Saturday, February 15, 2025

The Black History Month Map

The Black History Month Map is a new collaborative and dynamic map developed by kinkofa and PamPam to honor and document the significant places, individuals, and movements that have shaped Black history. To help you explore the invaluable contributions of Black Americans to U.S. history, the map is powered by PamPam's "Ask Pam" AI assistant.

The Black History Month Map allows you to discover and learn more about the places, people, and movements that have influenced Black history in the United States. To navigate the vast amount of information available, you can use the categories and themes highlighted in the map’s sidebar. For example, selecting "Movements" will filter the map to display significant movements in African American history and their associated locations.

Additionally, the "Ask Pam" AI assistant enables you to search and filter results with ease. For instance, you could ask "Show me significant locations in the life of Martin Luther King" or "Highlight key locations in the Underground Railroad," and the Black History Month Map will automatically display relevant results both on the map and in the sidebar.

The Black History Month Map is more than just a collection of locations - it is a living archive that invites everyone to participate by adding significant events, individuals, and landmarks. As more people explore and contribute, the map will continue to expand, creating an ever more comprehensive record of Black history.

Also See

The Sundown Town Map - mapping the locations of sundown towns across the USA
The Legacy of Redlining - exploring the HOLC's redlining of American towns and cities
Visualizing Emancipation - a map of slavery’s end during the American Civil War

Friday, February 14, 2025

What If Asteroid 2024 YR4 Hit Your Town?

an animated map visualizing a 1 mile fireball superimposed on New York

According to NASA, Asteroid 2024 YR4 has a 2.3% chance of impacting Earth on December 22, 2032. The asteroid is estimated to be between 40 to 90 meters (130 to 300 feet) in diameter.

If you want to know what damage Asteroid 2024 YR4 might cause if it lands in your backyard, you can use Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher to find out.

According to Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher, if a 200-foot diameter rock asteroid hit Manhattan at 38,000 mph at a 45-degree impact angle, it would cause a fireball almost 1 mile in diameter. As a result of the fireball, 3,671,280 people would die, and an estimated 2,904,736 people would receive third-degree burns. Homes within 8.2 miles of Manhattan would collapse, and nearly all the trees within 8.8 miles would be knocked down.

Neal.Fun's Asteroid Launcher is an interactive map that allows you to visualize the impact and effects of an asteroid hitting the Earth. The map allows you to define the size, composition, speed, and impact angle of an asteroid and then choose where on Earth the asteroid will hit. Once you have chosen an impact location, you can view information on the predicted width and depth of any impact crater, as well as data on the number of people who would be vaporized in the crater or killed by the resulting fireball, shock wave, and wind blast.

While the current estimated impact probability of Asteroid 2024 YR4 is 2.3%, it is important to note that this figure is likely to change as additional observations and data are collected. Continued monitoring and analysis by NASA and other space agencies will help refine the asteroid's trajectory and provide a clearer understanding of any potential threat.

The chances of Asteroid 2024 YR4 hitting your town are very slim - there is probably more chance of a nuclear war. But don't worry, Bomb Blast Bomb Blast can show you the likely effects of a nuclear missile landing on your home.

Outrider's Bomb Blast interactive map allows you to choose from a range of different types of nuclear weapons and select whether you want to detonate it at ground level or as an airburst. You can then view the likely damage of the selected weapon hitting your town, visualized on an interactive map. The map shows the likely radius of the fireball, radiation, shock wave, and heat. It also provides an estimate of the number of fatalities and injuries that the selected nuclear weapon would cause to your chosen target.

Thursday, February 13, 2025

What is Your Ecoregion?

map showing the distribution of the northern giraffe in Africa

Ecotenet is an interactive platform that provides users with a unique map of ecoregions across the globe. The map focuses on ecological boundaries in order to provide users with an understanding of different types of ecoregion and their unique biodiversity.

One of the most compelling aspects of Ecotenet is its emphasis on ecoregions, which are defined by the World Wildlife Fund as a "large unit of land or water that contain distinct species, natural communities, and environmental conditions".

Click on any ecoregion on the map and you can read a general summary of the region's ecological characteristics and history. The ECO-651 Filter can be used to view the global distribution of various animal or plant species. For example the screenshot at the top of this post shows the distribution of the northern giraffe in Africa.

The species distribution data on Ecotenet is sourced from organizations such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, World Wildlife Fund, IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, USDA, and the Ocean Biodiversity Information System. This ensures that the data is both accurate and comprehensive, covering a wide range of species and their habitats.

Also See

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

The Flight of the Barn Swallow

This animated gridded occurrence map shows recorded sightings of the Barn Swallow in Europe throughout 2024. The Barn Swallow is one of Europe's most well-known migratory birds, undertaking a long-distance migration between its breeding grounds in Europe and wintering areas in Africa.

On the animated map, you can see Barn Swallows returning to southern Europe in late February and early March. During April and May, they spread northward into central and northern Europe, reaching the UK, Scandinavia, and even parts of Russia.

In August and September, the swallows begin their southward migration as insect availability declines. By late November, most Barn Swallows will have reached their wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa, in countries like Senegal, Nigeria, and South Africa.

This animated map of Barn Swallow sightings can be viewed on the EuroBirdPortal (EBP), a collaborative project that compiles and visualizes bird observation data from across Europe. The site integrates millions of records submitted by birdwatchers from multiple online platforms. EBP then creates animated, interactive maps that track bird distributions and movements over the course of a year, offering valuable insights into migration patterns, seasonal changes, and species distributions across the continent.

You can also explore European bird migration patterns on the Bird Migration Atlas. The Bird Migration Atlas is an interactive map that plots the migration patterns of over 300 bird species across two continents: Eurasia and Africa. The map integrates data from historical European ringing schemes and modern tracking technologies to provide a comprehensive view of migration routes across both continents.

