Google Street View arrived in the Netherlands last month, along with a creative application for Street View “sightings”, those funny and weird things caught by the Google car’s 360 camera. If you don’t want to spend all your time coming the streets for something hilarious, you can take a look at what other people have found at […]
It seems that about 1/3 of Detroit has gone to seed. In the past fifty years, since they heyday of Motown, the population has dropped from 2 million, to less than a million. An article in the blog City Farmer discusses current serious interest in converting vacant land to urban farms. Another blog, Politics in the Zeros, also posted an article […]
…Earth Hour 2009, Saturday, March 28, 8:30 PM. This global demonstration is a World Wildlife Fund initiative, and is being framed as a the world’s first global election. The UN Sec General, Ban Ki-Moon, announced UN participation in a new video. I’m spreading the word on the Zeeburgerkade! Update 30/6/2018: Earthhour 2018 video.
The NY Times published this Immigration Explorer interactive map with some fascinating information about immigration in the US since 1880, a great example of using Flash for visualization of data over time. You can view populations by country of origin as well, through time, though unfortunately not Dutch settlers. Note all the Russians in Alaska! (Of course […]
Artist Marjan Verkerk made this “map” of her hike in the coastal area near Kayoköy in Turkey. The deserted village of Kayoköy is a UNESCO World Heritage Friendship and Peace Village. Searching Google Maps for Kayoköy, I was astonished by the explosion of Panoramio photos. This made me think it would be nice if there were such a site for works […]
This-Two Year Old is a Better Geographer than You (was in the All Points Blog, now Directions Magazine) caught my attention, just too cute to pass up. The 2007 YouTube video was originally a response to the Miss Teen USA South Carolina answers a question. (See Sept 2007 post Sniggering). Apparently Lilly was later on […]
This sweet Flash Datamapper application from the IMF allows you to look at world economic projections through 2013. The snapshot here shows the “current account” for each country, essentially exports minus imports. The timeline shows China continuing to soar and the US, after a dip, holding steady, still in negative territory. All of this data and much more is available for […]
This doesn’t have much to do with maps (yet), but what a nice presentation and website design tool! Viewbook is the creation of a Dutch design company (Resourc Studio), and hit my radar because of their online portfolio for TodaysArt coming up in Den Haag. Then, searching for reviews of Viewbook resulted in another discovery, Listio.com, a handy (maybe new?) […]
Not news, but news to me is the ominous “trash vortex” illustrated in this Greenpeace animation. According to the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) 2006 report on Ecosystems and Biodiversity in Deep Waters (PDF), there are 46,000 pieces of marine litter for every square mile of ocean. An amazing film, Garbage Island, presented in short segments on VBS, features Charles Moore, discoverer of the […]
Healthyplanet.org is the brainchild of Dr. Mark Mulligan a Geography professor at Kings College in London. The site was announced in April, with the goal of allowing individuals and businesses to become “guardians” of the planet using a Google Maps or Earth interface. The maps display a layer of national parks and conservation areas all around the world, […]