Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with maps

Website to sort and display different mountain heights?

seasparrow — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:56:36 -0800

Is there a website that would show the world sorted by elevation? I recently enjoyed reading Plague Year, a post-apocalyptic thriller. The main conceit of this science-fiction novel is that a nanotechnology plague that kills any warm blooded animal (including humans), but the disease self-destructs at altitudes above 10,000 feet. How much territory would this be across the whole planet? I liked the book. It isn't great literature, but the author, Jeff Carlson, thinks through the ramifications of a world where most mammals are now extinct and a tiny fragment of humanity clings to a few frozen mountain-tops. Carlson also doesn't shy away or sugar-coat the realities of such a situation. He also doesn't make it easy for his characters, unlike other authors in the post-apocalyptic genre. (Yes, I'm pointing at you, S.M. Stirling.) Some of the protagonists feel guilty about the cannibalism they had to resort to in order to survive, but at least they are alive, unlike 99.9% of the human race.

So, like I said, a fun read that got me thinking. My real question for the Hive Mind is-- in all the great variety of the internet, is there some sort of geographical website that would allow me to view the world through the filter of all elevations above 10,000 feet?

Which sparks another question: Have you seen the maps that occasionally appear showing what the world would look like if global warming caused the sea levels to rise 50 or 100 feet? Is there a website that will let you do that as well? Maybe even set your own parameters on how much you want the water levels to rise or fall, and then generate a map for you?

Does anyone work in the field? Isn't is called Geographical Information Systems? It sounds fascinating. I think I might enjoy working a GIS job eventually. Questions like these linger in my mind, so much so that I'm willing to spend my one-a-week currency of an AskMe question to see what the sophisticated and cosmopolitcal Mefite community has to say about it.

Thanks for your help, and I hope I'm not the only weirdo who thinks about these things!

Creating a Map Based on Distances Between Cities

Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:03:51 -0800

Mapping question: I have a list of (imaginary) cities. I also know each city's as-the-crow-flies distance from every other city on the list. Based on this data alone, I would like to create a (hypothetical) map that shows all of these cities in their proper locations. I recognize that that the map's "rotation" would be arbitrary based on where & how you start plotting, but it seems that you should be able to plot out the relationships between cities properly. Is there software that can help me do this? To be a little more concrete, imagine that you have a mileage chart similar to this one. (That chart contains driving distances, but let's assume we have as-the-crow-flies distances instead.) If you pick an arbitrary starting point for one city, you can then plot out where every other city belongs, because you know how far each city is supposed to be from all the other cities.

I can envision at least one simple way to do this manually if you have just a handful of cities. But if you have a lot of cities, it becomes harder and harder. So I'd love to know if there is software that can calculate and draw such a map automatically. (Note: Using latitude/longitude is not an option - the scenario only involves knowing as-the-crow-flies distances between imaginary cities.) Thanks!

Where did that continent go?

WhackyparseThis — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:39:01 -0800

Is there any technical reason why Antarctica often gets left off world maps?

No, they toilets don't spin opposite of the northern hemisphere.

Keith Talent — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:47:51 -0800

I was just recently in Buenos Aires. The Time Out Guide had the maps in the back oriented with north facing down. Why? I would think southern hemisphere maps would still face north up due to magnetic north and wayfinding with a compass. Was this just a case of Time Out being wrong/different/thinking logically that the south pole would be the desired direction of orientation in the southern hemisphere? And yes, we were perpetually lost until we flipped the guide upside down and west/east left/right were as they should be.

Finding my way around a new town

tdreyer — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:45:10 -0800

We're moving in about a week to the Kansas City area and I'm trying to find all the necessary amenities around our new place. What websites do you use to find things around the Kansas City area? We're moving in about a week to the Kansas City area and I'm trying to find all the necessary amenities around our new place. I've been using a Google maps search, but about 1/2 of everything on there is old or in the wrong place.

What sites would you suggest for finding:
*Restaurants
*Grocery Stores
*Shopping

Looking for a nystagmus/artcar tracker

tacit_urn — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:14:55 -0800

Help me find online map based tracking tools I'm looking for software that will help me graph both time and physical location. For example, I want to keep track of every time and every place I get nystagmus. Evenings, when I'm at sea-level? Sundays near crowds?

