U.S. is in the middle of a heat wave... we're feeling sort of grilled...

Just like a heatwave
Burning in my heart
Can't keep from cryin'
It's tearing me apart

HT to Matt

UPDATE 9/5: Food artist identity discovered!

The Little Man in the Map

The Little Man In the Map: With Clues To Remember All 50 States, by E. Andrew Martonyi, is an engagind little book with friendly illustrations that is designed to help school-age children learn the names and locations off all the states. Learning all 50 U.S. states is easy when you learn from The Little Man In the Map! Asked by their teacher to find clues for memorizing the states, students begin to see images: a hat, a shirt, a pair of boots formed by state boundaries. When they put some of them together, they're amazed to find the outline of a man standing in the middle of the map.

Excited by their discovery, they draw a face and arms on him and create The Little Man In the Map, whom they nickname MIM. Their imaginations bring MIM alive, and with his help they discover the surprising roles all the states can play. Soon they can spot the elf, the playful dog, the spooky head, and all the others.

Using rhyme and mnemonics, the narrator tells a story about states in each region and how they interact with each other. It has apparently been used in classrooms with great success.

Indiana is Michigan's sleeve... that's cute.

As a child, I was already in love with, and studying maps. I suspect I would have quickly become annoyed with this approach... but then I don't pretend I was a "normal" child when it comes to geography.

#445

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!

Al Franken's Stupid Human Trick

Two videos today! Sorry about that. But when a funny video includes a map, Cartophiliac is there.

Like him or not, Al Franken is the new Junior Senator from Minnesota. Like most politicians, he is also a comedian (the others just don't admit it...). Talking Points Memo has pulled together a collection of highlights from his career, including this 1987 appearance by Franken and Davis on the David Letterman show:



If you don't want to watch the full video, skip ahead to approximately 6:30 where you can view Franken perform his "Stupid Human Trick": Al Franken can draw a map of the contiguous United States in under two minutes!



What ever happened to Tom Davis?

#425

UPDATE 9/7: Here's a new version:

Your in a Good Pool with Allstate

In this same July/August 2009 issue of The Atlantic magazine I mentioned last week, I came across this advertisement from Allstate Insurance:



The text copy that ran with the ad basically says, "Hey, don't just regulate us. If your going to regulate us, regulate everyone."

Whatever. I just like the illustration.

The Ignorant View of the World

I saw this cartoonish map on BuzzFeed the other day, but had not intended to blog about it:



Since I could not determine the source of the map, I could not decide if the author was being ignorant or ironic.

But then today a friend sent this one to me, and decided I am now seeing a theme...



I think someone is trying to suggest that U.S. Americans are a bit ignorant of geography.



Tell that to Eric Yang!

3,033 States

Matt Maldre promises a new idea every weekday at spudart.org. Here's one of his ideas: What if we deleted all of the state boundaries and instead, let each county be a state?



Of course, that would mean 6,066 members of the Senate, and a minimum of 3,033 members of the House of Representatives... Where would they all meet? I suppose they could meet at the Nationals Park... in the off-season or when the baseball team is on the road...

Geography Place Mat

Teach your children geography while they eat their breakfast cereal with this map placemat:



From Crocodile Creek.

Via Wired's Geek Dad

General Failure

The Detroit News has created an interactive map that shows just how far reaching is the impact of the General Motors bankruptcy:



From factories and dealers to parts suppliers and retirees. Nearly every state will be effected. Additional maps show data on Canada, Mexico and other parts of the world.

Via The Electoral Map

Maps on Stamps

When I started this blog, nearly two years ago, my intention was to highlight my own scattered collections of map memorabilia. In fact, I have scanned many map postcards from my collection, as well as shirts, mugs, Christmas ornaments, advertising, etc. However, the one thing I haven't covered yet, in spite of being the first thing mentioned in my masthead, is stamps. I have a small collection (compared to serious stamp collectors) of stamps featuring maps. Unfortunately, I have not got around to scanning them.

However, this morning, while searching for something else (a simple way to compare the area of states and countries) I came across this image of a Mexican stamp, issued in 1977, to mark the resumption of diplomatic relations between Mexico and Spain:



On his website, Dan of Dan's Topical Stamps, points out that here is a difference in scale between Mexico and Spain. If Mexico were drawn to the same scale as Spain, it would be about four times larger. While it might have been a geographically correct stamp, it might not have been politically correct, nor as aesthetically pleasing.

While browsing through Dan's Topical Stamps, I found several other interesting map stamps.

Here is a drawing of Gandhi caricatured as India:



A Dutch stamp with a Frisian cow whose spots are maps of European countries, including the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland and Italy:



The first postal map stamp issued by the United States was issued in 1904 to commemorate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase:



Hopefully in the next few months I'll get around to sharing some of my own map stamps.

Geography of Despair

Does it suck to be in Kentucky?



U.S. Mood Map: Kentucky Saddest, Hawaii Gladdest? from National Geographic News:

A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), through telephone surveys, asked American adults about their mental health.

This county-by-county map shows the percentages of residents who reported "frequent mental distress" (FMD)—defined as 14 or more days of emotional discomfort, including "stress, depression and problems with emotion," during the previous month. Three days of mental distress is considered average, the researchers say.

The bad news is that Kentucky had the highest level of frequent mental distress. It doesn't look so good for West Virginia or Mississippi either, but they say life is good in Hawaii.

HT to Gwen

Map Bookshelf

Exhibition, just missed at Timothy Taylor Gallery in New York, work by Ron Arad:





I don't think I even have a single wall in my home long enough to accommodate this bookshelf. Maybe I could get a copy of the Midwest...

Red and Blue Stem Cell Divide

In Salon today: Stem cell division By Peter Dizikes. "The growing blue state-red state gap over this research shows that science has serious economic and political muscle in America today."

Illustration includes red and blue cells, divided, on a map of the United States.

Disunited States of America

We just can't stop talking about Texas Secession. [Secession, previously on Cartophilia.]