You can explore the migration patterns of American bird species on the impressive Bird Migration Explorer. The Bird Migration Explorer is an interactive map that visualizes the migratory patterns of 458 bird species that breed in the United States and Canada. Using this map, you can explore the journeys of individual bird species and discover when different species are likely to migrate through your town or city in North America.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

3D Print Your World

an animated GIF panning around a 3D rendering of the island of Bioko

The Topography Explorer is an interactive map that generates and allows users to explore 3D renderings of the Earth's surface.

Using the application, you can create your own 3D visualizations of watershed areas or predefined regions. The animated GIF at the top of this post is an example of a 3D visualization generated by the Topography Explorer. This animation shows a 3D rendering of Bioko, an island belonging to Equatorial Guinea.

The Topography Explorer includes dynamic URL addresses. For example, here is a direct link to the 3D visualization of the island of Bioko. Currently, the application does not provide the option to download data from created 3D visualizations.

The DEM Net Elevation API can also help you create your very own 3D terrain models for any location on Earth. DEM Net has a fantastic tool that allows you to generate 3D models simply by selecting an area on a map.

To create a 3D model using the DEM Net Elevation API, all you have to do is draw a square on an interactive map around the area you wish to model. Within seconds, DEM Net will generate a 3D model of your selected area. You can then rotate and zoom in & out on your model directly in the browser. Additionally, you can download the model in two different formats.

DEM Net offers several customization options, including:

  • A selection of different satellite imagery or map tile sources for your model.
  • The ability to adjust the height of your model to exaggerate elevation levels.
  • A choice of various elevation models to generate your terrain.

If you’d love to own a 3D model of your own neighborhood, you might want to try Tile Exporter. Unlike the Topography Explorer and DEM Net, this application does not generate topographical representations but instead creates 3D models of urban areas using building footprints from Mapzen maps.

The tool utilizes building height data from Mapzen’s vector map tiles, enabling you to create a 3D map of any neighborhood. Just enter an address into Tile Exporter, and you’ll see a 3D map of the location. You can also use the inset map to adjust the location by selecting adjacent map tiles.

Once you’ve found a 3D scene that you like, simply press the "Download" button to grab the .obj file. This file includes:

  • Building height data
  • Earth, water, and land-use layers of your selected map tile

Once you’ve downloaded your .obj file, all you need is a 3D printer to bring your model to life!

Monday, February 10, 2025

There's Something About Islands

There is something slightly old-fashioned about Obscure Islands I Find Interesting, which I find very endearing. In essence, it is a simple interactive map with a limited selection of just 16 interesting islands. However, there is a certain charm in its innocent delight in exploring the world—one that reminds me of why I first became obsessed with interactive maps.

Obscure Islands I Find Interesting takes you on a tour of some of the world's most unique and little-known islands. With a selection of just 16 islands, each accompanied by a brief but intriguing description, this site offers a delightful exploration of some of the most isolated and mysterious locations across the globe.

The islands featured on the map range from historical curiosities (like Pheasant Island, which changes sovereignty every six months) to geographical anomalies (such as the recursively nested unnamed island in Canada). Its simplicity is perhaps the map's greatest strength. For example, the minimalist interface, with “Next” and “Previous” buttons, allows for smooth browsing between islands, making it easy for users to navigate through the 16 'interesting' islands with minimal hassle.

One of the islands featured on Obscure Islands I Find Interesting doesn't actually exist. In 2012, scientists from the University of Sydney sailed to Sandy Island, an island that appeared on Google Maps in the Pacific Ocean. However, when they arrived at the location, all they found was open sea. Sandy Island didn't exist - it was a phantom island.

Phantom islands are fake islands that have appeared on maps for a period of time, only to be later removed when proven to be nonexistent. Most of these islands originated from reports by sailors exploring uncharted waters. Presumably, they were a mix of mythical tales and simple cartographic errors in positioning real islands on early maps.

One of the most impressive explorations of these imaginary places is Phantom Islands – A Sonic Atlas, an interactive map that takes users on a journey through some of history’s most famous phantom islands. Each island is marked on the map, and clicking on a location reveals the story behind its creation. You can learn when the island first appeared on an atlas, when it was last recorded on a map, and how it was eventually debunked. Press the "Cruise" button, and you'll be taken on an audio tour of all the phantom islands.

Friday, February 07, 2025

Godview AI

Godview is one of the most promising new AI-powered maps to have emerged in the past 18 months. It is an interactive map that allows users to perform geographical searches using natural language queries.

This week, Godview introduced an exciting new feature called "Discover." This addition enhances the user experience by enabling individuals to click on any location on the map and instantly access AI-generated insights about the area.

Discover

The Discover feature is particularly valuable for a wide range of users, from travelers and researchers to everyday individuals curious about their surroundings. For example, as I plan a trip to southern Italy, Discover should allow me to simply click on towns and cities in Puglia to identify which ones might be most interesting to visit. It could also help me pinpoint must-see attractions in the towns where I eventually decide to stay.

Or Don’t Discover

Unfortunately, Godview appears to be somewhat myopic, and its Discover answers can be geographically imprecise. For example, when I clicked on West Ham in London, I was informed that it was Wanstead—"a generally affluent area." While the two locations are only two miles apart, in a city like London, those two miles can make a world of difference (West Ham actually has one of the highest poverty rates in the UK). 

I encountered similar inaccuracies when clicking on towns and cities in southern Italy. For the large city of Bari, Discover provided an accurate and useful general description. However, for smaller towns in Puglia, the results were more inconsistent. Godview frequently defaulted to a broader description of the Puglia region rather than providing details specific to the town in question. In some cases, it even confused locations with nearby towns.

Final Thoughts

While Godview’s Discover feature has significant potential, it still has room for improvement in accuracy and precision. The issue may stem from imprecise reverse geocoding rather than the AI itself - perhaps the geocoding service Godview relies on is returning overly broad results. Alternatively, the language model (LLM) powering Discover may currently be limited to generating insights in some locations at a broad regional rather than a local level.

