Maps

“GETTING THERE”, The New Yorker; April 17, 2006: A map is a piece of art. It is also a form of language — a rendering of information. A good map can occupy the eye and the mind longer than almost any other single page of data, including Scripture, poetry, sheet music, and baseball box scores. A map contains multitudes.

Stuff.co.nz: The cost of bringing justice to remote Pitcairn Island has already topped $14 million NZ, and there are several sex crime hearings still to go. That’s about $9 mil US. That’s over $200,000 US spent on each of the 42 residents. Wow.

Alright, I’ll admit it, I’m a map junkie. And I’m also a sucker for foreign policy discussion. So this morning, I find a link in the Canadian Cartographic Association’s blog an entry about one Prof. Thomas P.M. Barnett, who has this new book called The Pentagon’s New Map. His thesis is as follows: “The maps on these pages show all United States military responses to global crises from 1990 to 2002. Notice that a pattern emerges. Any time American troops…

I just discovered that the University of Texas has an amazing online map collection, including this one of San Francisco in 1915. You’ll note the absence of the bridges, and the Alameda County line being set just beyond where the trains ended. And Mission Rock looks much more looming on that map than it does today. Also check the 1901 San Francisco Milk Map.

So Google Earth for OS X is finally here. I took this screen grab of Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.

Gen. Wesley Clark: On the military side, the vast effort underway to train an army must be matched by efforts to train police and local justices. Canada, France and Germany should be engaged to assist. Neighboring states should also provide observers and technical assistance. In military terms, striking at insurgents and terrorists is necessary but insufficient. Military and security operations must return primarily to the tried-and-true methods of counterinsurgency: winning the hearts and minds of the populace through civic action,…

Wade Roush: In fact, I’d guess that in this age of digital imaging and mapping, San Francisco has become the world’s most thoroughly documented city. I’m reminded of The Illustrated Directory: Vol. 1, San Francisco, an 1894 guidebook shown to me recently by David Rumsey, a private collector of historical maps. This beautiful and extremely rare volume, full of artists’ engravings of each block of San Francisco’s business district, was unique for its time — and about 110 years ahead…

Here’s the link to the new A9 Search. That link is for Berkeley.

From Kos: Today’s Front Pages

So today I’m at Where 2.0. I had been skeptical about this conference, as after having only gone to a few tech conferences before, it seems like they are, crudely put, one big circle jerk. (IE, all the same people talking about all the same things.) But given that I’m starting to go a little stir crazy with nothing but my cat to keep me company as I write all day on my couch, I figured that the conference would…