Nova Scotia Map Mural

 I’m in Nova Scotia this week in places with poor internet so I was not planning on posting anything. Then I saw this fantastic mural on the side of a building in Annapolis Royal so I just had to share it. Enjoy!

Tyne River Shipbuilders

While researching something unrelated, I came across this series of maps showing ship builders and related industries on the River Tyne in and near Newcastle, UK. 

The maps, from 1972, stretch from the mouth of the river (above) to the City of Newcastle upon Tyne,

and westward to Heddon-on-the-Wall, that wall being Hadrian's Wall. The river has been somewhat straightened to fit the rectangular format of the map. The bottom panel lists the bridges with their height and also has a table of distances to the seaward end of the river.

Explore it all here.

The Film Industry's Nine Dash Line Problem

This summer's hit movie Barbie has been banned in Vietnam for its portrayal of the Nine Dash Line on a world map. Note: I have not (yet) seen any of the movies or shows listed below.

This line represents China's claims in the South China Sea. These claims have been rejected by the United Nations. In the above image, via Vox, it is the white squiggle to the right of Asia. Here is the line on a map from the Daily Mail.

The inclusion of this line on a very stylized, child-like map that is clearly not meant to be accurate is curiously unnecessary. The speculation in many articles was that the line was added to appease Chinese government censors and open the movie up to the huge Chinese market. This is not the first controversy about the Nine Dash Line on screen. Disney's movie Abominable also shows this line in a scene that was ordered removed by the Malaysian government and was also boycotted by Vietnam.

Image from YouTube

The Philippine government banned two episodes of the Netflix series Pine Gap for showing this line on maps. The line in the image below is barely noticeable but it is there in red.

Image via Radio Free Asia-cropped to better fit this space

The movie Uncharted was also banned in Vietnam for use of an "illegal image" of a map. This two second frame shows the same line.

The image above is from an (pre-Barbie) article in Esquire titled Every Time Hollywood Messed Up and Displayed China's Illegal Nine Dash Line on Screen. This article shows more stills of these maps including one from Crazy Rich Asians that appears on a designer handbag. It does not show the line but still ran afoul of the Vietnamese censors.
 

Water Taxis of Paris

Here is a nice map of the water taxi system in Paris, circa 1900.

Boats pulled by horses or with oars or sails were eventually replaced by steam powered boats in the 1800's. They were a large part of the Paris transportation network before the railroads took over in the early 1900's. 

Recently a new commuter boat service the Voguéo was started to serve part of the area. The maps are not nearly as attractive.

 

Summer of Extremes

It's been a summer of extremes around the world. Here is the United States we have dangerous heat,

via Washington Post

 droughts and floods, existing in close proximity in places,

US Drought Monitor

and wildfire smoke covering much of the country.

via Newsweek

Around the world there are floods in Pakistan and Japan, huge wildfires in Canada, droughts in South America and probably many more situations that I have not been following. For those still in denial about global warming, here's a picture of just a normal summer day in Phoenix.

via YouTube

Pictorial Bird's Eye Map of Banff

Here is a really nice pictorial map of Banff, showing the mountains, rivers, railroads and hotels. 

 Mountains are listed with their elevations.

A quiet corner at the end of Lake Minnewanka,

and some sky above the ice field.

Browse the whole map here.

Protein Survey Map

While looking for unrelated items I came across this 1920's Protein Survey Map of Western Canada.

Wondering what any of this means, I did some research and discovered that protein refers to the gluten content of wheat. In the early 1900's flour mills began classifying their wheat based on protein content with premiums offered for the highest protein flour.

The map follows along the railroad lines because rail cars were tested for gluten content. The color scheme of this map is hard to follow but red is the highest protein content followed by blue. 

The map credits the chemists in addition to the Trade and Commerce Department minsters. I lost the original source of the above map but found this map from a few years later

with an even more detailed and confusing color scheme.

Here is the title block.
 

In a previous post I highlighted the Alphabet Railway. Here is a piece of that, with a few interruptions for pre-existing towns.

See the whole map here.