Date archive for December, 2009
December 29, 2009 World Database of Large Urban AreasDataNorpil has made available their layer of Large Urban Areas for downloading. Tabular data from the United Nation’s World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision Population Database was joined to the 2008 cities dataset that comes with ESRI’s Data & Maps sample data and other sources of data. The database is available for unrestricted download, under ... read more December 27, 2009 Deadly Cold Across Europe and RussiaGeographyA wave of frigid air spilled down over Europe and Russia from the Arctic in mid-December, creating a deadly cold snap. According to BBC.com, at last 90 people had died in Europe, including 79 people, mostly homeless, in Poland. In places, the bitter cold was accompanied by heavy snow, which halted rail and air traffic ... read more December 18, 2009 World’s Smallest Map?Cartography, GIS NewsWith a scale of 1 trillonth, a map of the world was etched on to a corner of an optical silicon chip by the Photonics Research Group of Ghent University-IMEC. Using CMOS fabrication tools, IMEC has reduced the 40-thousand-kilometer circumference at the equator down to 40 micrometer, about half the width of a human hair. The ... read more World's Smallest Map?Cartography, GIS NewsWith a scale of 1 trillonth, a map of the world was etched on to a corner of an optical silicon chip by the Photonics Research Group of Ghent University-IMEC. Using CMOS fabrication tools, IMEC has reduced the 40-thousand-kilometer circumference at the equator down to 40 micrometer, about half the width of a human hair. The ... read more December 17, 2009 Google Adds Geospatial and Attribute Search to Maps Data APIWeb MappingGoogle announced on the Google Geo Developers Blog that the Maps Data API now allows for geospatial and attribute search: First, we’re adding geospatial and attribute search to your maps. To see these features in action, play around with this College Finder demo (you can download and modify the source code here). I created a Google My Map ... read more December 15, 2009 MapQuest Tries to Keep UpWeb MappingMapQuest, lagging behing both Google and Bing, released 360. That’s right, you can now view MapQuest Maps in a whole new way. We have developed a simple, easy-to-use interface that fits seamlessly into the MapQuest mapping experience you have come to know and understand. 360 View provides fantastic panoramic views (360° horizontally and 160° vertically) ... read more December 14, 2009New Maps and Design on the David Rumsey Map Collection SiteMapsDavid Rumsey has added 1,238 new maps and images to his site, the David Rumsey Collection. Some highlights: Included are John Cary’s comprehensive road map of England and Wales from 1794 (plus a composite image joining all 81 sheets), John Wilson’s important Map of South Carolina, 1822, Pick’s time-line historical chart from 1858, geological and oil maps of ... read more  Take the Directions Media 2009 Reader SurveyIssues in GISDirections Media, an online GIS publication, has made their annual reader survey available. The survey this year looks how readers read Directions Media and other sources of news online for GIS. Results will be published soon in 2010. Take the survey and you can register to win an Amazon Kindle. Take the Survey: Directions Media ... read more December 12, 2009 PortableMapsWeb MappingPortableMaps is tile based mapping framework for ArcGIS at the View license developed by Michael Chamberlain. It allows users to publish their content to the web as a tile cache without the need for a map server or database. The framework also allows the drawing and saving of vector graphics using the new canvas tag ... read more  Atlas ObscuraAtlasesBilling itself as a “Compendium of the World’s Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica”, Atlas Obscura is a modern day online Cabinet of Curiosities. The site was created for the purpose of cataloging all of the singular, eccentric, bizarre, fantastical, and strange out-of-the-way places that get left out of traditional travel guidebooks and are ignored by the ... read more |