This got me thinking about all of the other Secessionist Movements currently going on in this country. During the 2008 Presidential Election, there was some hubub surrounding Todd Palin (husband of the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin) and whether or not he was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. Citizens of several other states still claim the right to revert to independent status. Vermont and California like to remind everyone that they were an independent republic before they became states, and Hawaii was an independent kingdom before annexation.

What if all these secessionist movements actually succeeded? What might a map of the United States look like?



I created this map based on the Wikipedia list of active autonomist and secessionist movements in the United States. (Click on map for larger view.)

• Southern Neo-Confederates dream that the South Shall Rise Again! But, the New Black Panther Party envisions a Republic of New Afrika in the southeastern "black belt".
• Marxist-Leninists in Minnesota have proposed a North Star Republic, made up of Minnnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Who gets the Mackinaw Bridge?
• Chicano Nationalists have proposed the creation of Aztlán as a homeland for Aztecan people, perhaps in combination with states of northern Mexico.
• A movement within the Lakota Sioux tribe is calling for a reassertion of sovereignty over thousands of square miles in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. The Republic of Lakotah would be completely surrounded by the remaining United States.
• The Republic of Cascadia is the dream of a group of environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest. This new nation would include Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern California, British Columbia and the Alaskan panhandle. Proponents of this movement hope to counter what they see as "improper stewardship" of the land. Would this lead to an underground Lumberjack Liberation Front?
• The narrow strip of what will be left of the "United States" would run from New Jersey to San Francisco.
  

All of these secessionist appear undeterred by the bloodshed and heartache the last time states tried go it alone.

If these secessionist dreams come true, perhaps no one will be more pleased than Professor Igor Panarin, who has made a career in Russia predicting the disunion of the United States.

Also, previously in Cartophilia:

• The Dominion of West Florida
• Lost States

After the Fall

Just came across this article illustration from the New York Times of April 18: Obamanomics: Redefining Capitalism After the Fall by Richard W. Stevenson.



It took only moment to recognize that the dripping paint is roughly in the shape of a map of the United States.

NPR on the Power Grid

A couple weeks ago, we explored maps about the U.S. power grid, and related energy topics. This week, National Public Radio is running a series of stories on our aging power distribution system. Their website includes an interactive map:

The nation’s electricity grid is facing a crisis -- it’s outdated and unprepared for increasing demand and a future that includes more renewable sources of energy. A new digital smart grid is part of the picture envisioned by advocates, as is building new electricity infrastructure.

The maps and articles include data on sources of power, location of power plants, and the potential for solar and wind power generation.

Thanks to Katie for the heads up!

Name Mapping

The Name Mapper at the Baby Name Wizard tracks names of babies born in the United States, as reported by the Social Security Administration (SSA), then places them on a map or a timeline indicating its popularity by state from 1960 through 2007:



For some reason, Cartophiliac was not listed, so I went with the next nearest name: Carter (from the surname that originated in the Middle Ages as an occupational name for someone who used a cart to transport goods).

Texas Secession?

Last week, during all the hoopla surrounding Tax Day and Tea Parties, Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, suggested that Texas just might have to secede if they are not happy about taxes.

Picking up on that note, FiveThirtyEight.com has created a little map to illustrate this possibility, and suggest that only Republicans would be sorry to see them go...



In fact, it would seem that Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has already jumped the gun on that notion. The Huffington Post noticed that the State Department had listed Texas as a foreign country. After it came to their attention, the error was corrected, but not before HP got a screen capture of the list.

This is of course not the first time that an independent Texas has been mentioned here at Cartophilia. (See Roswell, Texas.)

On a related note, the bloboganda blog, tries to explain the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, by describing a scenario wherein a portion of Mexico declares independence and calls itself "The Republic of Texas". Would Americans stand for that?



Of course the solution to that scenario could simply be resolved. The United States could sell the State of Texas to the Republic of Texas, and pay off some of the National Debt...

UPDATE 4/21: Black Maps: For the love of God, let Texas have her way!

UPDATE 4/23: The Electoral Map on Texas Secession: would scenarios be like North Korea or Slovakia?

Peoples Republic of America

This is from an April 1 post on the Very Small Array blog:



This simple picture (in less than 1000 words) suggests an alternate history for the United States where in the aftermath of a communist revolution/civil war, the nation is divided between the "Peoples Republic of America" and the "Republic of America" on a little island off the coast (see China).

In this alternate history, is there some other anti-communist world power patrolling the Long Island Sound with their Seventh Fleet? What is to stop the PRA hordes from filing across the Brooklyn Bridge? Shouldn't "America" be spelled "Amerika"?

#370

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.

Tracey Ullman's Putting on America

Advertisement on the back cover of this week's Entertainment Weekly:



Comedienne Tracey Ullman returns to Showtime with another season of her sketch comedy program, State of the Union. I've always thought she was funny. Too bad I don't get Showtime. I do, however, like her outfit.

Aaron Burr for President Leads to a Balanced Italy

Oh, the fun we have finding things while looking for something else...

Recently, Mrs. Cartophiliac returned from a trip to Phoenix to visit an old friend. She posted several photos from her trip on Flickr, including several from this art installation, "Monument to the Unelected".



But wait! says the history geek cartophile, shouldn't this sign...

look like this?

I decided to assume the artist was being ironic or something like that...

So, who is this artist? I wondered. A bit of Googling revealed Nina Katchadourian as the culprit. Wait, I know that name... Of course! Last year I highlighted her piece of map art, Coastal Merger

A visit to her website reveals many other examples of her carto-art, including this piece from a series entitled, Geographic Pathologies

But this reminds me of yet another map...

Chromatic Diplomacy, a variant of the classic boardgame, Diplomacy. Chromatic is five-player variant but on a symmetrical map in an attempt to make it geographically balanced.



Serendipity.

2008: The Year in Political Geography

Patrick Ottenhoff's political geography blog, The Electoral Map, was my favorite site this past year for electoral maps, county voting projections, and interesting commentary.

Here, he has pulled together a mappish Year in Review for 2008:

2008: The Year in Political Geography

View more presentations from PatrickOttenhoff.

Napkin Airline Route Map

The Back of the Napkin Blog points out that Southwest Airlines is the only airline to publish their route map on a cocktail napkin:



I can only presume that is true. Any frequent fliers out there with other napkin maps?

