Will print maps survive Google Maps and the iPad? If Dave Imus’s new Essential Geography of the U.S. is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes!
Wall maps are large, physical artifacts that evoke our love of place. Indeed, they are the trophy mounts of the mapping world. They offer fond remembrance of the thrill of adventure, help dream up new trips, and effect a sirens call over friends and family with their proud display of  geography. Custom cartography reminds us place is not the sum of a street network but a overlay of cultural story and physiographic pattern. As OpenStreetMap, NavTeq, TeleAtlas, and the like duke it out in the PND and 1:10,000 scale road-map-as-a-service space, this map shows our discipline at it’s best.
Now for the specs. This beautiful wall map is drawn at 1:4 million scale (36″ tall by 48″ wide, ~65 miles to the inch). That’s twice the detail you get from Natural Earth’s raw GIS data. I was sent a preliminary copy for review and several attentions to detail catch my eye:
Major airports are located and labeled with their 3-character code (SFO, LAX, LGA, etc).
Attractions are listed for most metropolitan cities (Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, fisherman’s warf in San Francisco).
A compilation of small, mid, and large size cities nestle between named mountain ridges, settle the green forests, and line the coast. Some even have their elevation noted (“mile high” Denver at 5280 feet).
This human geography is connected by a road network with shields indicating relative lane widths, but still showing small rural routes when they are the only access thru town.
National parks and other sites are outlined and named.
The map is fittingly dedicated to William Loy, long time geography professor and coauthor of the award winning Atlas of Oregon (University of Oregon Press, 2001) who passed over in 2003. The map goes on sale this fall, perfect for the gifting season. Available soon at Imus Geographics »
It seems like 99 percent of the mail we send is electronic these days. The other 1 percent is letters and postcards that we want to postmark with our (usually enviable) location for the recipient. That’s why we dig these uber-accurate Google Maps envelopes. Now we can say Hello from 100 Holomoana Street, Honolulu, HI, 96815!
[Editor’s note: The famous Xian warriors are stationed at National Geographic’s Explorer’s Hall in Washington, DC, thru March 31, 2010, open daily with late Wednesdays. Entrance fee applies, museum has details.]
An army for the afterlife By Michael O’Sullivan. Friday, November 20, 2009
Buried for more than 2,000 years until their accidental discovery by Chinese farmers in 1974, the world-famous terra cotta warriors — a life-size militia of about 7,000 clay figures created to protect China’s first emperor in the afterlife — have arrived in Washington. Well, 15 of the 1,000 or so that have been unearthed, along with more than 100 related artifacts from the grave site of Qin Shihuangdi (259-210 B.C.) in Shaanxi province.
On view through March 31 at the National Geographic Museum, the last stop on a four-city U.S. tour, “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” is the first time this many of the figures have traveled to the States. What’s more, according to museum director Susan Norton, museum-goers here will be able to get within a few feet of the warriors, far closer than even at the original archeological site, where visitors look down on the burial pits from a distance.
[Editor’s note: That’s what Russians say when they’re not pulling your leg. This book from National Geographic has this and other intriguing idioms from around the world. It’s beautifully illustrated by New Yorker cartoonist Julia Suits. Good for the holiday gift list. Thanks Jag!]
That’s what Russians say when they’re not pulling your leg.
From National Geographic Books by Jag Bhalla
A collection of 1,000 funny and intriguing expressions from around the world.
These odd sayings say a lot about how odd the human mind can be.
NPR “An Enchanting Tour” listen and read here
The Splendid Table on the food chapter listen and read here
PRI “A Banquet of foreign idioms” listen here
Guardian “On the joys of idioms” read here
Guardian quiz read here
“On language addiction (its our most ubiquitous mind altering drug) and the thrill of the novel (semantic ambush)†read here
Example Idioms
Not hanging noodles on your ears: Russian – not kidding
To live like a maggot in bacon: German – live in luxury
Like fingernail and dirt: Spanish, Mexico – well suited
Bang your butt on the ground: French – die laughing
Plucked like a chicken: Yiddish – exhausted
To bite the elbow: Russian – to cry over spilt milk
Smoke from 7 orifices of head: Chinese – to be furious
To become naked: Japanese – to go broke, poor
An ant milker: Arabic – a miser, tight wad
Give it to someone with cheese: Spanish – to deceive
Squeezer of limes: Hindi – self invited guest, idler
To break wind into silk: French – live the life of Riley
To reheat cabbage: Italian – rekindle an old flame
[Editor’s note: Matthew Hampton of Portland Metro’s GIS team put me on to his beautiful fitness + pretty maps guide walks for Portland, Oregon at NACIS. It’s a collaboration with Kaiser HMO and was awarded best of show at ESRI’s 2009 User Conference. Check out the legend and download route maps. Or buy a copy from Powell’s Books.]
