Results tagged “Maps” from Intelligent Travel Blog

We're excited to announce the launch of National Geographic's EarthPulse: State of the Earth 2010. Beautifully produced by our NG Maps pals across the courtyard, this visual guide to global trends is available today for purchase online and at newsstands and bookstores.

Through images, diagrams, and maps the visual almanac tells the sobering story of how our actions affect others and the future of our planet. National Geographic CEO John Fahey says in its foreword that the almanac's message is akin to what your doctor says at your yearly physical: slow down and consume less.

This month's issue of National Geographic (or the "yellow mag" as we call it around the office) has a fascinating map that translates the Native American placenames from sites throughout the U.S. After poking around, we learned that Missouri translates to 'Dugout Canoe,' while Manhattan means 'where one gathers wood for bows.' So how did they put the map together?

Press play to watch the design evolve

Luckily our friend Oliver over at The Process, the new NG blog which explains how they design the art for the "yellow magazine," has a cool video and story about how they created the map for this month's issue:

In the spring of 2008, one of our editors read that the U.S. Board on Geographical Names had renamed 16 valleys, creeks, and other sites employing the term "squaw" because, as it turns out, many Native Americans consider "the S word" a profane term for female genitalia. Intrigued, we wondered what other placenames really mean.

By July, an eager intern had assembled a few pages of Native American placenames--and what seemed like their translations. But we soon learned that finding an accurate translation isn't easy. Centuries worth of conflicting theories abound.

Suffice it to say that some serious scholarship had to go into the making of the map and it took almost a full year to actually assemble this "typographic puzzle." Check out NG Blog Central for more. 

Video: Oliver Uberti

Good news for fans (and there were many) of the "50 United States and their Mottos" map created by artist Emily Wick. Wick emailed us yesterday to let us know that she's created a linoleum block print of our dear Washington D.C. to commemorate the inauguration. We may not have representation in Congress (there's a reason why our license plates read "Taxation Without Representation") but at least we're well represented here.

Contact Wick to find out more information about ordering prints.

Some good news from our colleagues at the Center for Sustainable Destinations came out this week - they've announced a partnership with organizations in Oregon and Washington to create a geotourism project for the Central Cascades region in the Northwest. If you're not familiar with our geotourism projects, here's a quick recap: The CSD works with local partners and the public to identify authentic, sustainable aspects of a region - be it culture, food, shopping, activities, events, or landmarks. Right now, you can log onto the project's website www.thecentralcascades.com, and nominate places that you think best represent the region's character. CSD will then put them all together to create a geotourism mapguide, which are amazingly accurate and helpful maps. (I've used them before and found that I hardly need a guidebook.)

The "Central Cascades" area designated for the map stretches from Mount Rainier National Park to Crater Lake National Park, including communities plus private and public lands in both states. The printed Central Cascades MapGuide will be available in September 2009. A parallel interactive Web site is also being developed, so check out the site now and help others find the best places to visit.

And if you're interested in contributing to other mapguides, Montreal is still taking suggestions through today. CSD also has a complete list of available maps for Guatemala, Rhode Island, Arizona, Vermont, Romania, Norway, Yellowstone, Montana, Appalachia, Peru, Honduras, and Baja, Mexico, many of which are free and available as PDFs online.

Photo: via the Central Cascades site 

I was instantly entranced when I recently came across this map of the "50 United States and their Mottos" by visual artist Emily Wick. Wick designed the map by tracing the states from a coloring book to create linoleum block prints, then carved in each of the official state mottos - many of which often appear in Latin on the state flag - creating a map not only of the country, but its multifaceted ideals. Click through the gallery to find your state and some of their surprising slogans. My personal favorites: "She Flies with Her Own Wings," for the great state of Oregon, the odd "To Be Rather than to Seem," from North Carolina, and "Eureka," from California.

Wick gave me the full scoop on how she put the map together. Find out after the jump...

Sometimes, I think I've become almost too reliant on Google Maps to help me find my way. Last weekend, I was out with a friend trying to get to Mount Vernon to see the holiday decorations at George Washington's home. We plugged the place name into my friend's iPhone and started driving, and it wasn't until we pulled up to the Pirates Cove Waterpark (closed for the season) that we realized we'd been Googleduped (a phrase I'm coining here, for lack of better options).

So I was tickled when I came across the Street with a View project, a collection of folks in Pittsburgh who teamed up with the Google Maps Street Team to present a more interesting glimpse into the lives of some city residents who live, work, and play along one alleyway. Spearheaded by two art school grads of Carnegie Mellon University, Ben Kinsley and Robin Hewlett, and taking a page from the Improv Everywhere gang, the group staged a marathon, a parade, a mad-scientists laboratory, and a sword fight all along the route. The Google Maps crew captured their antics as they drove down the street, and the results can now be found on the actual Street View of Sampsonia Way.

I think it's brilliant, and a fun way to inject some personality into the Google Maps experience. If there had been an actual pirate waiting for me at Pirates Cove, I would not have been nearly as upset at being Googleduped.

Have you been Googleduped? Tell us about it in the comments below.

Since I've been blogging a bit about maps lately (both the incredibly detailed, and distinctly less so) I couldn't help but get excited when I started poking through the National Geographic holiday catalog and found their Personalized Puzzle Maps. At the risk of ruining a few family members gifts this year, I felt the urge to share the details.

Each map is unique, and all you have to do is provide your address as the starting point, and the map elves will create a 400-piece puzzle of the area around your home using a U.S. Geological Survey map. And the best part? The center puzzle piece is in the shape of a house, and its placed exactly where your own home is found. You have to order by phone (+1 888 225 5647) and the cost is $39.95

For more great holiday gifts (including fun travel items like the pocketed security sock) check out the rest of the catalog. And since we're all friends here, be sure to use the Friends and Family discount code: 08HFF20 while checking out (good through Dec. 7).

Photo: National Geographic Catalog

So as we're wrapping up Geography Awareness Week, I thought I'd share what perhaps is the antithesis of the National Geographic MapMachine. It is the very cool website called the Hand Drawn Map Association, which I came across via our friend Anne over at Prêt à Voyager.

The site is the brainchild of Kris Harzinski, and it's a delightfully simple repository of people's sketched out maps. It recently got a plug on NPR's Here and Now, and in the interview, Harzinski says that he set up the site after coming across a set of maps from within the stacks of his old papers, and that each one evoked a memory and told a little story. Looking through all of the submissions, here are some of my favorites: "I heard you broke up with your girlfriend. Here's where to find me," a Dungeons and Dragons homage, a map to fossil layers in Livingston, Alabama, a fake country for a colony of ants, and the best way to get to the passport office in London, England. There are over a hundred to look through, and you can submit your own maps to the site as well.

And while we're on the subject of maps, be sure to check out our collection of very fun walking tour and Insider's Guide interactive maps, now online on Traveler's new website.

Image via the Hand Drawn Map Association.