Jerry's Map

Read more about it here: https://www.jerrysmap.com/the-map

The map is an imaginary city comprised of over 4,000 8 x 10 inch panels. The static image is below and here's an interactive version: https://marcmajcher.github.io/jerrysmap/

Data Center Infrastructure in the United States (2025)

The map of Data Center Infrastructure in the United States, 2025 is just that: a classic 'static' map.

The Oldest Globe

As seen on Maps Mania: the world’s oldest surviving terrestrial globe from 1492 that obivously does not yet include the Americas!

Times New Roman vs Calibri

This argument is old and the facts are clear, but of course this is back in news recently with the State Department switching back to Times New Roman because Calibri is too woke for them.

The NYT has a nice article: Is Times New Roman Better Than Calibri for the State Department?

Personally, I have been using Calibri for my slidedecks for a long time: it is simple, looks good, and is easy to read. But...maybe a little boring. For text I prefer Garamond - I think it looks elegant & sophisticated. But...Arial is Google Docs default & thus most of my text is now in Arial.

The Future of GIS?

Well, it was just a matter of time!

• The Web Mapper (powered by AI)
• The Map Doctor (powered by AI)

Mappy Holiday Ornaments!

Fun little mappy holiday ornaments!

• The Spiral Globe
• More Ornaments!

Projections & Distances

Geodesic or planar: which to use for distance analysis (by Esri) is a nice overview of the issue. Take-home message: use geodesic distances!

Maps: Projections & Distortions

Here you can make your own version of reality: Country Centered Map Projections

1. Select your projection.
2. Select your map center.
3. Make things really weird by adding a rotation or two.
4. Share as link or PNG.
5. Awesome!

The VOSviewer

From the website: VOSviewer is a software tool for constructing and visualizing bibliometric networks. These networks may for instance include journals, researchers, or individual publications, and they can be constructed based on citation, bibliographic coupling, co-citation, or co-authorship relations. VOSviewer also offers text mining functionality that can be used to construct and visualize co-occurrence networks of important terms extracted from a body of scientific literature.

Overture Maps Explorer (Beta)

I really don't know much about it, but the Overture Maps Explorer (Beta) apparently lets you zoom-into any location on Earth & then download a bunch of map data.

More over @ Maps Mania: Free Map Data Grabbers

Image Maps in Esri Story Maps

Image maps embedded in websites were cool back in the mid-1990s and since then there have been a few different apps and tool to turn an image into a 'map'. Now, Esri added that capability to Story Maps!

• What's new in ArcGIS StoryMaps (August 2024)
• Map-based images & ArcGIS StoryMaps: a treasure trove of possibilities

The John Snow Map

The first 'modern' map perhaps, depicting the spatial relationship between cholera cases & drinking water supply in 1854 in London. Here are two great ways to explore it:

• Interactive Web App
• Great zoomable version

The interactive web app is nice, but also an example of how much more data viz and data storytelling you can do with an Esri Story Map.

The 2024 Submarine Cable Map

The Submarine Cable Map is one of the annual highlights in map making - not sure why that is - but somehow 'seeing' how the continents are connected via submarine cables makes you realize just how interconnected we are. I always wonder how much this network will need to expand once we let AI run much of our lives!

• The 2024 Submarine Cable Map (interactive story map)
• The 2024 Submarine Cable Map (global, static image)

Mapping Space & Time

This is great: Spacetime Map

Earth Transit - Major World Passenger Rails

Earth Transit - Major World Passenger Rails is awsome: just a giant map as JPG or PDF.

Historical Topo Map Explorer (beta)

The new Historical Topo Map Explorer (beta) is great!

John Snow's Map: Animated

 

National Geographic MapMaker

The National Geographic MapMaker (by Esri) is great - try it!

One thing to add: after making their map, students need to be able to 'save' it as a unique URL so that they can share it with others, including their teacher. The PDF export & screenshot functions are great, but then you loose the interactivity.

AI-Generated Maps

Not sure I would call these 'maps' - to me maps really need to represent reality.

• Latent Diffusion (converts text to images)
• AI-generated maps: Copyright, ownership, metadata (from Spatial Reserves)

The White Mountains Maps

Great design by Andy Woodruff - a new map of the White Mountains in the style of the classic US National Park maps: White Mountains "National Park" Map.