This also raises the question of user needs - something Discover does not yet fully address. Different users clicking on Greenwich Village in New York, for example, may be looking for entirely different levels of detail. One might expect a general overview of New York City, another may want specifics on the neighborhood itself, while a third could be interested in insights about a particular block or street.

Thursday, February 06, 2025

Jumbled Maps

a map of the world with all the country names mixed up
Introducing Jumbled Maps

Tripgeo has kindly agreed to host another of my map games, bringing geography enthusiasts a fresh and exciting challenge. If you love testing your knowledge of world maps and enjoy puzzles, then my latest game, Jumbled Maps, is perfect for you. 

In Jumbled Maps, someone has played a cosmic prank on the world map, and every country place-name label has been randomly displaced. Your mission is simple: restore geographical order by putting each nation back in its rightful place.

To play Jumbled Maps, click on any misplaced country label and type in its correct name. There are 249 countries in total to correct. Country names that you have successfully fixed will be shown with a green outline on the map and will also appear in the map sidebar.

How the Map Works

In essence Jumbled Maps is a very simple game. The game is powered by MapLibre, the flexible and open-source mapping library, with map tiles provided by OpenFreeMap, an open-source platform providing free custom map layers. These map tiles have then been custom styled using Maputnik to remove all country place-name labels from the map layer.

When the map loads, new country place-name labels are displayed on the map in randomly shuffled positions. These labels are retrieved from a GeoJSON dataset. This creates the core challenge of Jumbled Maps, as players must use their geographical knowledge to restore order.

The game also utilizes local storage to track a player’s progress. Any countries that have already been correctly identified are saved and excluded from future shuffles. This means you don’t have to correct all 249 country names in one session - you can return to the game at any time and pick up where you left off!

Also See

If you enjoy Jumbled Maps then you will also love Scrambled Maps, Tripgeo's daily map challenge. Scrambled Map requires you to unscramble the jumbled map tiles of a different city every day.

Wednesday, February 05, 2025

The Digital Twin's Digital Twin

an animated gif moving around a virtual model of the Punggol Digital District

The Punggol Digital District

The Punggol Digital District (PDD) is a pioneering smart district under development in Singapore. Designed to be a hub for innovation, it will house major technology firms, fintech hubs of banks like OCBC and UOB, and will be seamlessly integrated with the newly opened Punggol Coast MRT station. What sets PDD apart from other smart districts is its Open Digital Platform (ODP) - a centralized system that enables seamless connectivity between various technologies and services across the district.

Building an Open Digital Platform (ODP)

The ODP will serve as the district’s core digital infrastructure, facilitating smooth communication between different systems, including robotics, energy management, security, and public utilities. Acting as the smart city’s "operating system," it will streamline processes such as energy optimization, robotic coordination, and facility management, ensuring greater efficiency and sustainability.

Practical Applications

The ODP promotes interoperability between various smart systems. For example, autonomous food delivery robots and cleaning robots will operate seamlessly within the district using the ODP’s unified communication standard. This will allow robots to access elevators, navigate buildings, and move between designated zones without technical obstacles.

Building a Digital Twin

One of the ODP's key features is its integration with a real-time 3D digital twin of the district. This virtual model allows estate managers to monitor conditions, track footfall, analyze energy consumption, and manage public services efficiently.

Building a Digital Twin of a Digital Twin

The Straits Times has an amazing track record of creating virtual 3D models to illustrate important news stories. Therefore when it came to covering the 3D digital twin of PDD, the Straits Times naturally developed its own scaled-down version of the district to provide a visual representation of its smart systems in action.

In Punggol Digital District: Singapore’s blueprint for future smart districts, the Straits Times uses its very own 3D model of the district to demonstrate how cleaning and delivery robots will navigate the district by using the city's new Open Digital Platform (ODP).

The Straits Times’ 3D virtual model of the Punggol Digital District provides a visual tool that brings the district’s smart systems to life. It perfectly illustrates how the Open Digital Platform (ODP) will help to facilitate seamless interaction between robots, infrastructure, and urban services in Singapore's newest smart district. 

Tuesday, February 04, 2025

It's Groundhog Day (Again & Again & Again)

It was Groundhog Day on Sunday. Punxsutawney Phil of Gobbler’s Knob saw his shadow, and according to tradition, this means there will be six more weeks of winter.

However, Punxsutawney Phil's prognosis of an extended winter was not universally accepted by all the groundhogs of North America. This is why you need the Groundhog Map.

If you don’t trust Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast, the Groundhog Map offers 84 other groundhog predictions to consider. The map compiles the annual weather predictions of groundhogs across the United States and Canada, harnessing the collective wisdom of the burrow to provide a crowd-sourced critter climatological forecast.

This year, 55% of all groundhog predictions actually forecast an early spring. So, at least for this year, Punxsutawney Phil is in the minority with his prediction of a long winter.

The Groundhog Map also features an API. The Groundhog Day API allows users to access data on past predictions from individual groundhogs, as well as aggregate yearly data comparing the number of early spring forecasts to predictions of longer winters.

Of course, whether you trust a single seasoned marmot or the wisdom of the burrow, one thing is certain - spring is coming. Until then, you can either embrace Phil’s prophecy and dust off your snow shovel, or side with the majority of groundhogs and start shopping for sunglasses. Either way, at least now you have data-driven rodent meteorology to back up your decision.

Monday, February 03, 2025

Synchronized Street View Tours

Introducing Street View Animator

Who doesn’t enjoy exploring the world on Street View? I can’t begin to calculate the number of hours I’ve spent on Google Maps, virtually wandering the streets of New York, Paris, and Rome. Street View has also given me the chance to explore some of the ancient wonders of the world, such as the Pyramids of Giza, the rock city of Petra, and the temple complex of Angkor Wot.

