Posts

Wonders of Reddit – Colonial America

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Very, very late to this game, I’m discovering the wonders of Reddit – specifically the subreddit “Map Porn“, and the title sums it up. For starter, there is this 1957 educational map created by Esso Standard Oil which was recently posted. The comments are also great, including critique that the Dutch flag and colors are wrong… and that this was an America without slavery!

Note also, that Seneca Indians in New York State used oil from a spring (second zoomed image) – apparently for medicinal purposes. Fun fact (as they say), this is recorded as the discovery of oil in America! Dive in here – also an interactive map website. No more oil here, but a rich history.

Conflict and Bridging Divides

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The website Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project is a rich resource for data about conflicts and protests in the US and worldwide, with multiple links to other sites and databases.  It is a bit shocking, but the story covers the last year and puts it all a bit into perspective, with much good background information.  (Hoping it is all factual, which it is likely to be given the sponsors.)

Through a link on this site, to the Princeton Bridging Divide’s Initiative, an interactive map showing up-to-date conflict events and organizations in the US, with the ability to drill down and learn more about organizations or specific events.

So how does this make me feel?  Amazed at how complex the US is, but also how great that there are so many organizations whose mission it is to “bridge the divides” in the currently very divided society.  We don’t hear about these efforts in the news.

 

Wolf Tracking

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Wolves are awesome and endlessly fascinating, maybe because of their similarity to our favorite pets. One organization provides all the data, videos and some amazing maps, to satisfy the most die-hard wolf-lovers. As their Facebook says,  Voyageurs Wolf Project studies wolves and their prey (moose, deer, and beavers) during the summer in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, which includes the area in and around Voyageurs National Park, in northern Minnesota. These images, posted in Jan 2020, show the movements of various packs within the Voyager park area, generated by putting gps collars on pack members. There are unanswered questions as to whether some packs disappeared, new ones formed, etc.

For a day (or days) in the life of wolfie, check out Voyager’s website, and this page of animations.