Drone Laws

I have a feeling resolutions like this might be more ubiquitous in the near future. 

"The Charlottesville City Council on Monday night rebuffed an attempt to totally ban unmanned aircraft in the city’s airspace, and instead passed a resolution that pledges that the city will not use information obtained by drones in court."

MSNBC: Virginia city becomes first to pass anti-drone resolution

I hope to get a fixed wing drone off the ground by years end.  If all goes well, I hope to document the process here.  I plan on using the Arduino-compatible ArduPlane module and a Bixler 2 powered glider. I think the biggest hurdle will be automating the picture taking process.  I am also mulling a quad or hexacopter, though.  I just think fixed wing would be good for mapping swathes of a given area.

Fantastic(al) cartography! (Fantasy Maps)

This index of maps from fantasy books and settings seems to have a distinct lack of my favorite fantasy world.  Here...let me contribute to: A Fantasy Reader: Index of Maps

Oh Discworld...so often forgotten. 

 And therein, the great city of Ankh-Morpork. 

How close are we to mapping extra-solar planets?

"Astronomers could one day create rough maps of far-away planets using information taken from starlight reflection, determining the balance of oceans, lands and overhanging clouds."

The process isn't exact.  They liken it to trying to figure out what's on a muted TV in another room based on the reflection of the light on the opposite wall.

Below is a test image of Earth from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft.  With the information from the spacecraft, they were able to discern three distinct surface types - land, ocean and cloud.

So we're not going to have a topo map of Gliese 581 c anytime soon, but we might be able to find out a little more about it.

Read the whole article:  Live Science: Mapping Distant Planet Surfaces

The Chicago Gun Trail

The New York times recently ran a map showing where 50,000 guns recovered in violent crime riddled Chicago came from.

"The Chicago Police Department traced the origins of about 50,000 guns that it recovered between 2001 and March 2012. More than half of those guns came from outside the state."

I think it's interesting to note that the states where most of the guns came from are directly bordering it, with the exception of Mississippi.  There is a blurb about the MS connection below the map.  I would really like to see more about this relationship.

NY Times: Where 50,000 Guns Recovered in Chicago Came From 

Australia is so hot, meterologists have to get creative

Australia has gotten so hot recently that meteorologists have had to add colors to their heat maps.  Previously, temperature gradations were capped at 50c (122f), but they've had to increase the cap to 54c (130f).

Australia's "dome of heat" has become so intense that the temperatures are rising off the charts – literally.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/temperatures-off-the-charts-as-australia-turns-deep-purple-20130108-2ce33.html

Navigating Physics - Strange Maps

Strange maps has a nice little piece up on a 1939 map of physics. I don't think I've ever wanted a map of non-spatial information more.  I want to travel down Electromagnetic River...I'll avoid Lake Radioactivity, though.

"This spatial representation of the subject, dating from 1939, defines itself as Being a map of physics, containing a brief historical outline of the subject as will be of interest to physicists, students, laymen at large; Also giving a description of the land of physics as seen by the daring sould who venture there; And more particularly the location of villages (named after pioneer physicists) as found by the many rivers; Also the date of founding of each village; As well as the date of its extinction; and finally a collection of various and sundry symbols frequently met with on the trip."

Strange Maps - 1939 Map of Physics 
 

Great Advice from @PetersonGIS

A wall of text does not get your point across.

My favorites:

#4 Make a dramatic graphic statement that looks different from the maps around you. This is a sure-fire way to get your map noticed.
#5 That drama needs to highlight your SINGLE teaching point

How to Design a Winning Map Poster

Historical Landsat Images

Wired is running a nice little article on some of Landsat's most significant images. 

From the shrinking Aral sea to the Kuwait oil fires see some startling imagery at:
Wired: Landsat’s Most Historically Significant Images of Earth From Space

Torch Spotting

Keep track of the Olympic torch as it travels through the UK with ESRI's latest story map.  It also references Flickr photo's tagged for the event to give you up to date pictures.

"Follow the Olympic torch’s journey around the United Kingdom

8,000 torch-bearers are carrying the Olympic flame through 1,000 cities and villages in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Explore today’s and previous days’ photos of the relay; click on future locations (gray symbols) for dates."

"Cartographer's Toolkit" Getting Finishing Touches @PetersonGis

Very interested for this to be released.  It looks like Gretchen's new book will include her previous e-books "Colors For Maps" and "Type For Maps" with an additional chapter on patterns.  It will be nice to have them all in print (yes, I cling to outmoded tree-killing technology). 

Read about recent updates at Gretchen Peterson's blog.