Now imagine exploring those locations on Street View with your friends. 

Picture this: You’ve just returned from visiting Tokyo, and you want to share your experience with your friends. But instead of just showing them static photos or a map, you take them on a fully immersive virtual tour. With Street View Animator, you can guide them through the bustling streets of Shibuya, past the iconic Tokyo Tower, and along the serene pathways of the Meiji Shrine - all in real-time and from the comfort of their own homes.

Street View Animator represents an innovative new approach to virtual exploration, combining Google's Street View technology with interactive routing and real-time sharing capabilities. This powerful tool can transform how you experience and share locations virtually, making it invaluable for education, real estate, tourism, and personal travel planning.

How It Works

At its core, Street View Animator allows users to create custom routes on Google Maps and automatically navigate them through Street View. Users can either draw routes directly on the map or enter start and end locations. The tool then generates a smooth, continuous journey along the selected path, creating an immersive ground-level experience that feels like actually traveling through the location.

Real-Time Sharing

One of the most impressive features of Street View Animator is its real-time sharing capability. Once you’ve created a journey, you can explore it in real-time with your friends or colleagues. In Shared View, you can lead an interactive group experience and guide other viewers through your journey in real-time. Everything you do on the animated Street View tour is seen in real-time by everyone you’ve invited - on their own screens and monitors.

During your guided tour you can:
  • Pause and resume navigation at any point
  • Look around 360 degrees while traveling
  • Switch between map view and Street View perspective
  • Jump to specific points along the route
And everything you do will also be seen by the friends you’ve invited along on your virtual tour.

Practical Applications

There are numerous possible uses for Street View Animator:

Education
  • Virtual field trips for geography and history classes
  • Architectural studies of urban environments
  • Cultural exploration of different cities and regions
  • Environmental observation and urban planning studies
Real Estate
  • Virtual neighbourhood tours for potential buyers
  • Property location context visualization
  • Area amenity exploration
  • Commute route demonstrations
Tourism
  • Pre-trip route planning
  • Virtual tour guiding
  • Tourist attraction previews
  • Travel itinerary visualization
Business
  • Location scouting for events or filming
  • Site survey preliminary assessments
  • Client location presentations
  • Delivery route planning

Street View Animator’s combination of route planning, automated navigation, and real-time sharing capabilities makes it an invaluable tool in many scenarios. Whether used for virtual tourism, education, real estate, or business applications, it offers an engaging and practical way to explore and share locations virtually with other people in real-time.

Saturday, February 01, 2025

Millions Flee War, Floods, and Persecution

map showing refugee flows to Germany in 2023 from individual countries around the world

In 2023 nearly 5.5 million Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes because of the Russian invasion. In the same year, over 6 million refugees fled Pakistan following the devastating 2022 floods. Additionally, the ongoing war in Syria displaced over 3 million people, forcing them to seek refuge abroad.

In total, 27,320,316 people were displaced in 2023 and forced to seek a new life in a new country. Of those 27.3 million refugees, only 394,073 found a home in the United States. To put that into perspective, Germany - a country about 27.5 times smaller than the U.S. - accepted 2,488,862 refugees. Meanwhile, Iran alone took in 3,764,517 refugees, which is approximately 10 times the number accepted by the United States.

These figures come from the Refugee Project interactive map. The map uses 50 years of refugee migration data from the UNHCR to plot the numbers of refugees forced to flee individual countries each year since 1975, as well as the countries where they sought asylum. 

Using the map's timeline, you can select any year to view refugee data. Once a year is selected, you can choose any country in the world to see how many refugees it accepted that year and the countries those displaced individuals fled from. You can also explore how many refugees were forced to leave specific countries and where they found asylum globally.

Friday, January 31, 2025

Rain and Snow Effects for Mapbox

3d map of Grand Army Plaza in New York with animated wind and rain visuals

Mapbox GL now offers the option to add dynamic rain and snow effects to your maps. These new visual weather effects use particle animations to create realistic precipitation on any Mapbox GL map.

You can easily add these effects to your maps using the following functions in your JavaScript code:

map.setRain or map.setSnow

Both the rain and snow effects come with several customizable parameters that allow you to fine-tune their appearance. These include:

  • Density: Controls the number of particles.
  • Opacity: Adjusts the transparency of the effect.
  • Speed: Defines how fast the particles move.
  • Color: Modifies the color of raindrops and snowflakes.
  • Size: Changes the size of the particles.
  • Direction: Determines the movement direction of the precipitation.

You can experiment with these parameters in the Rain and Snow Playground. Once you’ve created an effect you like, you can copy and paste the corresponding JavaScript code into your project. Additionally, these parameters can be adjusted dynamically. For example, you can modify the particle animations in real-time based on live wind direction data for a given location.

Maplibre Snow Effect

With a little help from ChatGPT I was able to create a snowflake effect for Maplibre in under five minutes. If you want to use this effect yourself then you can clone the code my map's Glitch page.

Thursday, January 30, 2025

The USA is Closing for Business

animated map with countries colored each year to show whether the USA or China was the larger trading partner. From 2000-2003 countries around the world turn red from blue as China becomes the world's dominant economic force

This animated map from the Lowy Institute shows whether the USA or China was the larger trading partner for countries around the world each year this century (up to 2023). The map provides a stark visualization of the economic shift away from the United States and toward China in the 21st century.

According to the Lowy Institute, around "70 per cent of economies trade more with China than they do with America, and more than half of all economies now trade twice as much with China compared to the United States." At the beginning of this century the situation was very different, when more than 80 percent of countries traded more with the USA than with China.

The map allows users to view the largest trading partner for each country (limited to China and the United States) in terms of two-way trade, imports, or exports. In terms of exports, the United States remains a larger export destination than China for more than half of all economies. However, given Donald Trump’s constant threats to impose tariffs on other countries, it is evident that he aims to weaken the United States' appeal as an export destination. What is less clear is how he plans to increase the United States' own exports.

