I Want Iraq And Roll All Night

I'm no lawyer, but I'm told that defacement of currency is a violation of Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. That doesn't seem to stop inveterate doodlers from making funny drawings on dollar bills:


From 30 Bizarre Examples of Defacing Money at the Money Mumbo Jumbo.

Artist Hanna van Goeler likes to use currency as her canvas, and her paintings on money include maps!



Van Goeler says her work "focuses on what's 'between.' The interstitial, ambiguous, complex, transitory, changing, mystic, hybrid, un-named." Considering that the average lifespan of a dollar bill is 6 months... currency is certainly transitory...

Currently her work can be seen in Zurich, Switzerland and New York City.

European Union: Fair Weather Friends?

Apparently Greece's struggling economy has some members reconsidering that nation's membership in the European Union. The Economist has run several stories on this problem, including one with this illustration:

Might other nations back out of the EU? How disappointing? I thought the whole point of the EU was that these nations would pull together to make each other stronger. This kind of unity has been an inspiration to other regions to increase cooperation (if not integration) of their economies. Step up, Europe.

Via Geographic Travels

Cindaynati?

Are Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio, on the road to becoming a single metropolitan area, or "metroplex", not unlike Minneapolis/St. Paul or Dallas/Ft. Worth? The Cincinnati Enquirer has raised that question, with additional commentary from The Urbanophile.

The expectation is that after the 2010 Census, the Cincinnati-Middletown and Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Areas would become a single entity. The rapid growth of the I-75 corridor between the two cities makes such a merger seem inevitable. Perhaps eventually leading to some sort of political merger as a mega-city of three million people!

Currently, the biggest thing connecting the two communities are the two very sorry Cincinnati sports franchises, the Bengals and the Reds. The cities have their own airports, television and radio markets. Their cultural and arts communities rarely interact, with separate professional theaters, symphonies and ballet companies. Hearty workers do commute in both directions. However, as a Daytonian I can say that I do not think of my self as a "Southwest Ohio Cincinnati-Daytonian"... Sometimes Cincinnati does not even feel like Ohio. I often think of Dayton as the last outpost of "the north", while Cincinnati feels to me like a southern city on the wrong side of the river... or as Ms. Cartophiliac often suggests, Cincinnati is its own feudal city-state.



It is going to take more than a Census Statistical merger to pull these two communities together. Dayton and Montgomery County can barely agree to cooperate on combined services. I think it will be some time before we see Cindaynati on the map.

The Amazing Miss South Carolina

The new season of The Amazing Race started tonight. One of the contestants is the geographically challenged Miss Teen South Carolina 2007, Caitlin Upton:

Her goal in this show is to prove she's not quite as air-headed as she appeared during the pageant. She survived the first episode, in spite of a boneheaded mistake (unrelated to geography).

Good luck, Caite. You've suffered embarrassment enough...

Be My Cartographic Valentine 2010

Darling, be my cartographic valentine...



States United, print available from Etsy seller "beauchamping".




Via Kris Harzinski




From the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
HT to Joel




Personalised Bespoke Map Heart: just tell them the location and they'll find a vintage map to create this one-of-a-king gift.




Show your MoTown Hometown love with this Detroit Map Heart Necklace.




Map Heart Valentine, blank note cards.

#545

Sarah Palin in 2012?

Sarah "Caribou Barbie" Palin has been in the news quite a bit lately. Her address to the Tea Party Convention, followed by media flaps about the "R" word and writing notes on her hand have made her the topic of the week. And of course the number one question: Will she? Can she run for president in 2012?

FiveThirtyEight.com takes A First Look at Palin's Primary Math.

If Sarah Palin runs for the Republican nomination in 2012 -- and I've been on record for some time as predicting that she will -- what are likely to be her best and worst states? And how do these strengths and weaknesses square with the Republican primary calendar? And what about the other likely candidates?

Fascinating analysis... but one of the most garishly ugly electoral maps I have ever seen.

UPDATE 2/14: The Electoral Map has an esthetically pleasing map of the most Pro-Palin states.

Previous Palin Carto-fun:
On the cover of The Week
Putin Rears His Head

HT to Kelso's Corner for the Sarah Palin US map mask illustration.

Facebook States of America

Through statistics he has gathered from Facebook, about the most common names, fan pages and friend locations around the world, Pete Warden has created a proposal on How to split up the US based on existing relationships.



"Stayathomia"? His data suggests that in the Northeast and Midwest, the most common connections are with immediately neighboring cities. We don't get out much?

"Socalistan"? As in Southern California... at first I read it as "Socialistan" as in Socialism... Whatever.

There have been some pretty amazing proposals for rearranging the states, like here, here, here and here, so why not this?

HT to Carol

Chinese Dalian is Romantic of all

Becca, "the unproductive library aide", spent last fall in Dalian, China, where she was studying Chinese. Upon her return, she presented me with this lovely map fan (sucking up to the boss...)



"Chinese Dalian is Romantic of all"



In the northeastern province of Liaoning, Dalian is China's northernmost warm water seaport. This city and its surrounding territory were hotly contested by the Russians and Japanese. The Battle of Port Arthur (now the Lüshunkou port district of Dalian) in 1904 marked the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War. See my earlier post on my antique Russo-Japanese War Map postcard.

Thanks for the lovely fan, Becca.

Last year she gave me these nifty postcards from Lüneburg, Germany, where she was studying German. (She's also studying Arabic!)

Speaking of studying Chinese... In the 2+ years I have been running this blog, no one has ever asked me about the background image. It is from the street map of Taipei, Taiwan, that I carried with me many years ago when, as a college student I spent four months in Taiwan pretending to learn Chinese.



I did not save the "unfaded" version of the map that I scanned for my background. Perhaps someday I'll dig up the rest of my memorabilia from that trip. I'm sure there must have been other maps

Fans previously on Cartophilia: I'm a Fan of Maps

Who Dat Nation?

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints for conquering the United Countries of Football

Cartographic Constructions

Valerie Goodwin creates quilts that convey "a sense of place using aerial views and maps as inspiration. I enjoy working with both realistic and abstract imagery." In this "Tale of 2 Campuses" she depicts the Florida state capital of Tallahassee, and the cultural divide between the Florida State University and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.



Her work is currently on exhibit through March 14 at the Gadsden Art Center in Quincy, Florida.

#540

Oxford

Just a postcard quickie. Two postcards from my collection -- Oxford, England:



The city of Oxford is most famous for the University of Oxford.



In the United States, many communities would like to be associated with the academic reputation of Oxford, England. I counted 17 states that have a town named Oxford. Two of them (at least) have colleges or universities in those towns. How many "Oxfords" have you visited?