I also envision the same tool being used by a group of friends to pinpoint when and where they spot a certain art car in town.

Maybe something like google maps, with colored pinpoints for time. If anyone has example data of this variety that is graphed in a meaningful way, I'd like a link to that as well.

What can you see in satellite photos?

k. — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:33:01 -0800

Satellite photos: what interesting features can be seen or measured in them (or other aerial photos), and where can I get a supply of images? Examples I have already seen, from some crude Google-searching:
Roads
Buildings
Degree of development (urban/suburban/rural)
Oil spills (apparently these are usually hard to see)
Blooms of algae (cyanobacteria) in the Baltic Sea
Damage to buildings from earthquakes

More would be appreciated--the more specific, the better. These will be used in a computer vision system, so I'd especially like to know where I can find a supply of images containing whatever feature I'm looking for (including the above)--easy for buildings or roads, but hard for rare events like oil spills. Natural disasters seem interesting, if there are pictures available.

I would also consider some other kind of non-photographic data as well, if it could be combined with maps or photos. Don't worry whether you think it's suitable; any idea you have will help!

Where can I find the Ordnance Survey desktop wallpaper for May 2009?

vogel — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:37:12 -0800

Can you help me find the Ordnance Survey desktop wallpaper for May 2009, please? Preferably 1024x768 size but anything very gratefully accepted. The very splendid UK official mapmakers, the Ordnance Survey, give away desktop wallpaper each month. There's a nice photo of somewhere in the UK with a calendar for the month. I have an almost-comprehensive collection, but like a fool I missed May and, whereas they used to be archived on the site, they've now pulled the archive so if you miss a month you've had it. Copyright problems, I guess.

I found somewhere on the web where people were discussing this and claimed to have archives so I mailed them very politely asking for help. Silence. I'm stuck.

Yes, it is rather OCD-ish of me, but what the h*ll. I like having them, is all. Any bright ideas please? I am pretty sure OS themselves will not be able to help, but I am dropping them a line just in case. But really I think my best hope is someone else who's been as obsessive as me - but more efficient! :)

This one is for all you map enthusiasts out there.

eskers — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:32:56 -0800

What kind of mapping was used to create the UN logo? I have a question about the U.N. logo. Was there a particular map projection used for the globe in the middle of the logo? I'm guessing it's azimuthal from the looks of wikipedia's map projection entry, but it may not be because you can see all of South America, Africa, and Australia in the logo.

Where to Buy Geographia 5 Borough Street Atlas?

jimmyjimjim — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 09:01:43 -0800

Has anyone seen the Geographia 5 Borough Street Atlas for sale anywhere in Queens or Long Island? I could order it from Barnes&Noble, but I'm in a big hurry (and fwiw all their stores are "out of stock"). To make this of interest to more than just myself, I'll note that Geographia's atlas is vastly better than the much more common Rand MacNally one (though it's also sorely in need of an update).

How to refined geocoding of searches

a womble is an active kind of sloth — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:59:33 -0800

What is the best way of getting data from a search engine in a form that it can be parsed into addresses? The end goal is to geocode it. I am interested in geocoding the results of businesses and services that I get as a result of a search. I've experimented with yahoo pipes, but I am unable to get a large number of results, and am not sure if this is the best way to go about it. I imagine people do this quite a bit, so I was wondering what the best strategy was.

I'm quite new to this, so all suggestions welcome.

Once I have addresses, I can bulk-geocode them without a problem, I just need to get to that step.

Embedded Map Alternatives ?

southof40 — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:38:28 -0800

Good looking maps for embedding in web pages with a distinctive look/feel that matches the page it's within (so probably not GoogleMaps/YahooMaps/Bing) ? I'm looking for maps for a website but don't want to the 'normal' Google look and feel. In fact ideally I would be able to tailor aspects of the maps to allow them to fit into the colour scheme of the site.

The purpose of the maps is almost as much as an illustration as it is for information (or at least 50/50).