On their site, Southwest Airlines offers a flash-based Interactive Route Map. Click on a city, and the map draws lines to the other cities...



HT to Pascal

NCAA College Basketball Tourney Map

Today, U.S. college basketball is in the middle of the "Sweet Sixteen" round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. I'm not really much of a BBall fan, but I'll usually watch a little bit of the tourney.

Want to see the geographic distribution of teams in the tournament? Here is a closeup of a portion of the full 64 team map published on billsportsmaps.com:



Bill (I presume that is his name) has produced multiple maps showing the shrinking field on contestants as the tournament progresses.

It's not exactly a United Countries of Basketball (see United Countries of Football), but it's good fun.

billsportsmaps.com has many other sports related maps, showing the locations of American baseball and football teams as well as European and South American football (soccer) teams.

#360

Sitcom Maps

What was the fictional locale of your favorite TV sitcom? New York City? Milwaukee? Reno? Cocoa Beach?

Dan Meth, as a part of his series of Popular Culture Charts will help you find them on his U.S.A. Sitcom Map:



There are, of course, a disproportionate number of sitcoms that take place in New York City (although they were probably filmed in Hollywood, California):



I'm guessing that perhaps chart #5 will be a map of Southern California?

UPDATE 4/7: UK TV Series Map at meish.org

Flounder Lee: US 1783 to 1894 720p

Big Car at the Murphy Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana.

March 6: A Music and Video Experiment, featuring video art and experimental music

Big Car's First Friday show for March will feature a bevy of local, regional, national and international video and sound artists... including local artist Flounder Lee (featured previously on Cartophilia). Lee will be featuring a map related video:



So, I asked him, "Am I reading it correctly that the red bits represent Native American reservations? or is that the yellow? and if so what are the red?"

His reply:

The red parts are where there was either multiple tribes that turned over land to the US at different times, or where the US claimed land but then tribes signed a treaty later finally actually releasing it. The yellow is just land that has not been turned over to the US yet or has been turned over and then back as in reservations. The blue is the US. For some reason I can't get it to upload in HD, it looks really nice when it does because the pieces move a lot. They are cowboys and Indians. Not sure if that is clear from the smaller youtube video. I pulled all the data from these out of the library of congress report in the year 1897. There is a lot of detail that is missed due to the resolution of plastic toys :) They represent a lot of area each.

United States Pie

I can always count on Salon.com to provide illustrations making clever use of maps.

This is not George Bush's budget by Mike Madden discusses how "President Obama's first budget marks a sea change from the past eight years."

If you have comments about the content of the article, or your opinions about the President's budget or the stimulus package... take them to Salon. I just want to talk about the great map illustration...

Have some pie?

Steelers Nation

Thanks to the Steelers for winning the Super Bowl. I get to use my Pennsylvania/USA graphic afterall:

Anthropomorphizing America

Serendipitous map fun today.

On Twitter this morning, @pascal_venier knew I would be amused by this pic posted by @ggatin "Assuming the brain is under the hat?"



This image is on a T-shirt available from BustedTees... which led me to its corollary:



Lest Canadians and Mexicans be offended... the search for these images also led to this YouTube video, "This Country's Getting Dumber":

Mapping the 111th Congress

FiveThirtyEight.com offers a nice cartogram of the new congress:



Not suprisingly, most states have some red and some blue. There are nine "all blue" states, and five "all red" states. However, while Oklahoma did allow one congressional district to go blue, the Oklahoma Republican Party was proud to point out, in their e-Christmas card last month, that they were the only state where every county went red for McCain:




HT to Patrick at The Electoral Map

2008 UCF Conference Championships

I have to confess that I am disappointed with this particular match-up the the Super Bowl:



My disappointment has nothing to do with the Steelers or Cardinals. I was just hoping for an All-Pennsylvania Super Bowl. I even made this cool map to commemorate it. If not that, then perhaps a Mason-Dixon Super Bowl between the Baltimore Ravens and one of the Pensylvania teams... Or I would have been happy with a Ravens vs. Cardinals or Eagles... for the first ever All-Bird Super Bowl. But no... we've got the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. the Arizona Cardinals. Where's the hook? Where's the gimmick?

Oh well, congratulations to both teams. Here's to great Super Bowl game in two weeks!

George W. Bush's America

The January February Issue of The Atlantic Magazine uses a map of the United States to provide quantifiable changes between 2000 and 2008.

Then and Now: the Bush Years. Click on map for larger image:



Via The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

2008 UCF Divisional Weekend

Down to four NFL teams left.



Once again, my Super Bowl predictions are in the crapper... So, now I'll predict a Pittsburgh v. Philadelphia (All Pennsylvania) Super Bowl.

With my track record that is, of course, the kiss of death.

Emily Wicks: The Fifty United States and their Mottos

Emily Wick has posted her linocuts and paintings on her "Two Eyeballs Galleries", including the beautifully cartographic The Fifty States and Their Mottos,a composite of 50 individual linocuts:



From the artist's statement:

I began making linoleum prints in 2003 and began studying classical realism under master painter David Hardy in 2006. I like to carve lino blocks while I am relaxing. I enjoy painting so I can slow down and learn this ancient magical trade of optical illusions. Seeing Things Differently to see a new world is my purpose: both imagination AND reality are important ingredients.

In addition, Emily Wick is a filmmaker and blogs about food!

Posters, original linocuts, and T-Shirts are also available.

HT to Orange!

2008 UCF Wildcard Weekend

Last week I introduced the end-of-2008 NFL season United Countries of Football map:



I am Indianapolis Colts fan, and was disappointed that they lost on Saturday and will not go forward. I found I had an unusual basis for the teams I rooted for on Sunday. As you can see on the map above, I made some poor choices of colors. I gave the Minnesota Vikings and the Baltimore Ravens the same shade of purple, and I gave the San Diego Chargers and the Miami Dolphins similar shades of orange! What if the wrong teams win and their colors mix, or I have to change colors? Thanks to the Eagles and the Ravens, that is no longer a problem...



