ONE'S A TV SHOW?
What's The Difference Between San Francisco, Silicon Valley, And The Bay Area?
YouTuber VanDeGraph gets deep into San Francisco's geography and gives a lot of fascinating tidbits about the tech mecca.
IT'S NOT FLAT, EITHER
The Earth Is Not A Sphere
It's actually closer to an ellipsoid. How do we know that? How do we calculate the distances between places on different sides of the globe? How do pilots know which direction to head when they're over the ocean with no landmarks? Enter Geodetics Engineering.
VARYS IS WHERE NOW?
The Impossible Journeys Of 'Game Of Thrones' Season Six, Mapped
The characters in Westeros are constantly in transit, traversing from the North to the Riverlands or sailing across the Narrow Sea to hang out with Daenerys in Meereen. And damn, do they move fast.
DANG, PORTUGAL
European Wine Consumption, Mapped
Wine is one of the most popular alcoholic beverages in Europe, with the French alone consuming about the same amount of wine as the whole population of the United States combined. Here's a breakdown by country.
TURNING EVERYTHING UPSIDE DOWN
Why Is 'North' At The Top Of Maps?
Despite almost everybody imagining that the world is this way up, there is no good, scientific reason to think of north as being the roof of the world.
'LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE TRYING TO DRAW A MAP'
Bungled Borders In The Pacific Northwest
June 15th marks the 170th anniversary of the signing of the Oregon Treaty, a fascinating chapter in America’s long history of territorial growing pains. Maps were drawn and scrutinized, diplomats argued for control, and a war was nearly started over… a pig.
A NON-CRASH COURSE
How To Read A Pilot’s Map Of The Sky
The coastal mountains and cities scattered around San Francisco Bay might be easily recognizable. But superimposed on that familiar landscape are cryptic numbers, strange symbols, and overlapping circles that hinted at an entirely different world in the skies above.
THE ONLY CHEAT SHEET YOU'LL EVER NEED
A 19th-Century Cartographer Crammed All Of Human History Into This Map
In 1842, mapmaker JH Colton tried to chart the history of the universe in just under nine square feet. His diagram, called Stream of Time, or Chart of Universal History, takes the form of a 45-by-28-inch map with winding rivers and tributaries feeding into one another.
STREET REVIEW
An In-Depth Comparison Of Google Maps And Apple Maps
Google Maps and Apple Maps are both are in a race to become the world’s first Universal Map — that is, the first map used by a majority of the global population. In many ways, this makes them two of the most important maps ever made. Who will get there first? And will design be a factor?
LANDSCAPE PORTRAITS
The Unsung Beauty Of US Topographical Maps
For the past number of years, I have been collecting the U.S.G.S.’s maps, treating them as eminently affordable pieces of American art.
NULL FEEL RIGHT AT HOME
Null Island Is One Of The Most Visited Places On Earth. Too Bad It Doesn't Exist
The ocean spot is the center of the world's geocoded map mistakes.
NO COUNTRY FOR CITIES
What Happened To Google Maps?
Browsing Google Maps over the past year or so, I've often thought that there are fewer labels than there used to be. Mainly — where did all the cities go?
1860: 4 MILLION; 1870: ZERO
Mapping The Rise And Fall Of Slavery Between 1790 And 1870
How and where did slavery grow in the 1800s before the Emancipation Proclamation? Radical Cartography maps it out.
WHAT ABOUT A MAP ON A KINDLE?
Have We Become Too Reliant On GPS?
For starters, these devices don't always work as well as we think they do, and can fail in surprising ways. Worse, our reliance on GPS might be causing our innate navigational capabilities to atrophy over time, leaving us helpless when technology fails and we're forced to orient ourselves.
YOU'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
How A Weird Glitch Turned A Kansas Farm Into A Digital Bermuda Triangle
In a little town called Potwin, there is a 360-acre piece of land with a very big problem. And the people who live there are finding themselves in a technological horror story.
TAKE (A PICTURE OF) A HIKE, PAL
Google Is Mapping Hiking Trails With Gigantic Camera Backpacks
Google's Trekker program loans out these 40-pound backpack cameras so hikers can record "street-view" images of hiking trails. Pretty cool, as long as you take frequent water breaks.
ACROSS SEVERAL PONDS
What's On The Other Side Of The Ocean? Not The Places You'd Expect
If you're standing on the east coast of the US looking out at the Atlantic Ocean, there's a good chance that the landmass directly across the ocean(s) from you is... Australia?
TAKE THE PATH UNTAKEN
Why You Should Ditch Google Maps For Apple Maps
I count myself among the majority of iPhone owners who not only didn't use Apple Maps, but vehemently avoided it. But I reluctantly gave it a second shot when Apple unveiled the revamped version of Maps for iOS 9. To my amazement, not only did it not completely suck, but it was good.
BEARING RESPONSIBILITY
Making Maps Under Fire During The Revolutionary War
Battles during the War for Independence were fought, won, and lost over who had the most accurate map.
STARDUST-GAZING
David Bowie's Life, Mapped
Bowie sung, acted, painted, and fell in love all around the world. Take a tour of some of the places that defined his life and career.
That's our best stuff for today. Great job!
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