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Accepting the Reality That I Am No Longer a "Blogger"

Hey, it was fun, but as you have no doubt noticed, I'm just not in to this whole map blogging thing any more. It's not that I love maps and map memorabilia any less, but I have so many other things happening in my life that continue to be a higher priority. So, rather than prolong the agony, I will officially announce that this blog, Cartophilia, Maps and Map Memorabilia, is officially closed. I'll leave the content, what's left of it, up here indefinitely.

 This does not, however mean the end of my talking about maps. If you are on Facebook, check out the page I created there to promote this blog: Cartophilia: Maps and Map Memorabilia. I find that I am more willing to post a quick link to something mappish there, even when I don't feel the gumption to actually write a blog post. Feel free to post links to amusing map things there as well, to share with our carto-friends. So, visit my page and "LIKE" it. That's where you'll find the next map update from me.

 In addition, I have a Twitter feed... such as it is. When I post something on Facebook, it automatically reposts on Twitter (along with whatever other inane thing I might be Tweeting about...).

Thank you to everyone who supported this blog by sending me interesting links, occasionally writing a guest post, and most of all reading it whenever I found something mappy to talk about. 

Confucius Say, Handle With Care

Current magazine spotted on the shelf today:

Upfront is a magazine for classroom use to encourage students to become aware of current issues. If we do not handle with care, I'm not sure I want to know our fortune...

 

Maps Still On My Mind

It has been pointed out to me that I haven't been posting here very often. I've been so busy I hadn't noticed!

But that doesn't mean I'm not still loving the maps. Right now, I'm excited because I finally got my hands on a copy of Ken Jennings' new book, Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks:

"Geography Wonks?" 

Guilty as charged.

 BTW, yes that is THE Ken Jennings. You know, the guy who won all those Jeopardy games.

Human Cannonball

I suppose this is only tangentially about maps... but here goes.

I started the evening last night at Riverscape, Dayton's excellent downtown outdoor music venue. Enjoyed listening to a local band, Human Cannonball. Not only did I enjoy the music, but two other geeky things caught my eye... A map t-shirt:

I'm not sure what the shirt is saying... First Ohio, then the world? Also during the show, this guy played his homemade Theremin!

To give this band an additional plug, here is a video from The Dayton Informer with an excerpt from the show...



... and a classic duck joke. I'm going to be sorry to see this summer end.

Interstate 90 in one shot

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been a while. Sorry, I've been busy, and we have a baby on the way, and class starts again soon.

Perfect time for an epic road trip!

Mrs. Thatsaabguy and I attend Gen Con every year, the biggest gaming convention in these United States - we did, in fact, get married there in '09, even. This year was no exception, but with a twist. We flew to Indy on 1 August, worked the show until 7 August, then flew to London. There we were tourists for a couple days, rented a car and drove to the far north of Scotland (Ullapool, to be precise), took a 3-hour oceangoing ferry to Stornoway, and spent another week or so with our good friends at their place on the northern tip of the Isle of Lewis. Then we drove back to Glasgow and flew to Newark NJ, there to spend the weekend at the 2011 Saab Owners Conventions (our geekery knows no bounds.)

Here's where this gets REALLY interesting. Our buddy Greg from Minneapolis sold us a 2000 Saab 9-5 Aero and offered to drive it to NJ for us to pick up. Seeing a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I gathered the gear to make a time-lapse video of the entire length of I-90, the longest interstate highway in the US and, most likely, the world. I set the camera to take one shot every ten seconds, then spend an afternoon stitching it together and giving it subtitles.

Here is that effort.

It is 24 minutes long, and has an amazing kick-ass soundtrack. It was a serious blast to make. Hope you like!

UPDATE 9/3 by Cartophiliac:

To make it even easier to view ThatSaabGuy's video, I have embedded it here:

The Northwest Passage

This morning, on National Public Radio, there was a report on how the shrinking Arctic polar icecap may finally open the explorer's dream, the fabled Northwest Passage:

The Arctic may be the world's next geopolitical battleground. Temperatures there are rising faster than anywhere else in the world, and the melting ice will have profound consequences on the roof of the world, opening strategic waterways to shipping, reducing the ice cap on Greenland, and spurring a rush to claim rights to the wealth of natural resources that lie beneath. NPR examines what's at stake, who stands to win and lose, and how this could alter the global dynamic.

This article, first in a six-part series, includes an animation of the diminishing sea ice over the last twenty years.

While this news might have warmed the heart of Sir John Franklin don't tell the Polar Bears...

More Carto Hot Hate

The only weather map you’ll need this summer:

HT to Kate

Baby, It's Hot Outside

Much of the Northern Hemisphere is experiencing extremely hot temperatures this month. Naturally, this brings on talk of global warming, which also means lots of burning globe illustrations. After reading this article, Politicizing Extinction, I decided to see how many other "hot earth" images I could find.

Have you seen any other good ones?

The Connected States of America

From paintandink:


MIT's Senseable City Lab did a study on the connections demonstrated by cell phone calls in America, and although, at a glance, it looks like the study has some flaws (they only used data from their sponsor AT&T, for example, which would leave out communities without good AT&T coverage), the maps they created are pretty cool:


Also, even though it's kind of cheesy, I like the title "The Connected States of America."


Via FastCo Design (Fast Company's design blog).