As far as I can see there's no way to tweak Google Maps to do that ("Let's have the land green and sea yellow and not show roads at all").

Ideally maps would be available for North America and Western Europe but USA alone would be a good start.

I'd welcome any ideas even if they don't match my ideal.

A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood...

richmondparker — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:19:03 -0800

Anybody know of a way to get a map that shows neighborhoods instead of just street names? If it helps, I'm looking for the 30062 area code...

alice waters marker pin

kewlio — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:42:44 -0800

what vegetable is pictured on the alice waters google marker pin? see photo: beet, radish??

Help me help my boss not get lost.

chiababe — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:50:48 -0800

My boss wants me to research GPS units for him to use since he'll be traveling a lot more in the near future. Any recommendations? I really don't know what I should be looking for in a good GPS unit. He wants to spend less than $200. It also needs to be fairly simple to use and update. He's an awesome boss, but not so good with tricky technology. Most of his travel will be within North and South Carolina. We're looking to purchase this within the week, so I won't be able to wait for new models that might be around the corner. I've read a few of the previous questions on this, but I'm wondering if there's anything new and exciting I should be looking at.

Is there a way to query a Google map and have it look up a database and display a message?

friedbeef — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:59:29 -0800

Is there a way to query a Google map and have it look up a database and display a message? I provide a service within a certain area. On my website, I have a Google map, and a JPG file associated with a KML which illustrates an area where my service is provided.

I want to make it so when customers search in the map, and is within my serviceable area, I want something to pop up and say "we can serve you". If not, it takes them to another page.

Is this possible?

Dammit, Mercator!

HumuloneRanger — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:05:15 -0800

Help me find a series of maps with various countries superimposed on the continental US. I used to spend hours poring over atlases as a kid. One of my favorite maps came from a community college course that my grandfather took; it was a map of Africa something like this. Looking back, I really appreciate what an intuitive grasp that gave me of just how HUGE the continent is, when we're usually so accustomed to the Mercator projection.

However, I still find it difficult to get a sense of the sizes of individual countries compared to my own. I'm familiar with common verbal comparisons, e.g. 'France is about the size of Texas,' and the CIA World Factbook is pretty good about providing some less common ones, but this is the sort of thing where a visual is much more helpful. My google-fu is failing me, perhaps because I'm not coming up with a very good search string. This isn't very helpful, because it's cluttered with too many borders and cities and is clearly just two areas from different latitudes of the same Mercator projection. I think this site captures the basic idea of what I'm looking for, although I'd prefer higher quality maps and less in the way of politicization. Something like this map of Alaska, but with India, Japan, Nigeria, etc in its stead.

Where to find a road network for San Francisco?

christy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:27:11 -0800

Looking for a publicly available graph (vertices and edges) representation of San Francisco's streets. Also called a road network I believe. I'm imagining each vertex is an intersection with edges to intersections that are one block away. Not too concerned with format as long as it's parsable.

Other cities are interesting as well, but I really want SF. Thanks in advance!

Twitter twit

bluelight — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:57:37 -0800

Can you tweet location-specific events onto a map? Help! I'm a twitter newbie. Say a couple of local artists are looking to put up their installations in various locations over the next couple of weeks. I'd like to make a map that can be easily updated that would include a marker for each new installation.

Does a twitter application exist for this? Ideally, the artist would notify me that the installation is up. I would then tweet the location, a picture of the installation and a small info blurb onto a map. I could then put the map onto a website or something and have it linked in one of my tweets so that the public can access it.

I know that I could make information markers for each event on google maps but using twitter just seems so much faster. If no twitter application exists for my purposes, do you know of a clean and easy way to create a map like this and embed it into a web page (besides google maps...although I don't know how to save and embed a google map onto a web page anyhow)?

Thank you!

How can one visit the David Rumsey Map Collection to see the maps in person?

pantufla_milagrosa — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 22:34:10 -0800

How can one visit the David Rumsey Map Collection to see the maps in person? A friend of mine, a self-made expert on computational conformal mapping and cartographical curiosa, is in town (= SF) until Sunday and he would love love love to visit it. However, the web site (http://www.davidrumsey.com/) has no indication of whether this is possible (Second Life doesn't count), so it looks like it might not be open to the general public.

