Map of the Week 114-Happy Leap Day!

You've been given an extra day on the calendar (why does it have to be in February?) so what crazy thing are you going to do with it? Four years ago you could have romped through the streets of Berkeley pelting chain stores and banks with styrofoam bricks and spilling coffee grounds outside of Starbucks. Here is the map from their 2004 poster showing the locations of all the chain stores-written sideways upside diagonal for your reading pleasure. I assume that none of these stores are still in business given their actions last leap day.

Map of the Week 113-L(a)titudes Exhibit

Tonight is the opening reception for L(a)titudes - a multimedia exhibit at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center where artists "explore mapping borders and boundaries of Israel and Palestine". Among the artists featured is MOTW fan favorite Nikolas Schiller who made this map quilt from a CIA map of Israel - the image on the right is zoomed in.











Unfortunately the JCC web site does not provide much information about the artists so I had to do some digging to find other materials such as the map below from Karey Kessler. I guess you just have to go to find out more. The exhibit will be open until June 2nd so if you're in the neighborhood it's probably worth a visit.

Map of the Week 112-Happy Valentines Day from Egypt!

I was working on a google maps project for my job when I started drifting off to other areas of the world. I got mesmerized by the aerial view (bottom right) of a section of the Nile River near Luxor (Al Uqsur) near the bottom of the map below. I decided to try making a quilt a la Nikolas Schiller. The quilt came out OK but on further review, I decided it would make a nice Valentine's Day heart. So enjoy this content-free Valentine's card from Map of the Week!

Map of the Week 111- Anchors Away!

Last Wednesday off the coast of Egypt, a ship's anchor severed some cables limiting internet access to 75 million people, primarily in Egypt, India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This has had significant impacts on the high tech economy in India and on western companies that have outsourced their tech support there. This story appeared in the Guardian along with the map below of undersea internet connections and lots of hand-wringing about the world's fragile infrastructure.


If you want an even more detailed map of the world's internet infrastructure and feel like spending $250 then take a click on the map below.