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Where's the Gulf of Mexico?

The Google Maps team has introduced a new 'Coding Challenge' for prospective members of the department. It is essential that all employees of Google Geo are able to track down and deport illegal place-name labels from the company's flagship mapping platform.

If you are in the process of applying for a position at Google Maps or are interested in joining the team in the future, you can prepare by familiarizing yourself with Google's MAGA Map of the World.

On the MAGA Map of the World the Gulf of Mexico has mysteriously disappeared - as if it has somehow been forewarned of Google’s decision to deport it from the map. As a potential employee of Google's Department of Geographical Corrections, your challenge is to track down the missing Gulf of Mexico. You have just 60 seconds to complete this Google coding challenge!

Automatically Mapping YouTube Videos

YouTube is an incredible resource for discovering new places, whether through travel vlogs, historical documentaries, or guided walking tours. However, manually noting down locations mentioned in a video can be time-consuming and inefficient. What if there were an easier way to extract and map these locations automatically?

Using the allStara Video AI

The allStara Video AI offers several features to analyze and extract information from YouTube videos. One available option is to "extract locations from a video and save them as a map for trip planning."

Using the AI is simple - just enter the YouTube URL of a video and press the 'Start Locations Extraction' button. allStara then generates a GeoJSON file containing all the locations mentioned in the video and provides a shareable link to a Leaflet.js-powered map of the extracted locations.

While allStara seems to work well with the short default video URL provided, I had no success in two attempts with longer videos (one was 5 minutes and 8 seconds long, and the other was 26 minutes and 5 seconds long). In both cases, allStara took over five minutes to process the videos but ultimately returned empty results, failing to extract any locations.

I love the idea of mapping locations mentioned in videos, but unfortunately, allStara seems to be inconsistent. Going forward, it would also be beneficial to include timestamps for each location in the generated GeoJSON file.

Using DeepSeek

Since my attempt to use allStara to map John Rogers' walking tour of Clerkenwell was unsuccessful, I decided to try DeepSeek to generate my own map.

  1. DeepSeek prompt:- 'Extract all the locations mentioned in this video transcript (most should be in London) and then create a GeoJSON file with all the locations.  - {video transcript}

  2. In about 40 seconds DeepSeek created a GeoJSON file with the coordinates of 38 locations it had extracted from the video.

  3. I then copy & pasted the GeoJSON text into geojson.io to create the map (shown below) displaying the locations mentioned in John Roger's walking tour of Clerkenwell.

map of Clerkenwell London with 38 markers

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

The New World Order

Press Release: Google Unveils "New World Order Google Map"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: [Press Office]

Phone: [123-456-7890]

Email: [press@google.com]

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – [1/28/2025] – Last night, Quisling, the parent company of Google, announced a bold and controversial change to its flagship product, Google Maps. We revealed that the "Gulf of Mexico" would be renamed to the "Gulf of America,". However, the Trump administration has deemed the update insufficient and pushed for a broader revision of global naming conventions on the platform.

In response, Google has launched what it is calling the "New World Order Google Map," a reimagined cartographic experience that reflects an aggressive overhaul of geopolitical labels and place names to align with evolving administrative demands.

We take feedback seriously and aim to ensure our platform serves the needs of our users, including governments and administrations worldwide. The New World Order Google Map represents our commitment to a more dynamic and responsive mapping experience that reflects contemporary perspectives on global geography.

You can now preview New World Order Google Map for yourself.

world map on which all place-names have been changed to the United States

Monday, January 27, 2025

The MAGA Plugin for Interactive Maps

Map of the United States with the United States place-name label changed to a series of Dystopian names'

The MAGA plug-in for the Maplibre mapping library must now be used to ensure that all maps comply with the geographical dictats of the Orange Overlord.

To conform to the new geographical proclamations of the Trump Ministry of Geographical Truth, please ensure that you follow the steps below before publishing any new maps:

Step 1: Include maga.js in Your Project

  • Download the maga.js file from the link above.
  • Place the maga.js file in your project directory (e.g., in the same folder as your index.html file).

Step 2: Add the Script to Your HTML

Include the maga.js file in your index.html file by adding the following line just before the closing </body> tag: <script src="maga.js"></script>

Step 3: Initialize the MAGA Plugin

The maga.js plugin will automatically initialize itself when the script is loaded. It will start animating place-name labels on the map based on the default configuration. 

Step 4: Customize the Default Values

You can customize the default configurations by editing the placeNames array to your own values and by editing the country name in the setLayoutProperty.

Failure to comply with the new geographical standards will result in immediate re-education at the Ministry of Cartographic Corrections. Remember, the Overlord's vision of the world is the only truth, and any deviation from this truth is an act of thoughtcrime. By using the MAGA plug-in, you are not only ensuring compliance but also contributing to a brighter, more unified future - where every map reflects the glorious reality as decreed by the Trump Ministry of Geographical Truth.

Long live the Orange Overlord! Long live the truth!

Update: According to Reuters the quisling Google has announced it will be the first company to comply with the diktats of the Orange Overlord. It has announced that the "Gulf of Mexico" will be changed to "Gulf of America" on Google Maps. 

Dive into Your Maritime History

satellite view of an historical jetty in the River Thames

The marine area of the UK has played a pivotal role in shaping the country's history. The seas surrounding the UK are home to a wealth of historical treasures, including submerged prehistoric landscapes, shipwrecks, crashed aircraft, and maritime industrial structures. Unfortunately the historical collections, which document these sites, are dispersed across various government organizations, universities, museums, and archives in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The Unpath’d Waters Portal is a new online interface that, for the first time, enables users to access these disparate marine collections through a single, shared, and cross-searchable online catalogue. By consolidating these diverse datasets in one place, the portal allows users to uncover and study underwater artifacts and sites more effectively than ever before.