A Map to Comfort

I promise this isn't advertising, just awesome stuff on the interwebs. 

From (the appropriately named) The Awesomer you can get a custom printed map fleece blanket.  Pricey, yes. Awesome, yes.

Check out the Soft Cities fleece blanket (they make cloth napkins too) at The Awesomer.

Fate of the "Lost Colony"

Examination of a map held by British Museum, created in 1585 by Roanoke governor John White, has revealed what some believe is a new clue to what happened to the Roanoke "Lost Colony". Researchers have examined the area beneath two patches attached to the map. One of these patches appears to be a simple correction to the map, but underneath the other patch is a symbol denoting a fort. The patches appear to be contemporaneous with the rest of the map, and American and British scholars believe the fort symbol could indicate where the settlers went.

Full article at The Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9244947/Ancient-map-gives-clue-to-fate-of-Lost-Colony.html)

Tell a Story Through Maps

Recently launched mapstory.org allows users to created animated maps.  Can't wait to see all the MapStories that are created, it should be engaging and informative. 

Play With Maps - Google's Map Labyrinth Game (Cube)

Google Cube is live. Looks like you need Chrome to play with it, though.

Cube: A Game About Google Maps -- http://www.playmapscube.com/

Mexican "Geolocalization Law"

The gov't claims it's to aid in the war on drugs, but is it a severe privacy infraction?

"Last week, revisions to Mexican federal law took effect that give public authorities and law enforcement unprecedented ability to compel mobile phone companies to disclose real-time geographic data from mobile phone companies in a wide variety of cases."

Full article at Ars Technica: Mexican "Geolocalization Law" draws ire of privacy activists

The Demographics of Health Care

AdAge examines major health issues across the US.  It's interesting to see the clustered issues and its implication on care in those areas.

"You might think that, averaged across all populations, disease would be pretty evenly distributed. 

You would be wrong."

The Demographics of Health Care 

Reverse Geocoding Can Get You Sued

Story from geocoder.ca:

This is the grist of the matter:
Since 2004 we have crowdsourced^* the generation of the "Canadian Postal Code Geocoded Database." When you make a query to geocoder containing for example this information "1435 Prince of Wales, Ottawa, ON K2C 1N5", we then extract the postal code "K2C 1N5" and insert it into the database that you may download for free on this website.

This allows you to look up a postal code (eg K2C 1N5) on www.geocoder.ca, or www.openstreetmap.org or a number of other sites that use geocoder.ca data and technology.

Since we do not have a postal code dataset from the authority on postal code assignments, namely "Canada Post", we derive and guess this information sometimes with pretty good accuracy results.

Now "Canada Post" has sued "Geocoder.ca" in Federal Court, asking "Geocoder.ca" to take this database down from this website, and also to "pay Canada Post" damages on lost business the later has suffered by not selling enough copies of their own postal code file (last time I checked at $5,000CAD a piece).

This brings us here. Having to face a crown corporation with deep pockets in Federal Court, over something we have created but which they believe otherwise.

Fighting for principle is expensive, and we will do it. Even against the odds, namely the foremost law firm in the country for IP litigation, hired by Canada Post to bring us down. 

It will be easier with your help. If you are an entity or person who has benefited from Geocoder.ca free or commercial products and services write your thoughts on Canada Post's desire to shut down this website.

ESRI Story Map of the Titanic

ESRI has a nice interactive map up of the Titanic voyage. You can click on passenger class to see their hometown.  No information about a large chunk of the fatalities, though...the crew.

ESRI Titanic Story Map

New Independent State of Azawad

Friday, the New York Times reported that the Tuareg rebels who overran the northern regions of Mali have declared independence.  The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (NMLA) is currently administering control until a national authority is formed.  The MNLA declared Azawad an independent state on 6 April 2012 and pledged to draft a constitution establishing it as a democracy. Their statement also acknowledged the United Nations charter and said the new state would uphold its principles.

Trimble Acquires Gatewing

First the FAA talks to open up civilian UAV traffic and now Trimble announced Friday that it's buying Gatewing.

I posted about Gatewing a few weeks ago: Are (non-orbiting) UAVs the Future of Aerial Imagery?

Here's a little more about them.

About Gatewing
Founded in 2008, Gatewing designs and provides one of the world's fastest and easiest to use remote sensing solutions for the surveying and mapping industry. Based on its revolutionary X100 lightweight unmanned aircraft, Gatewing has built a solution for rapid terrain mapping that consists of image acquisition field operation and fully digital and automated image processing. By making this technology highly accessible in terms of price and ease of use, Gatewing's goal is to revolutionize the surveying and mapping industry.

Trimble press release.