Month: June 2024

Indian Residential Schools Interactive Map

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Indigenous Services Canada (screenshot)

The Canadian government has launched an interactive map of former Indian residential schools. “The Indian Residential Schools Interactive Map allows users to visualize the location of the 140 former residential school sites recognized in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement as well as provide information on the current status and historical context of the site. The map has a search, filter, measurement and imagery slider to help users with analysis.” The map makes use of historical aerial photography to pinpoint the locations of schools that are no longer standing; many of the sites have since been redeveloped.

The purpose of the map is grim: to determine the potential locations of additional school gravesites. Generations of Indigenous children were forced to attend residential schools in Canada: many were subjected to physical and sexual abuse, and thousands died of disease or neglect. In the past few years, unmarked graves have been found at several residential school sites across Canada, and searches are under way at many others. This map makes available to searchers imagery that was otherwise difficult to access. (The imagery is also available as a dataset.) More at the CBC News story.

A Digital Archive of Ireland’s Ordnance Survey

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

A digital archive of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland has been launched, two hundred years after its founding. From the University of Limerick media release:

In Ireland, between 1824 and 1842 the OS completed the first ever large-scale survey of an entire country, at a scale of six inches to the mile. Acclaimed for their accuracy, these maps are regarded by cartographers as amongst the finest ever produced.

In addition to maps, the Ordnance Survey staff, both military and civilian, recorded other information such as archaeological and toponymical material including local customs, antiquities, place names and topographical features. However, over time, these materials have been disparately housed in various museums, repositories and archives across Ireland and Britain. […]

By reconnecting digitally, the OS maps, memoirs, correspondence, drawings and books of placenames into a new online resource, the project aims to open up the histories to wider audiences, enabling a richer and deeper engagement with and understanding of the OS operations in Ireland two centuries ago.

More about the project here.

Quantum Navigation

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Quantum navigation systems are being tested in Britain. Last month there was a successful test flight of an aviation system, and a system is being tested on test trains on the London Underground. (It’s not clear to me whether these systems are related, but the U.K. has apparently been making a big push into quantum tech lately.) Quantum navigation is essentially quantum mechanics applied to dead reckoning, using the properties of supercool atoms to measure change of position. The advantage of the system is that it’s self-contained: it doesn’t require a GPS signal or navigation beacon to triangulate from, which makes it resistant to jamming or spoofing—and considering how essential real-time location data has become, and how easy it is to disrupt location signals, the appeal of a self-contained solution is self-evident.

Islario, an Atlas of Islands

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Banner image from the Islario Kickstarter, showing a cover of the book plus a background map image.

Islario, Alejandro Polanco’s latest Kickstarter project, is a collection of 16th- to 19th-century maps of islands—some real, some phantom. “In Spanish, the word ‘islario’ means something like a “compendium of islands’ or an ‘atlas of islands’. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, many ‘islarios’ were created, books that contained only maps of islands. Since the traces used to draw these maps were often based on legends or comments from sailors in ports, the problem of distinguishing between real and fantastic islands arose.” In this blog post (in Spanish), Alejandro takes a look at one of the fantastic islands his book will cover: Frisland.

Topo and Trail Maps Coming to Apple Maps in iOS 18/macOS Sequoia

Published on by Jonathan Crowe
Three views of Apple Maps in hiking/trail mode on an iPhone. (Apple)
Apple

Topographical maps and hiking maps are coming to Apple Maps on the Mac, iPhone and iPad as of macOS Sequoia and iOS/iPadOS 18, due out this fall. The hiking maps will be at least for U.S. national parks, and will also be available in offline mode because hiking in areas without cell service is the point. Other features coming to Maps include custom walking routes and saved places. [Spatially Adjusted]

China Accused of Erasing Uyghur Names from Villages in Xinjiang

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

Human Rights Watch accuses Chinese authorities of systematically renaming Uyghur villages in Xinjiang in a way that erases references to Uyghur religion, history or culture. According to their research, about 3,600 of 25,000 villages in Xinjiang were renamed between 2009 and 2023. “About four-fifths of these changes appear mundane, such as number changes, or corrections to names previously written incorrectly. But the 630, about a fifth, involve changes of a religious, cultural, or historical nature.” [BBC News]

OpenStreetMap Is Dealing with Some Vandalism

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

It seems OpenStreetMap has had to deal with a wave of vandalism attacks lately. If you see some nonsense on OSM, this post on their community forum outlines what to do about it (it may have already been taken care of even if it’s still appearing, so check for that; also, don’t post screencaps, because propagating the nonsense is what the vandals want). The OSM ops team provided this update on Mastodon today: “OpenStreetMap is now stronger with improved monitoring, automatic blocking, and respectful limits on new accounts. The default osm.org map is now quicker at fixing large-scale vandalism. Offline actions are also progressing.”

Google Timeline: Location History Moves to On-Device Storage

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

More details emerged this week on how Google Maps is changing how it stores users’ location data—which is that as of December 2024 it basically won’t: Location History has been rebranded Google Timeline and will be stored on-device, where you can set it to auto-delete after a specified period of time, rather than on Google’s servers. Not having your location data in the cloud is better for your personal security (Google can’t respond to geofence warrants if it doesn’t collect and store location data), but it also means that Timeline won’t be available via the web. This is a bit more definitive than what I understood it to be last December. See news coverage from 9to5Google, The Guardian and The Verge.

The Geochron, and How One Was Restored

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

The Geochron has been around since the mid-sixties and I only just learned about it this week. It’s an analog, electromechanical world clock and map. The backlit, translucent map is motorized: it scrolls from left to right to indicate the rotation of the earth. Noon is at the centre of the map. The terminators actually change to reflect the change in seasons, as does the position of the overhead sun, which moves in an analemma: these are physical objects behind the map that block the light and are geared to run on an annual cycle. Again: this thing is electromechanical.

The mind boggles, and not just at the (current) mid-four-figures price tag—which is to say that they’re still making these things. (They also have a digital version you can plug into a 4K TV [Amazon] which at $500 seems expensive for what it is. But then the Geochron itself always was. These things have never been anything other than executive- or installation-grade luxury goods.)

Anyway, Matthew Dockrey of Attoparsec managed to lay hands on a used one from the eighties and went through the process of restoring it—replacing worn parts, updating the maps and so forth—and documented it in this 21-minute video. [MetaFilter]

Better Lunar Mapping Through Semi-Automated Photoclinometry

Published on by Jonathan Crowe

A method to improve the accuracy of maps of the lunar surface was published last month in The Planetary Science Journal. Photoclinometry, also known as shape-from-shading, can dramatically improve the resolution of digital elevation models generated from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter data, but it’s apparently rather labour-intensive. From the Brown University press release: “The scholars outline in the study how advanced computer algorithms can be used to automate much of the process and significantly heighten the resolution of the models. The new software gives lunar scientists the tools to create larger maps of the Moon’s surface that contain finer details at a much faster pace, the researchers say.” [Universe Today]