How the Portal Works

The portal provides a wealth of information about the UK's maritime past, including data on shipwreck sites, maritime archaeology, coastal defenses, maritime structures such as docks and harbors, and more. It is designed to help researchers and the general public discover and explore the UK’s fascinating maritime history. 

One of the portal’s most exciting features is its interactive map. Users can zoom in on the map and search the collections by location. As you pan around the UK and its surrounding waters, the map automatically updates to display all markers within the current view. Clicking on these markers reveals detailed information about the selected historical features.

The map is an invaluable resource for discovering more about local maritime history. For example, this morning, I used the portal to explore the historical heritage of the River Thames in East London. I discovered several nearby historical sites that I plan to visit in person in the coming weeks.

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Your Local Business Chatbots

Mapchat: Exploring AI-Powered Conversations with Local Businesses

Mapchat is a new interactive map that enables users to chat with AI-powered chatbots connected to businesses in their local area.

Simply zoom in on a location on Mapchat, press the 'Search Map' button, and markers will appear, pinpointing local businesses. Then, by clicking on any of these markers, you can initiate a conversation with an AI chatbot representing the business.

Why Chat with a Local Business Chatbot?

When I first encountered Mapchat, my immediate thought was: why? Why would I want to chat with an AI chatbot for a local business? However, on further reflection, I realized that if the AI chatbot could provide accurate and relevant answers, it could be an incredibly useful tool for addressing customer queries.

According to the introductory blog post from Every AI, Introducing Map-Chats: A New Era of Global Conversations with Businesses, Powered by Every AI, Mapchat allows "users to connect to businesses in real-time, interact with AI-powered chatbots, and get personalized, efficient responses - no matter the time zone or language barrier."

This makes a lot of sense. Using Mapchat, customers should be able to find useful information tailored to their shopping needs. To test this, I decided to try chatting with the AI chatbot of my local Sainsbury's supermarket. Here's how it went:

Me: 'Are you open?'

Mapchat AI: 'I am available and ready to respond to your questions 24/7, as long as our system is functioning properly! If you have any questions about Cookie Settings or any other topic, feel free to ask, and I'll do my best to provide a helpful response.'

Me: 'No, are you open for me to come and shop?'

Mapchat AI: 'I'm afraid I won't be able to facilitate physical transactions or have a storefront. However, I can assist you with ... guidance on managing your cookie settings if needed.'

Me: 'Do you have gochujang in stock?'

Mapchat AI: 'Unfortunately, our database doesn't seem to have any direct information about your store's inventory or products, including whether or not you carry gochujang.'

At that point I gave up.

My experience improved significantly when I tried a smaller business, a local bakery named Signorelli.

Me: 'What is your menu?'

Mapchat AI: 'Welcome to Signorelli! Our menu is a reflection of our passion for Italian-inspired baking and delicious food. Here are some highlights: (followed by a long list of cakes and breads on sale)'

Me: 'Do you sell gluten free bread?'

Mapchat AI: 'Yes, we do offer gluten-free options at Signorelli. While our traditional Italian-inspired baked goods are made with yeast and contain wheat flour, we also have a variety of gluten-free alternatives available. Would you like me to recommend some specific gluten-free bread options from our menu?'

Based on my limited testing, Mapchat can be very helpful - at times. However, at other times, its responses can be unhelpful and / or irrelevant.

Use Map Labels!

My main criticism of Mapchat isn't the occasional irrelevant response - the Mapchat AI can and should improve with time. Instead, what I find most frustrating is Mapchat's reliance on unlabelled markers to show the locations of businesses, rather than using map labels with their actual names.

The lack of labels forces users to either know the precise location of a business beforehand or waste time clicking on every marker until they find what they’re looking for. Adding filtering options (e.g., restaurants, grocery stores, clothing retailers) would also significantly enhance usability, making it easier to search for specific types of businesses.

Friday, January 24, 2025

Biographical Mapping

If you've ever dreamed of walking in the footsteps of your favorite historical figures, then Maptale is the map for you. This new platform lets you explore the life journeys of significant historical and contemporary figures, as laid out on an interactive map.

What Maptale Offers

At its heart, Maptale is a collection of mapped biographies, with each map showcasing the life journey of a notable individual through the significant locations that defined their story. For instance, selecting Abraham Lincoln from the "History and Wars" category allows you to explore locations such as the birthplace of the 16th President of the United States, his family’s farms, his marriage home, the White House, and the Lincoln Tomb, where he is laid to rest.

Maptale’s approach is inclusive - which means that users can upload their own maps, to visualize the life journeys of their own heros and heroines. These custom user maps add a community-driven aspect to the platform. It should also help in ensuring that there is a wide selection of notable individuals whose life journeys can be explored on Maptale.

Improving Maptale

One feature that seems to be missing from Maptale, and which I believe would enhance the platform significantly, is a universal map displaying all the locations in its database, encompassing the lives of all the individuals mapped so far. This consolidated view would allow users to uncover the famous connections in their own neighborhoods. It could help transform Maptale into a fantastic tool for local exploration and educational discovery.

Also See

Notable People Map - a map showing the birthplaces of the most "notable people" around the world.

Thursday, January 23, 2025

GeoGuessing Reimagined

World Guesser is yet another alternative to the ever-popular GeoGuessr Street View game.

Like GeoGuessr, World Guesser drops you into a random location and asks you to guess where you are based solely on the clues you can find in Google’s Street View imagery. The gameplay is divided into two main phases:

Investigate:

This is where the detective work happens. Navigate through the surroundings to analyze clues. Look at architectural styles, read signs in different languages, and study the geography of the area. For example, a desert landscape might hint at North Africa or the Middle East, while lush tropical greenery could point to Southeast Asia or South America.