Now I have each team with a unique color. I am predicting a blue and blue Super Bowl this year, Tennessee Titans v. New York Giants... we'll see... I'm usually very wrong.

I should have taken map color advice from John Krygier's book, Making Maps.

#320

Russian Academic Predicts US Disunion

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about a Russian professor that is getting a lot of attention because of his prediction that the current economic crisis will lead to a break-up of the United States in the year 2010.

He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

Goodness! That is quite a prediction. I suppose I should mock this, but then they laughed when the collapse of the Soviet Union was predicted...

I guess it could be worse. Here in Ohio I'll take being subsumed by those evil Canadians over some of the other options...

HT to Pascal

2008 United Countries of Football

The NFL 2008 regular season has come to an end. Just as I did last season, I am playing around with the imaginary United Countries of Football.



What if the fans of each team formed their own country, and by the end of the season, Divisional Champions have "conquered" their foes? See the original post for more details.

America Deflated

Often I have highlighted a map that provides an "inflated view" of its subject. In other words, making it appear larger (and by inference, more important).

Artist Nina Katchadourian has taken an opposite approach. She has taken a standard AAA road map of the United States and "deflated" it, to only include the portions that are relevant to her life:

Coastal Merger:

I was born in California, moved to the east coast for college, went back to the west coast for graduate school, and now live on the east coast again. This map reflects my bicoastal experience of this country.

From a purely technical point of view, I am impressed with the way she carefully matched up coastlines and highways to create a seamless merger. I wish I could get a closer look.

Katchadourian's work can also be seen in this collection, Opener 11: Nina Katchadourian: All Forms of Attraction and in my favorite "maps as art" book, You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination by Katharine Harmon.

Via Creative Mapping: "A blog dedicated to the creative use of maps in art or how to map information creatively. All in all we are dedicated to showing map art."

Here's Mud In Your Eye

For the last week or so, the blogosphere has been abuzz over the unveiling of the LIFE photo archive hosted by Google. You can now search Google Images to retrieve photos and other images from 1750 to the present. Many of the classic LIFE photos are now searcheable by keyword.

I finally got around to browsing the collection and naturally, I typed in the keyword "map". One of the many results was this less than appetizing array of martinis:

Map of the US w.Martini glasses either empty or filled w. varied portions of black liquid representing the amount of air particulates in the state on which they rest As a result of the US Dept. of Health's "Air Pollution Measurements fr. 1957-1961.
Location: US
Date taken: November 1963

I guess if you were going to drink the polluted air, the best place to be was in the Rocky Mountains, and stay away from Chicago Gary.

Where I've Been

Paticipants of the Facebook and MySpace social networking sites may already be familiar with this type of interactive "Where I've Been" map. Douwe Osinga offers this Create your own visited map of The United States that you can plug into your own blog or website:


visited 33 states (66%)

In most of these states, I have spent some time, or at least driven through. Washington and Alaska only appear here because I had a brief layover in the Seattle and Anchorage airports.

I have far less red on my Create your own visited map of The World:


visited 6 states (2.66%)

Of course I have visited Canada and Mexico and I spent four months in Taiwan during college pretending to learn Chinese. Japan and South Korea were, once again, layovers.

I have never been to India, but those of you that have can also Create your own visited map of India.

Map Shoes Go Swoosh!... and Splash!

Rex Parker, crossword puzzle solver and vintage paperback book collector, sent to me this photo of a map on a Nike shoe:


That prompted me to seek out more info... instead, what I found were additional examples of maps on Nike shoes.


From MyFirstAirShoes.com:




From SlamJump.com.



See previous examples of map shoes:

The Tennessee Representa and Jennifer Collier's map shoe sculpture.

Also, while searching for map shoe information, I was reminded of this amusing, yet environmentally tragic story the cargo ship full of Nike products that accidentally dumped in the North Pacific back in 1999. Shoes and other flotsam were washing up on British Columbian beaches for years.

More recently, there have been grisly stories of Nike (and other) shoes, with feet still in them, washing up in BC.

Last Word on 2008 Electoral Maps

The presidential electoral season brought so many interesting variations of the electoral map, I have resisted the urge to post them all here. So, as a goodbye to the 2008 election, I'll just post these two.

The Economist polled their world-wide readers: What if the whole world could vote in the U.S. election:


I suspect these results confirm the suspicions of both Democrats and Republicans. Democrats are pleased that we will have a president that most of the rest of the world likes, and Republicans see Obama as the favorite of terrorists and socialists... (Although, I'm not sure how that explains Cuba going for McCain...)

Leave it to The Onion to carefully explain the electoral results:

Lost States

Last week I wrote about How the States Got Their Shapes. It turns out that the fifty states we know and love were not the only states that we might have seen... Over the course of our history, many other states have been proposed, only to be shot down or ignored.

Michael Trinklein has written a book about these failed attempts: Lost States: Real Quests for American Statehood. Heavily illustrated, this book tells the tale of would be state-builders and forgotten corners of geography, with wit and humor. Some of these attempts were very serious, some no more than pranks. Here are two examples:

The colonists who followed Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap in the 1770s called their coloney "Transylvania" (wich means "through the woods" and has nothing to do with vampires). After the start of the Revolutionary War, representatives went to the Continental Congress seeking recognition, but Virginia, who claimed most of that land, would hear nothing of it. Later, the area was rearranged into Kentucky and Tennessee.



Many new states have been proposed by carving up or rearranging already existing states. Often because residents of a region feel neglected by the rest of the state government. Folks in norther California often feel ignored and underappreciated by the rest of the state. The same goes for southern Oregon. In 1941 a new state, Jefferson (to keep Washington company?), was proposed. A cabal attempted to declare independence on December 4... but were overshadowed by the events of December 7.



For more samples, visit the author's website.

Purple States of America 2008

Mark Newman has already come out with his 2008 Election Cartograms. (Last year I highlighted his 2004 Election Cartograms.)

Take the standard electoral vote maps we have been seeing since election night, and adjust the shape and size of each state for population and you get this:



It gives some real perspective on the size of Barack Obama's electoral vote landslide. However, as we know, in many of these states, the popular vote was very close. Re-color the map to show how the counties voted; strongly for Obama is dark blue, strongly for McCain is bright red, and shades of purple for everything in between...



