Fantastic Maps

"Aldhous, who teaches data visualization at University of California, Berkeley’s School of Journalism and science communication at University of California, Santa Cruz, joined BuzzFeed’s science desk after working for Nature, Science and New Scientist magazines.

At BuzzFeed he has been honing his digital storytelling with a focus on pairing maps and charts with his stories. He’s using frameworks for storytelling that BuzzFeed is well known for, but leveraging them to experiment with visual science journalism. Recently, for instance, he effectively used BuzzFeed’s signature listicle format to explain the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina."

The map above shows (just about) every country code top-level domain (ccTLD) extension and the country it corresponds to. Where are .io, .ly & .tv located?

The initial set of Esri vector basemaps includes eight different map styles built using a single vector tile service. This set of vector basemaps is available through the Esri Vector Basemaps (Beta) group in ArcGIS Online. The group includes vector basemaps in multiple styles, some that closely resemble existing Esri basemaps (e.g. Streets, Topographic, Light Gray Canvas), and others that are new (e.g. Streets at Night, Navigation, and Imagery Hybrid). The vector basemaps are available as both web maps, which can be used as a basemap for adding other layers, and as tile layers, which can be added to existing maps either as a basemap or overlay layer.

The artist’s highly imaginative waterway was created using satellite imagery from NASA

Before MSNBC’s apology, pro-Palestinian activists praised the segment as a rare instance of mainstream media honesty about Israeli occupation.

Map of North America from the Tactile Atlas for the Blind by the Princeton Braillists.

Daniel Huffman unfurls the Great Lake’s massive shoreline to map how people relate to it.

A Chinese farmer has planted a map of his country in his back yard, using different varieties of rice to yield different colours.

Are you one of the millions of Americans opting into "job sprawl" over a short commute?

Vessel positions tracking based on AIS data. Real-time ship locations, port arrivals and departures.

33,169 people were killed by guns in the US in 2013. However, the rates at which people were killed by guns varied widely between states and regions.

"Daylight saving time was created to benefit Americans, but not every part of the country is affected equally. Within the Eastern time zone, for instance, the sun rises a whole 40 minutes earlier in New York City than it does in Detroit. To illustrate how daylight saving time impacts sunrise and sunset times around the county, cartographer Andy Woodruff published a series of helpful maps on his website."

The death toll amounts to 373,377 lost lives.

"A beautiful new book called MAP: Exploring the World is the perfect insight into the world of cartography, with the book featuring rare and ancient maps from pioneers, illustrators and cartographers.

And it’s not just geographical – the book shows the way in which design, politics, and how we see ourselves has changed as the world has evolved.

The maps tell their own stories in their own way across 5,000 years of cartographic innovation, from the first attempts by the Greeks and scrolls of Eastern Asia, to the complexity of modern life."

A recently discovered map of Middle-earth annotated by JRR Tolkien reveals The Lord of the Rings author’s observation that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford, and implies that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration behind the fictional city of Minas Tirith.

"It doesn't matter where you're from in the world, knob and bollocks are the same." – Karl Pilkington.

Map enthusiasts from around the world converged in Minneapolis this week to attend the North American Cartographic Information Society's annual conference downtown.

For the first time, the NACIS is inviting the public to view more than 100 maps the group has on display, ranging from posters with smartphone-friendly codes to intricate maps hand-drawn by children.

Old maps get a lot of love, and with good reason—with their sea monsters and sheer craftsmanship, they can transport us through both space and time. But although they lack fold-mark furrows, there’s something to be said for new maps, too. Leafing through Mind the Map, a stunning new book from Gestalten, it’s hard not to think we’re living in the middle of a map renaissance, a time when cartographers and illustrators have good design on their minds and satellite data at their fingertips.

An interview with John Hessler, a cartography expert at the Library of Congress and one of the people behind the new book, Map: Exploring The World.