maps – Page 2 – Observations Along the Road

Maps: Visualizing the World

Posted onThursday, August 15, 2013Friday, August 16, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=gaming I’ve always loved maps. Collecting gas station maps got me into my interest in California Highways, and I never need a GPS because I have maps in my head. So whenever I see articles about maps and mapping, they fascinate me. Over lunch, I’d like to share some with you.

Earlier this week, Buzzfeed had a list of “27 pictures that will change how you view the world“. Some of these are particularly enlightening, such as #6, the true size of Africa; #11, If the largest countries had the biggest populations; #20, What the world would look like if all the separatists won; and #27, the population of the United States in units of Canadas.

Yesterday, another collection was posted: 40 maps that help you make sense of the world. Some of these are duplicates of the Buzzfeed list, but a number are new to me: #1, Where Google Street View is Available; #3, The Only 22 Countries in the World Britain Has Not Invaded; #6, Paid Maternal Leave Around the World; #19, Map of Where 29,000 Rubber Duckies Made Landfall After Falling off a Cargo Ship in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean; #24, The Number of Researchers per Million Inhabitants Around the World; #27, Map of the Different Writing Systems; #39, Map of Europe Showing Literal Chinese Translations for Country Names.

The last collection mentioned Google Street View. So for our #3 item (because things always come in 3 or more), here’s a list of 16 amazing places to visit with Google Street View. Of course, the most interesting thing can be found inside a blue police telephone in London.

ETA: Here are 27 linguistic maps of the United States. No wonder we don’t understand each other!

P.S.: Here’s a PS visualization item: An interesting article on the geology made visible by the Sepulveda Pass construction. You’ll never look at the pass the same again.

Artful Designs

Posted onWednesday, July 24, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=needlepoint Continuing our design theme of yesterday, here are a few more lunch-time articles related to some more artful designs:

Accurate Corporate Logos. A group of French artists have taken some corporate logos and made them, well, a little more accurate. There are even more here.
Repurposing Old Washing Machines. We got more bad news last week — our washing machine is on its last legs. When we replace it, what should we do with the old one? Here’s an idea — let’s turn it into furniture.
Don’t Be a Doormat. Here’s a link to an article about an interesting Kickstarter — one that makes welcome mats out of used fire hoses. The prices are a bit high, but it looks interesting.
Unsustainable Designs. Our last two bullets have been about reusing discarded items in an artful way. Let’s add one more. Here’s an artist that uses discarded items to create LED-illuminated animal sculptures, currently on display at LAX. The artist wants to “draw a parallel between the burden of these pack animals and the burden we’re placing on the Earth”. They will be on display until the end of September.
Map Typography. If you know me at all, you know I love maps. So here’s an interesting design article on how they designed the typefaces for National Geographic maps.

These United States of America

Posted onThursday, July 4, 2013Authorcahwyguy1 Comment

userpic=political-buttons Today is the 4th of July. For those of you who haven’t already left for the 4th of July weekend, I thought it would be appropriate to celebrate the USA by looking at it in various ways. This post was prompted by a post today of 22 maps that define America. So (as Harry Shearer would say), let’s take a tour of American… through maps…

Business Insider has an article with 22 Gorgeous Maps that Define America. These maps include NFL loyalties, how Google autocomplete sees each state, the mean center of population, states labeled with the country that has equal population, and so forth.
Zip Codes turn 50 years old this week. So here are some zip code maps. The first shows each state labeled with the leading portions of the zip code for that state. The second is a zoomable Google map that shows zip codes as of 2010.
Perhaps you prefer politics. Here are a few political maps for you. The first allows you to see how presidential elections went from the first (1789) to the next (2016). The second site provides all sorts of statistical maps for elections from 1840 through 2008. The last looks at electoral college reform, and shows the US divided into 50 states with equal population.
Perhaps you want some perspective. Here’s a collection of maps that does just that: it overlays the USA with outlines of various countries so that you can see how small we really are.
Are numbers your thing? Here are 25 interesting US census maps, shows all sorts of stuff, from minority concentrations, changes in population growth, and much more.
Don’t know what you want? Here’s a Pinterest board of creative US maps. All sorts of interesting stuff here, including the US made of cast iron pans. As we’re talking miscellaneous maps, how about maps of US roadside attractions, a map of what each state is the worst at, or a map where the US states have been given porcine nicknames.
Language your thing? We close out with a map American English dialects.

Music: Under Fire (NYMF) (Demo Cast): “Follow Me”

Visualizing the USA

Posted onThursday, June 27, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=gaming Today’s news chum brings you three different maps of the US — three different visualizations of things:

The Battle Isn’t Over. For all the jubilation yesterday about the decision of the Supreme Court, DOMA isn’t dead — only part of it is dead… and the battle is far from over. This visualization from LA Observed does a great job of showing where we came from… and how far we have to go.
Corporate America. Here’s another map of the US — this time, each state is shown with the logo of the most famous brands from each state.
Rivers of America. A third visualization, brought to my attention by Andrew Ducker. This map shows every river in the continental U.S..