Guess:

After gathering clues, you mark your guess on the world map. The closer your guess is to the actual location, the more points you earn.

Why It Stands Out

One of the best features of World Guesser is its accessibility. The game is entirely free to play, with no hidden subscriptions or paywalls. You can dive into unlimited rounds without creating an account, making it easy to start playing right away.

If you find World Guesser too easy (you won’t), then you’re ready for the exceedingly challenging EarthGuessr. EarthGuessr provides a refreshing twist and a whole new perspective on the ‘geoguessing’ format.

EarthGuessr challenges players to explore five random locations on Earth as seen from above. Instead of navigating Street View, you zoom and pan through satellite imagery to identify your location. This aerial vantage point introduces an entirely new layer of deduction, as you’re now challenged to identify locations purely based on the landscapes and geographical features visible from above.

In other words, EarthGuessr is very, very challenging!

If you want even more geoguessing fun then check out these Six Free Alternatives to GeoGuessr.

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Your Personal AI Travel Guide

Street View image of London's Houses of Parliament with a transcript of an AI generated narration of the building

Imagine wandering through a city with your very own AI travel guide, ready to reveal the stories behind every landmark, monument, or hidden gem you encounter. With Google’s Talking Tours, this vision takes a significant step closer to becoming a reality.

Google Talking Tours offers a fascinating glimpse into the future of AI-driven travel guidance. Developed as part of a collaboration between Google Arts & Culture Lab and artist-in-residence Gaël Hugo, this experiment leverages generative audio and Google’s cutting-edge Gemini AI to provide dynamic, location-specific insights about cultural landmarks captured in Street View. 

Talking Tours currently covers 55 major landmarks around the world, offering an AI-generated audio guide that provides insights based on the visual content of Street View panoramas. Users can explore a 360-degree view of a site, take a snapshot, and receive detailed commentary from the AI. Additionally, users can click an “ask a question” button to generate three contextual questions about the location, enhancing interactivity and personalized learning.

Street View image of the Eiffel Tower with a transcript of Talking Tour's AI generated narration.

The technology relies on a blend of visual analysis and geospatial data. Gemini, Google’s multimodal large language model, processes the scene, combines it with GPS data, and crafts a descriptive script. This script is then converted into audio using a Google AI audio model, creating an immersive learning experience.

You can even explore individual museums and galleries, take snapshots of specific works of art or artifacts, and listen to Talking Tours' AI-generated narrated guides. Unfortunately, at this stage, the AI does not yet possess extensive knowledge of all exhibits in every museum and gallery worldwide. As a result, you may often receive a generic-sounding response rather than detailed information about a specific work of art or artifact. However, if the exhibit is particularly notable - for example, the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum - Talking Tours is able to generate a reasonably informed narration that describes and explains the selected exhibit.

Monday, January 20, 2025

Introducing Terra Draw

James Milner has released a new JavaScript library designed to add drawing tools to various online map developer platforms. While most popular mapping platforms offer built-in drawing tools or have add-on drawing libraries, Terra Draw is specifically created to work cross-platform, seamlessly integrating with many popular mapping libraries.

Terra Draw is a powerful JavaScript library that provides a suite of geographical feature drawing tools for maps. It is designed to work "out of the box" with leading mapping libraries like Mapbox, MapLibre, Google Maps, OpenLayers, and Leaflet.

Why Choose Terra Draw?

Integrating drawing tools into interactive maps can be tedious, especially when working with different mapping libraries. Terra Draw addresses this by offering:

  • Cross-Library Compatibility: With built-in adapters, developers can integrate Terra Draw into their preferred mapping platform without rethinking the core logic.
  • State Management with the Store: The Store is the heart of Terra Draw, efficiently managing all the features and providing easy access to their geometries.
  • Customizability: Developers can extend the library with custom modes, adapting it to specific use cases.

What Drawing Modes are Available?

Modes define the different drawing behaviors or tools that can be added to your map. Terra Draw includes several predefined modes, such as:

  • Rectangle Mode: Draw rectangles.
  • Polygon Mode: Draw polygons.
  • Freehand Mode: Enable freeform drawing.
  • Select Mode: Manipulate existing features.
The Drawing Data 'Store'

The Store in Terra Draw manages the state of all features added to the map by the user when drawing with one of the modes. It is created when Terra Draw is initialized and stores features in GeoJSON format. Features can be added using drawing modes (e.g., TerraDrawRectangleMode) or via the addFeatures method. The Store also supports adding, removing, and restoring features, offering robust data management for interactive map drawing.

Installing Terra Draw

You can install Terra Draw via npm or directly integrate it using a script tag. Adapters act as connectors between Terra Draw and your chosen mapping library, handling map-specific logic for rendering features.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

GeoGuessr for History Buffs

Can you guess the date and location of the historical event taking place in these two AI generated videos? If you can then you might just become the Time Portal champion of the world.

Time Portal is a fun and innovative online game that challenges you to pinpoint the time and place of significant historical moments. If you’re a fan of history and love games like GeoGuessr, this one’s for you.

At its core, Time Portal is a guessing game that drops you into a series of random historical events. But instead of just reading about them or looking at static images, you’re immersed in dynamic, AI-generated video footage of the event itself.

Your mission? To figure out when and where you are in history.

The AI-generated videos used in the game are created using a sophisticated pipeline of Flux, Kling, and mmaudio. These tools combine to produce visually and aurally rich recreations of historical moments. While the AI-generated footage often captures the essence of the events, it occasionally takes creative liberties - incorporating elements of folklore or popular myths into the historical narrative.

Every day, a new Daily Challenge awaits you on Time Portal. You’ll be tasked with identifying the time and place of five different historical events, each represented by a unique video.

In each round, your score is based on how close your guesses are to the actual location and year of the event. For those who love a challenge, you can also replay any of the previous daily challenges to refine your skills or compete for higher scores.