Republished from Powell’s and Oregonian.
Lived here all your life or just visiting, Walk There! is like a magazine subscription of where to go, how to get there and the secrets you need to know when you arrive. Walk There! 50 treks in and around Portland and Vancouver, Metro’s collection of fifty, eye-opening walks exploring the paths and past that make up the neighborhoods of Portland and linked cities is a series of new walking routes blended with familiar favorites, each mapped with an easy-to-follow legend for parks, viewpoints, restrooms, eateries and access to each walk by public transportation. Each of the fifty walks come alive with colorful anecdotes, the perspective of history, a connection of natural areas, and native flora and fauna that makes Walk There! a unique, pocket size guide to arriving and thriving!
Laura O. Foster is an author and editor who specializes in writing about one of her great passions: Portland, Oregon. She also writes children’s nonfiction books, including the award-winning Boys Who Rocked the World, and works as a freelance book editor.
Free guide to Portland area’s best walks: Metro’s “Walk There!”
Walking costs nothing. It burns calories. And it gives you a new perspective on the Portland area. So says an evangelizing new guidebook, “Walk There!”
Metro, the regional government, makes its first foray into foot travel with 50 excursions. Each walk comes with a slick description, photos, map and difficulty rating — think Frommer’s, not government bylaws.
Treks are assigned to categories: For a power walk, hit the stairs in Alameda. Take a lunchtime stroll in downtown Gresham, enjoy the natural beauty of Fanno Creek or get your urban fix on North Mississippi Avenue.
Metro credits Kaiser Permanente with the idea and funds for the guidebooks, which are free. Governments, nonprofits and outdoor groups helped craft routes. And editing credits go to Laura O. Foster, author of “Portland Hill Walks” and the upcoming “Portland City Walks.”
The Oregonian talked walking with two forces behind the book: Foster and Metro president David Bragdon. Click below to read the edited interviews.
[Editor’s note: I picked up this fascinating read while in San Francisco earlier this month and devoured the artwork and critical essays by Gayle Clemans on the flight back to DC. Features pieces by Maya Lin and Paula Scher previously mentioned here. Thanks Jag!]
Artists & designers using the map medium for experimental art & innovation http://su.pr/2sijN4
What tattoo art has to do with fashion, vintage atlases and Nazi concentration camps.
We’ve always been fascinated by maps — through various elements of design, from typography to color theory to data visualization, they brilliantly condense and capture complex notions about space, scale, topography, politics and more. But where things get most interesting is that elusive intersection of the traditional and the experimental, where artists explore the map medium as a conceptual tool of abstract representation. And that’s exactly what The Map of the Art, a fantastic Morning News piece by Katharine Harmon, examines.
Corriette Schoenaerts, ‘Europe,’ 2005
Schoenaerts, a conceptual photographer living in Amsterdam, constructs countries and continents out of clothing.
Qin Ga, ‘Site 22: Mao Zedong Temple,’ 2005
In 2002, China’s Long March Project embarked upon a ‘Walking Visual Display’ along the route of the 1934-1936 historic 6000-mile Long March, and Beijing-based artist Qin kept tracked the group’s route in a tattooed map on his back. Three years later, Qin continued the trek where the original marchers had left off, accompanied by a camera crew and a tattoo artist, who continually updated the map on Qin’s back.
[Editor’s note: The future is here. Not quite immersive, but at least augmented by overlaying points-of-interest icons over a live video feed from your iPhone’s camera (YouTube video above). Makes use of iPhone 3.0 OS features to push route disruption notices and in-app purchases of bus routes and additional points of interest.]
Beating out acrossair’s Nearest Tube, French company Presselite has released the first augmented reality app for the iPhone, Metro Paris Subway 3.0. Previous versions have relied on 2D maps as users navigate the Paris subway system, identifying routes and points of interest. Version 3.0 allows users to find POIs using a live video mode, on top of which the app overlays icons and distance markers.
As a user walks through Paris, icons shift relative to a phone’s position, judged according to compass and GPS data. Because of the function’s dependence on compass headings, augmented reality can only be used with an iPhone 3GS. The app costs $1; other changes in v3.0 include Google Maps integration, push notifications for route disruptions, and in-app purchase options for bus routes and different POI categories.
Single butterflies laser-cut from vintage maps, charts, and plans. Presented in a glass-fronted display case measuring 285 x 285 x 125 mm. Sold complete with flush-fit hanging bracket and unique identification plate. All these works are one-off originals.
Priced at £200 including UK delivery. Overseas delivery rates on request.
Further details can be found on the butterfly info page.
For sales enquiries please email sales@imagesurgery.com