Saturday Clearing O’ The Links

Posted onSaturday, June 8, 2013Saturday, June 15, 2013Authorcahwyguy1 Comment

userpic=observations It’s Saturday, and you know what that means — time to clear out those links that couldn’t form into a coherent theme over the week. That doesn’t mean this are incoherent links, but … umm … perhaps we should just get to the links:

Theatre Stuff. This has been a busy week theatre-wise — based on some good reviews in the times and some timely discoveries, I’ve now filled out my June theatre dance card. You’ll see that in tomorrow’s review of Priscilla, but I do have a few theatre items. First is a very interesting review of Scottsboro Boys at the Ahmanson… written by a resident of Scottsboro AR. His take is very different than some. Second, I’ve become a tag at Bitter Lemons! Perhaps I should explain: Bitter Lemons is a theatre site here in Los Angeles that aggregates reviews and writeups of local shows, and then uses them to ascribe an overall “lemon” score — from sweet to bitter — on each show. They evidently like my writeups enough to include them in the meter, and I’m honored by that inclusion. I’ve even more honored that Colin, who runs the site, wrote a wonderful response to a post I did a while back regarding critics and their place. I also really liked their advice to the aspiring critic; I’ll take a number of those items to heart. A PS to the good folks at REP East: You should pay attention to this post about getting your shows in the Lemon Meter.
Your Net Worth. Two different posts looks at the question of what you are worth to different groups. Yes, you. First, have you ever thought about who was the most valuable patron to a casino: a pennyslot player or a blackjack player. The answer may surprise you – the pennyslot player. What about on Facebook? How much are you worth if you “like” something? Read this post, and you’ll be very hesitant about “like”-ing in the future.
The State of Affairs. A couple of state things. First, an interesting map that shows if you are in “dog” or a “cat” state. This is based on the percentage of pet ownership of each type. I’m in a neutral state, it seems. What I’d love to find is a map that categorized cities as “east coast” or “west coast” — and this isn’t a geographical distinction. Perhaps one day I’ll explain it, but I’ll give my two favorite examples: LA and KC are “west coast”, San Francisco and St. Louis are “east coast”. Second, the city hall in St. Louis is slowly deteriorating, and no one is doing anything about it. It’s not that St. Louis doesn’t have city pride; it’s that they don’t associate it with their city hall.
Conference Concerns. I’ve been involved with the ACSAC conference for many years (in fact, training submissions are still open — you have until Monday to get something in). Thus, I’m worried whenever incidents such as the recent IRS boondoggle hit the news — it makes people start seeing conferences as frivolous. It also leads to bills such as those mentioned in this article, that would ban travel to “fun” places. Conferences can be useful and cost effective, if GSA guidelines are followed and the organizers focus on technical content and quality. As always, perception is everything. The important thing to remember is electronic interaction cannot replace face-to-face interaction, just like recommendations from Amazon cannot replace browsing at the bookstore.
An Interesting Kickstarter. The SCGD mailing list alerted me to an interesting Kickstarter: A group of gamers is attempting to start a Board Game Cafe in Glendale CA. I love the idea, but I’m less sure about the location — I think it would do better in Westwood (near UCLA) or Northridge (near CSUN). Still I may decide to support them. Basically, the idea is as follows: customers visit the café and for a small cover charge they get access to an extensive board game library (which often runs into hundreds of titles) as well as food and drink options from the café. There is no establishment like this in Los Angeles. There are game shops, but that’s a different atmosphere. The question is: Will it be a destination? It might — after all, they have pie. (All I know is the pie sold me — I’m a supporter. Please help them make their stretch goal so I get pie!)

Music: Folk Era Mini CD (The Kingston Trio): “Tom Dooley”

Recurrent Themes

Posted onWednesday, June 5, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=mood-swings If you’ve been reading my journal for a while, you know there are a number of recurrent themes that catch my interest. Theatre, of course, is just one of them (just booked the rest of June, for example). Words is another. Food. Los Angeles. Politics. … and of course, History. The last one is the unifying theme for this collection of links:

One World. I posted this on Facebook a few days ago, but it is too good not to share further. If you go far enough back in history, the Earth had a single continent — Pangea. Ever wonder what it would look like with modern political boundaries? Wonder no more.
One Language. Two posts about language. First, here are 22 maps that show that American’s don’t speak the same language everywhere. I wonder if they did a map of how we refer to our freeways (or is SoCal unique). Second, an article on the history of the “@” sign — and the many things we call it.
One Bubble Gum. Continuing on the history bent… Bazooka Joe turns 60 this year. You remember Bazooka Joe — he’s the character in the bubble gum you got with your haircuts.
One Mulholland. There was just a big fire up in Santa Clarita this week. Here’s an interesting article on why it should be called the Mulholland Fire.