Once again, the nation is bruised, but carries on...

UPDATE

Declan Butler has his own calculations for a population cartogram. He also includes Hawaii and Alaska (that sort of looks like a squashed bug...)

Ice Electoral Map

Just as they did in 2004, NBC News turned the ice rink at Rockefeller Center into an electoral map:



A video can be seen here on Gawker.com

What Time Do the Polls Close?

I just love how elections produce all kinds of colorful maps!

Via The Daily Dish

Constitution-Free Zone

According the the American Civil Liberties Union, nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within a "Constitution-Free Zone". The United States government has extended the "the border" to a 100-mile wide strip that wraps around the "external boundary" of the United States. "As a result of this claimed authority, individuals who are far away from the border, American citizens traveling from one place in America to another, are being stopped and harassed in ways that our Constitution does not permit."

Are you living within a constitution-free zone?



Via The Earth is Square and Jay

How the States Got Their Shapes

How the States Got Their Shapes by Mark Stein. I read this book several months ago, and have been meaning to mention it here....

Each of the 51 chapters (it also includes the District of Columbia) discusses some history of each state, focusing primarily on the decisions that were made by kings, settlers and Congress when drawing borders around states.

This book answers some burning questions:

• Why West Virginia has a finger creeping up the side of Pennsylvania


• Why Michigan has an upper peninsula that isn't attached to Michigan


• Why some Hawaiian islands are not Hawaii


• Why Texas and California are so out sized, especially when so many Midwestern states are nearly identical in size


• Was Delaware really necessary?

Stein tells the stories of these states with humor. My favorite is the sad story of Maryland, and how they LOST every single border dispute over history (just look at it... a very unnaturally shaped state.):



As a resident of Ohio, I was particularly interested in the story of Connecticut and their claim to lands in the West. Like many of the original thirteen colonies, they claimed land stretching all the way to the Pacific. In most cases, it wasn't that they truly expected to govern that land, but they wanted the right to sell the acreage to settlers. Eventually they were obliged to relinquish they claim to half of Pennsylvania, and much of the territory in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois as Congress organized that area as part of the Northwest Ordinance:



However, Connecticut reserved the right to sell the land in what is now northeast Ohio. It was their "Western Reserve." I had often wondered where the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland got their name.



My only criticism is the author's arrangement of the chapters. He chose to put the states in alphabetical order, which is fine if you are not reading the whole thing straight through, but want to find and refer to specific states. I would have preferred that he arranged them by regions. So many of the states have common histories of their borders (such as the 49th parallel and the Mason-Dixon Line). If arranged thematically, many of the chapters would not have needed to be so repetitive. Still, this book is a must for map and geography buffs.

#280

Paint the States Red or Blue

With less than two weeks until the United States general election, cartophiles cannot help but be interested in electoral maps. Everywhere you turn every news source and blog is speculating on which way each state will go... red or blue. My favorite articles also use clever map graphics to illustrate their point.

Salon.com had two recent articles by Walter Shapiro, with "red or blue" paint illustrations.

Why is Barack Obama now electable? "From the youth vote to Sarah Palin's outdated embrace of the rural mystique, Salon's panel of demographers and consumer trend experts talks about how America is changing."

Turning Indiana blue "Put off by the McCain-Palin ticket, suburban Republicans are backing Barack Obama -- who might score a rare Democratic win in the Hoosier State."

It is also fun to speculate on different electoral outcome scenarios, including possible ties! CNN.com offers this interactive electoral map:



Other sites that let you calculate alternate electoral vote results:

270towin, Washington Post, Real Clear Politics

Campaign Ad Spending

Where are the candidates spending their money on advertising?

The New York Times has an interactive map that allows you to see just how much the Obama and McCain campaigns are spending in each market.



Obama appears to have given up on Utah and Idaho... and why is McCain spending any money in markets he has locked, or cannot be expected to win?

Via The Electoral Map, one of my favorite sources for electoral mapping and analysis.

Magazine Roundup

Time for another sampling of maps on magazine covers:

	The Week September 19, 2008 Sarah Palin is having an impact on the election and nation... or is she tearing it apart?
New Scientist September 6, 2008 Talk about your global warming...
	Tikkun July August 2008 What? Do you think new worlds grow on trees?
New Yorker October 6, 2008 Revisiting the classic "View of the World from Ninth Avenue" cover, a "View of Russia from Gov. Palin's Office." For a larger version of this map, see: Strange Maps.

Buckeye Firsts

Just as Ohio likes to style itself the "Mother of Presidents" (because, like Virginia, they lay claim to eight presidents that called Ohio home), Ohio historians also like to highlight the number of famous inventors from Ohio. The list of famous inventors from Ohio includes Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers, and Charles Kettering.

I only mention this as an excuse to highlight this poster on display in my library:



The photo does not effectively show the 3-D effect of the state of Ohio thrusting out of the heart of America, but it creates an attractive display.

Sporcle: Can you name the most populous US cities?

Can you name the 25 most populous US cities?



Sporcle.com posts new trivia quizzes every day. Many of them are geography related. Today they posted a quiz on the 25 most populous cities in the United States. I am embarrased to say that I only scored 21 out of 25. Can you do better? No cheating by looking at the U.S. Census figures first...

Other map related Sporcle quizzes:

Countries of Europe
Countries of Asia
Most populous cities of the world
etc.

Plus, these were tougher than I thought they'd be:

U.S. State Flags
Flags of Europe

#260

Updated Singles Map

Back in April I posted about The Singles Map of the United States. The map looked at gender population demographics to determine which parts of the country contain more eligible bachelors or more single women.

Jonathan Soma dropped me a line to let you know that he took the idea and ran much much further with it. On this new website you can now control for age as well as population:





Guys and gals, if you're still looking for that special someone, you may need to adjust for your age, and then get thee to the region with better odds! But don't forget the Half-Your-Age-Plus-Seven Rule.

