CTA Wallet

Never get lost on the Chicago "L" (or is it "El"?) when you carry your own Chicago Transit Authority wallet:



Made from 100% recycled PET plastic!

Via The Unlikely Moose

Map Tatoos

As you all know, I love maps. However, my love for maps does have its limits. For example I do not love maps so much as to tattoo one permanently on my body. These cartophiles take their love for maps to the next level...

Here is a young lady who loves her state of Maine.Via Black Maps

If this woman needs to find her way around Chicago by rail, she need only look down. Via The Map Room

Don't mess with her Texas:

Via People of WalMart

This man loves his home state of Florida so much, he doesn't mind being easy to pick out in a line up:

From The Most Memorable Criminals of 2009

I'm sure the Chairman would be proud of this Comrade:

Via Frankylicious

Finally, who needs a wardrobe, when you have your own map to Narnia?

Via Atlas(t)



UPDATE 5/6: Anyedge says, "I have a robinson projection of the whole globe on my left deltoid"

Thanks for the pic. Any other Carto-Tattoo-philes with photos to share?

Also, I removed the Sao Paulo "tattoo"... see comments.

Netflix Queues: Chicago Loves Benjamin Button

The New York Times has pulled together 2009 data from Netflix to show rental patterns by neighborhood, in a dozen cities.

A Peek Into Netflix Queues



The #1 Netflix rental for Chicago (and in most other communities) in 2009 was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

HT to Matt

Stomp the Gerrymander?

Slate magazine has an article about how mathematics can create reasonably shaped districts and put an end to Gerrymandering. The article includes a slide show of some of the worst offenders. The most ridiculous of them all is the 4th Illinois Congressional District, in Cook County. Actually, if I read the map correctly, the district has to sneak outside of the county, just to connect its norther and southern arms...



Whatever it takes to create a safe district...

Proponents of redistricting reform contend that competitive, geographicaly compact, districts would better serve their constituents. The author points out that it is "tough to find many defenders of the status quo, in which a supermajority of House seats are noncompetitive." That may be true. Unfortunately, the primary defenders of this system can be found in Congress and most of the fifty state-houses...

Via The Map Room