Twitter - The Geography of Tweets (2013)
Big data analytics finally demonstrate what we’ve suspected all along: people like to tweet from boats.
Major Web Companies’ Data Centers (2013)
If you like that linework of the U.S., it’s 100% free to download and use from Project Linework. And, in fact, that was the basic impetus for making this map: just something fun and simple to show off the linework, so it’s not the most earth-shattering in terms of data.
While researching the locations, though, I did come across some neat issues when it comes to the siting of data centers: state governments will give big breaks on property taxes for the luxury of attracting a data center to a rural community, even if the centers themselves produce a noxious amount of noise. Site selectors are also looking for places with lots of cheap, clean electricity, accounting for much of the data centers located in hydropower-rich regions.
Hans Werner - University of Wisconsin Visitor’s Map (1937)
A very amusing cartographic product lurking in my alma mater’s archives. The marginalia is packed with everything from indigenous-inspired patterns to architectural renderings to straight-up inside jokes: even my best Googling can’t determine if “Prof. Benny Snow” is an actual person.
My favorite inexplicable bit is the giant pigs by the swine barn: no other building on campus gets this same sort of pictoral treatment.
Screenshot from Randall Munroe - what if? (Three Wise Men) (2012)
xkcd performs some holiday-themed spatial analysis.
Laconic History of The World (2012)
My first attempt at a typographic map. Don’t be content with the shrunken version up there: this thing is pretty dang sprawling: I’ve prepped a mind-boggling 12,500 pixel wide version you can enjoy exploring:
http://hugepic.io/d2012641f/3.00/57.89/9.67
This map was produced by running all the various countries’ “History of _____” Wikipedia article through a word cloud, then writing out the most common word to fit into the country’s boundary. The result is thousands of years of human history oversimplified into 100-some words.
I’ve also prepared a reader’s companion to highlight a few of the more interesting findings. Read it here.
Drawing from Zaha Hadid Architects - Olebeaga Masterplan (2005)
Re-imagining of a section of Bilbao, Spain. Mapping out a geographic reality that doesn’t, and may never, actually exist.
Screenshot of: University of Portsmouth - Bomb Sight (2012)
Web mapping the Blitz- this is powerful stuff and impeccably crafted, as well. Be forewarned though that their servers seem to be experiencing heavy traffic. I also recommend reading BBC’s article on the project, which was put right on the front page of their website when I went there. Pretty prestigous for the release of an interactive map to make the front page.
Screenshot from:LA Times Data Desk - How Fast is LAFD Where You Live? (2012)
http://graphics.latimes.com/how-fast-is-lafd/
An awesome dataset transformed into an awesome interactive map, cataloging how quickly 911 calls are responded to in Los Angeles. The areas of slowest response might not be what’d you expect: they’re in the very affluent developments common in L.A.’s scenic mountainous fringe.
Antonio Petruccelli - Oahu is Hawaii (1940)
There’s a lot of things I love about this map.
1. Oahu IS Hawaii, because it has forts and beaches. Those other islands are ‘cattle country’ and ‘a leper colony’, and can therefore be comfortably disregarded.
2. Look at the feathery way those mountains are drawn! They’re quite pretty.
3. The matter-of-fact, casual treatment of Hawaii as being a resource for only two things: crops and military bases (notice the helpful labeling of ‘sugar cane’, ‘pineapple’, ‘golf club’, and ‘big guns’)
4. The “hindsight is 20/20” moment you get by reading the map talk up Pearl Harbor. The base is, evidently, well protected by attack… from sea.