Harry-est Town in America

This news is a bit "last year"... but it is the first time I heard of it, and I like the graphic... From Amazon.com:


The Harry-est Town in America

After months of tracking pre-orders of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Amazon.com can now reveal the Harry-est town in the country: Falls Church, VA! Residents of Falls Church ordered more copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon.com per capita than any other town in America. As a result of Falls Church's "Harry-ness," Amazon.com is donating a $5,000 Amazon.com gift certificate to The Mary Riley Styles Public Library Foundation Trust of Falls Church.

Falls Church beat out Gig Harbor, WA, and two other Virginia towns--including Fairfax and Vienna--with Katy, TX, rounding out the top five. Media, PA, Issaquah, WA, Snohomish, WA, Doylestown, PA, and Fairport, NY, completed the top ten Harry-est Towns.

Amazon.com used the most recent U.S. Census data and included all U.S. towns and cities with a population of more than 5,000 people.

Football TV Coverage Maps

College football has been under way for a week, and NFL football started on Thursday night. All is as it should be in the universe... except that sometimes, you cannot watch your game of choice... Which college or NFL game is going to be shown in your market?

ESPN offers coverage maps of the games their channels and partner network ABC offer:



The Map Room has alerted me to the excellent NFL TV coverage maps on the506.com that now make use of Google Maps technology:



I am often frustrated by the choices that the networks make, to decide which games I get to see in my town. Naturally, being very close to Cincinnati, we always get the Bengals games, however, there are a great many Cleveland Browns fans in this area. Their families have been Browns fans since long before the Bengals were in Ohio. So, not too surprisingly, we will get Browns games, when they don't conflict with a Bengals game. The next nearest football markets are Indianapolis, Detroit and Pittsburgh. So why do they keep showing us Dallas Cowboys games? I hate the Cowboys. They call themselves "America's Team" but they have never been my team. The networks like to assume everyone in Ohio gives a flying frak. In my opinion, Dallas Cowboys fans that don't live, or have some connection to the Southwest, are all just a bunch of bandwagoners. Even Adolph Hitler was a Cowboys fan!

End of football rant.

This division of the United States by perceived interest in a specific football team only reminds me of my own United Countries of Football map (shameless plug):

Seattle Space Needle in Jeopardy?

Ken Jennings (yes, that Ken Jennings, the guy that holds the record for the longest winning streak on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy!) has a website and blog where he talks a bit about his life and his family, and a lot about games and puzzles and other things that he finds interesting.

Yesterday, he posted about finding a sticker album for his son. "He’s a bit of a nerd, and likes maps and stuff."

I beg your pardon! There is nothing nerdy about liking maps and stuff!

Geeky, maybe...

Anyway, Ken was offended by the lackluster and inaccurate depiction of Seattle's most famous landmark, the Space Needle: "I feel I know the Space Needle. And you, odd gray Cylon-looking phallus, are no Space Needle. You’re not even close."

Check out his post to see the even more egregious offense, the image they chose to represent Notre Dame University, in South Bend, Indiana...

The Measure of America

The American Human Development Project offers interactive maps for over 60 human development indicators including health, education, income, environment, housing and security. Data can be presented by state or congressional district, and can be exported as a printable PDF file. Below is an example of the education statistics; a map of congressional districts by the percentage of the population with less than a high school education:



Maps can also be created for individual states (although they might not be quite so useful for the western states with only one or two congressional districts...)

Via The Electoral Map

The Walmart Epidemic

The Flowing Data blog created an animation showing the growth of Walmart. It starts slow and then spreads like wildfire...



Via Boing Boing

Free Gas? Your Choice

During a recent stay at a hotel, I noticed a poster for their summer promotion. Make three hotel stays at their hotels and get a $50 gas card. The advertising material is designed to look like some sort United States board game:



While I'm not endorsing Choice Hotels (although I did have a pleasant stay), I do like hotels that use maps in their advertising.

The game looks about as interesting as Candyland, but perhaps with that $50 gas card, I could afford one of those "Land o' the Free" road trips...


#233

Power Grid

My latest boardgame aquisition is Power Grid. As eurogames go, this one is middle-range in complexity. Success requires analysis and planning. I have played this game for several years, and a few weeks ago, I actually won for the first time! So I decided it was time I owned a copy.

The object of this game is to supply the most cities with power. To accomplish this goal players purchase power plants and the raw materials needed to run the plants. These materials include coal, oil, garbage, and uranium, but also includes wind and solar-powered plants. The winner of the game will create the most efficient network of plants powering the most cities. The base game comes with a map of the United States on one side:



and a map of Germany on the other:



Official game expansions include Italy, France and the Benelux countries:



However, many enterprising Power Grid fans have created their own maps, allowing them to play in Scandinavia:








...and Connecticut



As it often happens, I found something cool while looking for something else. GameInk.net is offering Power Grid (and other boardgame) themed T-shirts:



Power plant #44 in the game deck is one of the most desirable in the set, as it powers up to five cities, but because it uses solar and wind power, you do not need to purchase resources to burn.

"Money isn't everything, but it is a tie-breaker in Power Grid"

Game board images from BoardGameGeek.com

#227

Let's Clean House With Ike And Dick

The collection of Steve Davis, political memorabilia collector and County Court Baliff, is currently being exhibited at the Dayton Metro Library. “Politics on Display”, An exhibit of Ohio and Presidential campaign posters and more, June 16 – August 16, 2008.

Davis has loaned the library over 50 political posters, as well as, assorted buttons and memorabilia of gubernatorial, presidential and senate races from as far back as the 1920’s to present day. This non-partisan display features both Republican and Democratic candidates including Richard Nixon, James Rhodes, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, Robert Kennedy, Walter Mondale and his running-mate Geraldine Ferraro.

Two items from the 1964 election have, of course, caught my eye: Both a Goldwater/Miller button, and a Johnson/Humphrey poster prove the patriotism of their candidates by using an image of the map of the United States (minus new states Alaska and Hawaii).




#222

Competitive Counties

Robert David Sullivan, from Beyond Red & Blue wrote an op-ed piece last week for the Boston Globe.

In "Changing the polarized electoral landscape" Sullivan discusses the shrinking number of counties that are truly competitive in presidential races.



