Be My Cartographic Valentine 2010

Darling, be my cartographic valentine...



States United, print available from Etsy seller "beauchamping".




Via Kris Harzinski




From the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
HT to Joel




Personalised Bespoke Map Heart: just tell them the location and they'll find a vintage map to create this one-of-a-king gift.




Show your MoTown Hometown love with this Detroit Map Heart Necklace.




Map Heart Valentine, blank note cards.

#545

Sarah Palin in 2012?

Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin has been in the news quite a bit lately. Her address to the Tea Party Convention, followed by media flaps about the "R" word and writing notes on her hand have made her the topic of the week. And of course the number one question: Will she? Can she run for president in 2012?

FiveThirtyEight.com takes A First Look at Palin's Primary Math.

If Sarah Palin runs for the Republican nomination in 2012 -- and I've been on record for some time as predicting that she will -- what are likely to be her best and worst states? And how do these strengths and weaknesses square with the Republican primary calendar? And what about the other likely candidates?

Fascinating analysis... but one of the most garishly ugly electoral maps I have ever seen.

UPDATE 2/14: The Electoral Map has an esthetically pleasing map of the most Pro-Palin states.

Previous Palin Carto-fun:
On the cover of The Week
Putin Rears His Head

HT to Kelso's Corner for the Sarah Palin US map mask illustration.

Facebook States of America

Through statistics he has gathered from Facebook, about the most common names, fan pages and friend locations around the world, Pete Warden has created a proposal on How to split up the US based on existing relationships.



"Stayathomia"? His data suggests that in the Northeast and Midwest, the most common connections are with immediately neighboring cities. We don't get out much?

"Socalistan"? As in Southern California... at first I read it as "Socialistan" as in Socialism... Whatever.

There have been some pretty amazing proposals for rearranging the states, like here, here, here and here, so why not this?

HT to Carol

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.

#535

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!