Updated the Map Books of 2023 page last week with some titles I hadn’t previously known about. I try to make this list as comprehensive as possible, so if I’ve missed something, let me know.
Month: October 2023
Bad Maps, Kindness and Empathy
The 2023 iteration of the 30 Day Map Challenge is coming up, and Daniel Huffman has some thoughts about the day four prompt (“a bad map”) and making room for kindness in the mapmaking community.
It’s fun to play with those things that you’re not supposed to do! But, these are also same kinds of choices that might be made by someone who’s new to our community, and who isn’t as experienced. I’ve seen plenty of students who start out their careers by producing work that is very similar to the material that my colleagues produced when they were prompted to make “a bad map.”
Imagine, then, being one of those novices and seeing someone out there make something in the same style as you, and then see people laugh at it. Might you learn a useful lesson about design? Maybe. But there’s a kinder and more effective way to teach the next generation, isn’t there? […]
It’s no secret that I think our community has had a history of toxic critique and gatekeeping. I’ve written about it here, and talked about it at NACIS. This year, when prompted to make “a bad map,” I invite you to think of “bad” in more ways than just “what a beginner would make.”
Previously: Thirty Day Map Challenge; ‘One Bad Map a Day in February’.
GPSJam Maps GPS Interference
GPS Jam, created by John Wiseman, is an online map of GPS interference, updated daily, based on GPS accuracy information reported by aircraft. It’s not necessarily a map of where GPS is being deliberately jammed, but when you look and see that the hotspots are the eastern Mediterranean, western Russia and the Baltics, well. Active war zones (e.g. Ukraine) are blank: this map is based on civilian aircraft data and those are no-go areas.
xkcd’s Dubious Islands Aren’t Technically Wrong
When I saw the xkcd for October 6th, I said to myself: that can’t be right. But I checked and yes, Wollaston Lake and Isa Lake are bifurcation lakes, so it is.
Mapping Two Solar Eclipses
Two upcoming solar eclipses in North America—the annular eclipse on October 14, and the total eclipse on April 8, 2024—are the subject of numerous eclipse maps that track the path of totality and its duration along that path.
NASA’s Solar Eclipse Explorer currently focuses on this month’s annular eclipse, with paths of the 2017 and 2024 eclipse for comparison. [Maps Mania]
The Eclipse Company has separate maps for this month’s annular eclipse and next April’s total eclipse: these maps include data for locations along the path, including time, duration, the sun’s altitude and chance of clouds based on historical weather data. [PetaPixel]
The last time I went looking for eclipse maps, back in 2017, there was a website called GreatAmericanEclipse.com, which was the most recent of the websites showcasing the eclipse maps of Michael Zeiler. It’s still very much a going concern, with maps covering North America, individual U.S. states, and detailed maps of the path itself. These are static maps rather than the above interactive maps, but there are a lot of them, and not just for this month’s annular and next year’s total eclipse: there’s a fair bit of historical (and future!) eclipse maps there too.
Update 10:20 PM: Andy Woodruff’s scrolling map of the 2024 eclipse.
Previously: An Almost-Too-Late Roundup of Historical and Unusual Eclipse Maps; Mapping the August 2017 Solar Eclipse; Another Solar Eclipse Website; Michael Zeiler’s Solar Eclipse Map Website; Eclipse Maps.
Harry Beck Takes to the Air
So it turns out Harry Beck also did airline route maps. You will be shocked to discover what form those maps took. [MeFi]