The gray areas on the maps are counties with a margin of victory less than 10 points. The other counties went strongly one way or the other... I am skeptical about Barack Obama's campaign plans to redraw the political map with a "Fifty State Strategy". If he can do it, then perhaps we will see more gray on the 2008 Competitive Counties map.

What does that map say about who we are and where we live? does it mean that most of us vote the way we do because of where we live, or do we choose to live where we are surrounded by people that have similar political views?


#212

Fireworks

Where can you buy fireworks for the 4th of July? It is illegal in many states.

From the National Council on Fireworks Safety:



#210

Evan Crossing the US

In March of this year, Evan, twenty-three years old, left his home in Northern California and began his walk across the United States. Monday this week we had the pleasure of hosting him for a night here in Dayton, Ohio.

He had many interesting stories to share, and good conversation. We could have gone late into the night, if most of us didn't have to go to work the next day... Some of his adventures are chronicled in his blog: Evans crazy ass adventures crossing the US ect. Unfortunately, his Flagr map stopped working about halfway through Missouri:



From Dayton, he will continue across Ohio to Pennsylvania. His goal is to make it to Massachusetts by the end of the summer.

Ms. Cartophiliac connected with Evan via the Couch Surfing Project, a "worldwide network for making connections between travelers and the local communities they visit." These connections provide opportunities for individuals to find a free "couch" to stay the night while traveling, and maybe make a few new friends along the way.

Each dot on this map shows locations where couch surfers might be able to find a friendly sofa:



Evan has used this network to connect with Couch-Hosts from Europe to China. After he is done with this trip, he says he's off to Japan. Good luck on your trek, Evan. May your feet find soft highways...


#208

Maps On The Brain

A selection of recent publications with maps on the cover:

A book:

The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain by George Lakoff

The author attempts to explain why a great number of Americans actually vote against their own interests.



Some magazines:





The cover of this issue of The New Yorker (June 23, 2008) features cover art, “Summer Job”, by Bruce McCall.

If you cannot make out the detail, it fancifully depicts bears checking in and out of the "Employees Entrance" at a National Park, while the tourist are reminded, "No picnicing in Buffalo Wallows."

If you look very closely, you can see that, yes indeed, there is a map! A "You Are Here" map of the park for the tourists.

This cover reminds me of the old Warner Brothers Cartoon where Ralph the wolf and Sam the sheepdog clock in, as buddies, before battling over the sheep.



“Subway Man”, by Roz Chast, graces the June 30 issue of The New Yorker. A stressed out commuter IS the transit map of Manhattan.

Finally, the June 21, 2008, issue of the New Scientist magazine features a very hot looking planet Earth, for a cover story on global warming.


#207

Cicadanator

In 2004, my part of the country, and much of the east coast (New York to North Carolina and inland to Illinois and Michigan) was inundated by the Brood X of cicadas. These harmless insects spend most of their 17-year life cycle under ground, then emerge together to create a ruckus with their mating calls. They are loud. Some cicadas produce sounds up to 120 dB "at close range", among the loudest of all insect-produced sounds. Imagine millions of them in your trees for several weeks during the summer. It can be deafening.

Fortunately, we only have to put up with Brood X here every 17 years. Folks in Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Massachusets are currently experiencing Brook XIV:



Get up to date cicada news at Cicada Mania.

These bugs don't bite. They don't spread disease. They just make a lot of noise, make some babies, then die. Low in fat and high in protein cicadas could actually make a healthy snack! However, during their swarm they can be annoying as they fly about, then leave their carcasses to crunch underfoot. An enterprising entrepreneur in 2004 attempted to cash in on the cicada craze by "inventing" the Cicadanator:





I don't know how well he cashed in on the fad, but the website is no longer functioning.

Thanks to Hunter for the Cicadanator images!


#205

Map Catalog of the Week

Who doesn't love maps? I recently discovered two more blogs focusing on interesting maps:

Map of the Week has been highlighting a new map every week since 2005! The author, "Dug", calls himself a "Cartographer/GIS/map nut by trade originally from Philadelphia now living in exile outside of Boston, Mass." This week's map takes a look at the Map of Web Trends from Information Architects:



Mary Ann Vance started a new blog last month, that she calls "Map Catalog". I presume that Mary Ann is also a cartographic professional of one sort or another (educator?). Her blog posts highlight different types and styles of maps. Her choice of an example of a planimetric map was a stroke of genius!

In a recent post, she offers a population density dot distribution map from the U.S. Census Bureau. The brighter the dot, the higher the population density:




#204

You Say Soda, I Say Pop

While I was growing up in Michigan, the only word we used to describe a carbonated soft drink was "pop". When my older brother married a girl from the St. Louis area, I heard her refer to it as "soda", engendering funny looks. Both of these terms come from the older word, "soda pop". Later, as an adult, I briefly lived in the portion of Wisconsin where nearly everyone said "soda" (but then, they don't drink from a "water fountain"... they drink from a "bubbler"... go figure). Here in Ohio, it is mostly, "pop". Strangely enough, many folks in the South just say "coke"... even if they mean orange soda pop, or 7-Up... it doesn't matter. It's all "coke" or "co-cola" to them.

The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy website is an attempt to map the geography of the generic word for carbonated soft drinks:



Based on an unscientific survey, the blueish areas say "pop", the yellow-greenish areas say "soda" and the redish areas say "coke". The data is gathered from participants who stop by the website and indicate their term of preference, and their "hometown".

This is similar to the method used by Common Census Map Project to map the location of fans of professional sports teams.

See United Countries of Football.

Nowadays, I find I use the term "soda" more often then "pop". I'm not sure why. Perhaps it just sounds a bit more dignified.


#196

Railroad Tycoon

I have often written about my boardgaming hobby and games with maps. Many of my favorite games have a railroad theme. Currently, my most favorite game is Railroad Tycoon, and its sequel, Rails of Europe. In this game players compete to build the best routes linking cities throughout the eastern United States. Points are earned by delivering goods. But invest wisely, or you could find yourself so heavily in debt, your liabilities outweigh your assets, and you'll end up losing victory points. The game mechanic for Railroad Tycoon: The Boardgame, is based on an earlier railroad boardgame, Age of Steam, and the game name and theme was licensed from Sid Meier's classic railroad computer game.