Any ideas? If someone knows a back channel it would be awesome. Thanks.

I don't work for the government, promise.

McBearclaw — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:32:32 -0800

I'm trying to map protests in the United States, but I'm grappling with data sources (and will eventually tangle with data management). Any ideas? I'd like to map out protests, riots, bombings, and other cheerful social outings - ideally in the United States, where I have the most contextual knowledge, but that's not a necessity.

My original plan was to scrape AP's US news RSS feed, store everything in some sort of XML database, and then query that for what I need. I just checked their RSS format, and it unfortunately doesn't include the full article. Nor does it include a separate tag for the location, which would make geocoding a bit/much nastier. NYT's feeds are basically the same story. I don't really know where to go from here.

There are basically five steps, and I would love advice on any:
1. Scrape database of news articles.
2. Store in a format that would allow querying by date or location. I'd like to keep all the articles, too, because... really, that would be an awesome dataset.
3. Tag protests (method: NLP, Mech Turk, or caffeinated McB).
4. Tag with date and location.
5. Make pretty maps.

Step 6 is going crazy with spatial stats, but I've got that part covered. I've been letting this project fester for too long, and it is now certifiably brain crack. Any advice on 1-5 would be greatly appreciated.

Aside: I really have thought about the ethical consequences of this. If you're concerned, MeFiMail me and I'll do my best to assuage your doubts.

I can haz demographic displays, plz?

WidgetAlley — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 18:09:46 -0800

I am in need of a program that will allow me to display demographic information by county on a state map. Recommendations? I am interning for the Legal Aid society over the summer, and part of my work includes compiling demographic statistics about their client population and figuring out a way to display it in a way that ties in with a map of our area (Tennessee.) I am looking for a program set up for this, and that will allow me to create some quite sophisticated displays-- for instance, percentage of total population vs. percentage of clients per county, dominant type of cases per county, etc.

Legal Aid is fairly well-funded, but we are still a non-profit; we are willing to make a cash commitment but don't have a whole lot of money to throw around, so cheaper/free is better! Thank you from a lowly intern!

Any interesting map theory books?

slab_lizard — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:06:27 -0800

I'm looking for suggested book(s) for backgrounding myself in map theory. Think somewhere between a history of maps and a technical textbook. I've been looking at maps for 30+ years as a non-geographer, and will be taking some GIS and mapping courses this autumn. So, plenty of text-and-classroom exposure there. What kind of semi-technical background reading would be useful over the summer?

Driving Time Google Map Mash Up?

John Frum — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:16:31 -0800

Does a Google Maps (or other mapping service) mash-up exist that will show me the driving time to various places in a heat map type format? So basically what TripTop does for the NYC subway system, but for driving instead? I'm in the St. Louis area. So, what I'm envisioning is a Google Map that would show me that in 4 hours I could drive to Kansas City, Memphis, Indianapolis, and Louisville. In less than 6 hours I could drive to Madison, Cincinnati, Little Rock, and Tulsa. Something like UPS does for shipping times, but on a driving scale. This would be a great tool for planning weekend getaways.

X does Not mark my spot !

lobstah — Tue, 05 May 2009 06:43:27 -0800

How do I correct a Google Maps error ? …2nd attempt. We operate a home-based business that is off the beaten path, but near a major tourist area. The road we live on was originally a numbered State Route, and formed a loop that passed through 3 different villages. A few years ago, the State decommissioned the road, and granted ownership to the 3 villages. Each of the villages has its own name for this road, and this has resulted in several errors on Google Maps.

Last year after many attempts, I spoke with a Google human, and I explained my dilemma. I was directed to some Web2.0 application where I noted the errors, but there has been no correction. Not only that, but they made a change that further complicates the situation (using a name that already exists for another road).

Who the hell do I call/email to get this corrected? Our season is very short, and our potential clients tend to give up rather easily. Mapquest has it right, but a friend told me his GPS could not find us. Do I need to contact them too? Has anyone had any success changing a Google Map? This has cost us business, and I’m getting a little pissed about it.