Mapping It Out: What We Remember

Posted onThursday, May 23, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=gaming An interesting article came across Google News today that discussed how the human brain makes maps. According to the article, it now appears as if all of the sensory cues around us – the smell of a pizzeria, the feel of a sidewalk, the sound of a passing bus – are much more integral to how our brains map our movement through space than scientists previously believed. What the article doesn’t explain is why some people are better at this than others.

I’m a primary example.

I have very good spatial memory. I can travel somewhere once or twice, and I’ll remember the routing and layout forever. I remember the layouts of friends childhood houses; I remember how to get places; I can navigate in areas I’ve never traveled because I have the map in my head. I don’t need a GPS if I can look at a map ahead of time — I can usually figure out what I need to get around (except right around the airport in Orange County — that’s a maze of twisty passages, all alike). On the other hand, I’m horrible with names. I’ll remember that I’ve seen a face, but I often forget the name that goes with that face unless I work regularly with that person.

By the way, my skill at remembering layouts extends to remembering what is in a room. I was at the Colony Theatre over the weekend, and pointing out the various furniture pieces they had moved since the last time I had been there. The artistic director noted they were from various shows, but I didn’t associate the pieces with the show — I just recognized they had moved.

Now I know people that are the other way around. A former colleague of mine was so directionally challenged he could get lost going down a hallway. But he is brilliant and has great recall of all sorts of other facts. There are people I know that are great on remembering people, but horrible on maps.

I’ve developed the theory that everyone has one thing they are exceptional at remembering. Mine is spatial layouts. What do you remember best?

Clearin’ O’ The Links: Maps, Fuel Efficiency, Trailer Parks, and Tattoos

Posted onSaturday, April 27, 2013Saturday, April 27, 2013Authorcahwyguy

userpic=observations Well, it’s Saturday at lunchtime and you know what that means… time to clear out the interesting bookmarks that didn’t quite fit into any theme during the week:

Where Did He Go, George? One of the most interesting maps in one of my highway books looks at people’s perceptions of one-hour away, two-hours away, etc. from their home in terms of transit times. Especially interesting was how it changed over time. NPR has published a similar map: this time, looking at the travel times and distances of one-dollar bills, courtesy of “Where’s George?” What’s fascinating about this is it shows — at least with cash — who we do business with and who they do business with. It is interesting how it clumps the country into various business regions. The article also includes a similar map for phone connections.
Improving Flight Efficiency. We’re all worried about miles per gallon. My car, on the highway, gets about 33 and I’m happy. What would you think if you had a vehicle that got ½ mile per gallon, and you had a technology that got it to ¾ mpg. You would think: gee, I’m in the airplane industry, because that’s what commercial jets get. BTW, that’s a good number when you convert it to passenger miles per gallon, just like when you deal with accident statistics for aircraft. In any case, National Geographic has a really interesting article on incoming technologies that would increase fuel efficiencies in aircraft. It will be interesting to see if any of these come to fruition, but I’m betting something will. The game of increasing fares has some natural limit before the traveling public rebels — the only answer to ensure profitability is to reduce costs, and a primary culprit is fuel.
The Great American Trailer Park. Recently, I’ve been dealing with a senior who we’ve just convinced to move into senior living. After only a few weeks, we’re already seeing an improvement in her attitude and demeanor. Close communities are important for the elderly. But not all seniors want to go into senior apartments — they need to be in a community, but also fiercely want their independence. Pacific Standard has an interesting article on one such solution: Trailer Parks for the Elderly. It profiles a trailer park in Pismo Beach that has become a thriving senior community where everyone looks after everyone else. It explores the problems with trailer park living, but also explores the benefits in an interesting manner.
Inking the Deal. Shortly after our daughter turned 18, she got a tattoo. We weren’t that enthused about it, although we understand why she got the tattoo that she did (in memory of our dear friend Lauren U, who was like a second mother to her). President Obama has a similar problem: his daughters are interested in tattoos. His solution: “What we’ve said to the girls is, ‘If you guys ever decide you’re going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo. In the same place. And we’ll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo.” It is certainly one way to slow down the impulse. So, Erin, if you are reading this…. should we make the same deal?

P.S.: If you’re in the San Fernando Valley tonight and like wine… (and are not going to the REP fundraiser (tickets))… there will be a Wine Tasting at Temple Ahavat Shalom in Northridge at 7:00pm. $40 at the door, if space is available ($20 non-drinkers).

Music: Songs of Peacemakers, Protestors and Potheads (The Yardbirds): “Shapes Of Things”