Just finished this excellent book by Scott Huler, “On the Grid“. This is Everyman’s guide to infrastructure in America. The author points out both the miracles and the mind-boggling failings of the US systems from storm water management in Raleigh NC, to the bridges across the Hudson in New York. He writes”No matter how often […]
This priceless image from WGN News in Chicago on June 16 was noted by the Huffington Post Comedy. It is being circulated (outside the US) with the title “No wonder they can’t find Bin Laden.” Ouch. Update 3/9/2018: The Huffington Post link is gone, but the picture says it all.
Three ways to view the spill’s progress: 1) Google Crisis center, with map data from NOAA and PBS live news feed showing the gushing oil, and 2) Paul Rademakers Google Earth representation of the (no longer works), showing how it compares in size to Manhattan, London, Paris, etc, 3) New York Times”Tracking the Oil […]
At this beautiful new site, Geocoded Art, landscape paintings are geocoded and can be searched with a map interface. Or you can look up a favorite work by artist or title, and find out where in the world it was painted. All works are in the public domain. This is already a rich database which hopefully will […]
Amsterdam standing on its head? New features for Google Maps (click on a little green vial in top right corner), provide some interesting options, including a rotate button so we can view of the world as the Aussie’s see it. Zoomed in locally, Amsterdam looks more like the city depicted by 16th century cartographers starting […]
Just found this fantastic route-planning website for bikers and hikers. I found a nice map of Maastricht which will give me some ammunition for touring around with visiting friends. Judging by the content, it has been around for a while (since 2005) but appears to be gaining momentum. It seems like a very nice interface, and […]
Planning a trip to New York? The Museum of the City of New York has three exhibitions of special interest to Nederlanders. This one is for map-people, too. Written-about in an Arts section review in the New York Times, the exhibition sounds a delight, and there is a book by the exhibition designer, Eric W. Sanderson and a clever Google maps mashup website about the Mannahatta Project sponsored […]
The exhibition, Red Lines Housing Crisis Learning Center at the Queens Museum of Art (through Sept 23) is a large scale installation by Damon Rich, founder of the Center for Urban Pedagogy. The New York times reported on the exhibition’s extraordinary centerpiece, an intricate conversion of the museum’s most famous work, the Panorama of the City of New York , to depict the location […]
The Henry Hudson 400 website has a dazzling new map mash-up. Using a “layering system” thirty-two historical maps and Henry’s four routes can be displayed on top of Google Maps, with variable transparency. Places and events related to this year’s celebration can be “turned in” revealing a wealth of historical information. There is even an opportunity for the […]
Sixth Sense is a multi-component wearable multi-function device invented by Pranav Mistry, a researcher at MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group. It was demonstrated at the TED conference in February this year by Belgian Patty Maes, leader of the MIT lab, and this fabulous video describes the various features, and potential applications. Since one of the demonstrated applications is a map interface, I’m […]