The game board for Railroad Tycoon is huge, and can accomodate up to six players. Be ready to use the dining room table, as this will not fit on a standard card table:



The quality of the components is exceptional. City rail links are created by purchasing track hexes. Once connected, certain cities will demand specific goods. Use your rail links to deliver the goods.



Rails of Europe is an expansion that requires the original game (for most of the components), but provides a new map, and can take up to five players. The cities are less congested, but building through the Alps and the Pyrenees offer new sets of problems to overcome.



#193

Plates and Babies

Two more examples of maps and globes in magazine cover design.

This issue of American Heritage is from last year. It makes clever use of old automobile license plates to create a map of the United States.

The current issue of Reason Magazine uses a globe.

Anytime a magazine talks about a "global" issue, they like to put a globe on the cover... but I like the combination of the baby and the globe. The article highlights the problem that many developed nations perceive, declining birth-rates. Yet in other parts of the world (China, India) there remain attempts to control population growth?

Didn't Paul Ehrlich predict a huge world-wide crash in the 1980s because of the population explosion?


#192

Memorial Day

Monday, May 6, is Memorial Day in the United States. While many see it only as a three-day weekend that marks the beginning of summertime fun, it remains a day to commemorate the men and women who have died in military service to their country. Known originally as Decoration Day, the day has been commemorated annually since the end of the American Civil War.

Here are two map postcards depicting scenes from that war:



Randy Green created the card above, depicting a "somber yet magnificent overview of the key states involved and the heroic figures who emerged from this tragic yet ultimately liberating and unifying conflict." A full sized poster or jigsaw puzzle of this card is available from White Mountain Puzzles.

The postcard below was sent to me by a friend many years ago. I especially like this one because, while you cannot see the detail, it does include a map. The original painting, The Last Council at Chancellorsville, by Mort Künstler, depicts Generals Jackson, Lee and Stuart. The Battle of Chancellorsville was one of Lee's greatest victories on the field, but he lost his "right arm" when General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson was mortally wounded.

Wakko's 50 State Capitols

Speaking of state capitols...

How many of us struggled to remember all of the United States state capitols? If only we'd had this song to help us:



Of course, kids today don't have School House Rock to teach them how a bill becomes law or how to use interjections!

Connect the Dots

When I first came across the website, Spud Art, the first thing I thought of was this mappish "spud art". But instead it is "the landfill of Matt Maldre's life, a 32-year-old Christian designer in Chicago."

Among Matt's random thoughts:

"Here's a map of America with JUST the capitals. No state lines. It would be fun to number these stars and make them into a connect-the-dots game."



The first thing I saw in all those dots was the national bird of the United States, the turkey.... OK, the eagle is the national bird, but not if Benjamin Franklin had had his way...






OK, that's a pretty sad looking turkey, but is it really any worse than the ones we make children draw in school every Thanksgiving?

Map of Misery

From the May 8, 2008, issue of The Economist, Map of misery: The house-price bust has a long way to go.

SOUNDING more like a cartographer than a central banker, Ben Bernanke this week showed off the Federal Reserve’s latest gizmo for tracking America’s property bust: maps that colour-code price declines, foreclosures and other gauges of housing distress for every county. His goal was to show that falling prices meant more foreclosures, and to urge lenders to write down the principal on troubled loans where the house is worth less than the value of the mortgage. His maps—where hotter colours imply more trouble—also make a starker point. The pain of America’s housing bust varies enormously by region. Hardest hit have been the “bubble states”—California, Nevada and Florida, and parts of the industrial Midwest. The biggest uncertainty hanging over the economy is how red will things get.

Read the rest of the article.

All I have to do is walk around the neighborhood and see the number of "For Sale" signs that have been up for months... Houses are not moving. Prices are dropping, and many people are hurting. Many folks who might need to sell their home cannot do so without taking a loss.

Maybe they shouldn't have bought that house they couldn't afford in the first place... Maybe it might have occured to them, before they bought their house, that if property values have jumped 300% in the last five years, they might, just maybe fall again... But I also know folks who need to sell their home, because of job relocation, etc... and they cannot get out. Ms. Cartophiliac and I have often spoken of relocating... I think we'll just stay pat for now.

Where to go when surrounded by the Map of Misery? Why not take a vacation for the mind? Visit The Funny Times:



The Funny Times is a The Funny Times is a monthly tabloid newspaper for humor - funny jokes, political cartoons, news and columns.

No matter what has you down:

• The War on Terror
• HMO Waiting Rooms
• Family Stress

...our cartoonists and columnists will fill you with inspiration instead of despair.

So, don't let yourself be lost in the Sea of Red Ink, broken down in Monotony, or stranded on the Road to Ruin... use this road map from The Funny Times.

Thanks to the Stumbling Tumblr for the miserable tip.

Meet the World

This blog is about maps, not flags... but since I have digressed in that direction in the past, I will share this clever work.

The flags campaign, "Meet the World", is the work of Icaro Doria, a Brazilian working for the "hard journalism" magazine, Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal. Two examples:





View the rest here

Icaro Doria said:

This is how we thought of the concept Meet the World.

We started to research relevant, global, and current facts and, thus, came up with the idea to put new meanings to the colours of the flags. We used real data taken from the websites of Amnesty International and the UNO.

Death and Taxes

It is Tax Day in the United States...

Heavy Metal USA

This weighty piece of geographic art is on display in the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University:



Artist: Ian Brennan

Via Dan Cohen's Digital Humanities Blog. Thanks again, Jerad

Absolut World

As reported in La Plaza, a Los Angeles Times blog about Latin America:

Mexico reconquers California? Absolut drinks to that!

"The latest advertising campaign in Mexico from Swedish vodka maker Absolut promises to push all the right buttons south of the U.S. border, but it could ruffle a few feathers in El Norte."



"In an Absolut World"... Mexico didn't lose half their territory in a war with the United States in 1848.

Apparently there are a few Americans getting bent out of shape over this... I say, get a sense of humor... you won the war, remember?



Thanks to Jerad for the heads up!