Also See

A Nightmare on View Street - Can you identify the locations being attacked by monsters in these AI-generated videos?

Friday, January 17, 2025

Roads, Railways, Runways & Rivers

I have been inspired by OpenSkiStats' Which Way do You Ski to create my own interactive map for visualizing the orientations of roads, railways, runways, and rivers in towns and cities around the world.

In Which Way Do You Ski, OpenSkiStats created a series of "compass rose" visualizations that illustrate the strong poleward tendency of ski runs across the globe. These ski slope orientation visualizations reminded me of Geoff Boeing's Comparing City Street Orientations which uses compass roses to show the orientations of city street grids around the world.

Inspired by Geoff's visualizations Volodymyr Agafonkin created his Road Orientations Map, a Mapbox-powered map that lets users view the street grid orientations of any town or city worldwide. Using Volodymyr's code, I’ve now developed my own Transportation Orientations Map.

My Transportation Orientations interactive map allows you to view the orientations of roads, railways, rivers, and runways anywhere in the world. It provides an intuitive way to observe and analyze how these features are oriented within any area you choose.

Key Features:

  1. Dynamic Compass Rose - The compass rose updates in real-time as you move around the map or zoom in and out. It reflects the orientations of the selected feature set in the visible map area.
  2. Interactive Geocoding - Quickly locate any place in the world using the integrated search bar powered by OpenStreetMap’s Nominatim API.
  3. Customizable Layers - focus on specific infrastructure types by selecting from roads, railways, runways, or rivers. The selected features are highlighted on the map in red, and their orientations are reflected in the compass rose.
  4. Downloadable Visualizations - Add a personal touch by entering custom text below the compass rose. Once satisfied, you can download the compass rose visualization as a PNG image with a single click.

My map is largely a clone of Volodymyr's original Road Orientations Map. All I've done is adapt it for MapLibre, add the ability to view the orientations of railways, runways, and rivers, and include an option to download the compass rose as an image.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

An Extremely Distorted Map of the US Election

US map with states colored to show the winning candidate in the 2024 US election

Following the publication of its Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election, the New York Times was widely criticized for visually misrepresenting the election results. Despite this backlash, the newspaper chose to repeat the error after the 2020 election - and has now done so again!

The New York Times recently released its Extremely Detailed Map of the 2024 Election. According to the NYT, the map is still a work in progress, currently displaying results from 73% of all votes cast. Results from some voting precincts are missing but will be added in the coming weeks.

The methodology behind the 2024 map remains unchanged from that used in the original Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Election. This decision is surprising, given the widespread criticism the 2016 map received from cartographers and data visualization experts. Cartonerd's Cartographic Hyperbole summarized these critiques into two main points:

  1. Use of a choropleth map: The map disproportionately highlights sparsely populated areas, giving them the same visual prominence as densely populated regions.
  2. Web Mercator projection: The projection does not maintain equal area, a crucial requirement for accurate visual representation in electoral maps.

The map is undeniably a powerful tool for exploring precinct-level vote counts for each presidential candidate. It also allows users to quickly identify precincts that overwhelmingly voted for one candidate. However, it suffers from the same flaw as its predecessors: it overemphasizes large, rural precincts (which usually vote Republican) , leading to a visually skewed representation of the overall election results.

In the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, Donald Trump secured 49.9% of the vote, narrowly defeating Harris, who garnered 48.4%. Yet, the NYT's 'Extremely Detailed Map' gives the impression of a landslide victory for Trump due to the vast swaths of red representing rural areas. You could almost say that the NYT map creates an extremely distorted view of just how close the 2024 election truly was.

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Global Ski Slope Orientations

US cartogram with each state represented by its ski rose

OpenSkiStats has analyzed ski trail maps to determine the direction of travel for ski trails worldwide. In Which Way do You Ski OpenSkiStats has used ski trail maps to determine the direction of travel of all ski trails in ski resorts around the globe. 

By gathering the coordinates of all trail segments, connecting these points, and treating each segment as a vector scaled by its vertical drop, OpenSkiStats creates a "ski rose." This circular chart, akin to a wind rose, characterizes the directions of all trail segments at a ski area. Each petal represents a compass direction, with its radius proportional to the combined vertical drop of trail segments in that direction.

a map and ski rose of all ski trails in Holt’s Ledge and Winslow Ledge, in Lyme, NH.
map and ski rose of all ski trails in Holt’s Ledge and Winslow Ledge, in Lyme, NH

As depicted in the U.S. ski rose cartogram at the top of this page, in the Northern Hemisphere, a majority of ski slopes are on the northern side of mountains. OpenSkiStats found a 'strong poleward' tendency in ski slopes worldwide - in other words, the majority of runs in the Northern Hemisphere are oriented toward the north, while those in the Southern Hemisphere are oriented toward the south.

Interestingly, OpenSkiStats also discovered a 'moderate eastward' preference in ski slopes in both hemispheres. This trend reflects a preference for morning sun, when temperatures are lower, over afternoon sun, influencing the orientation of ski trails.

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Notable Memorial Map

map of central London with the names of individuals added where there are memorials to them in the city

Notable Memorials

This morning, I created a map of memorials in central London.

My Notable Memorials map displays the names of individuals with memorials in central London, many of which are blue plaque memorials.

While there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about the map itself (although seeing the names of individuals rather than just markers is quite engaging), what stands out is how quickly I was able to create it. In under five minutes, I gathered the data and built the map thanks largely to the Download Data from OpenStreetMap tool.

Download Data from OpenStreetMap

Download Data from OpenSteetMap is a new tool that makes it remarkably easy to view and extract geographical data from OpenStreetMap in GeoJSON format.

Anyone familiar with Overpass Turbo knows it is a powerful querying tool for OpenStreetMap data. However, mastering the Overpass Query Language (OQL) can be quite challenging (though tools like ChatGPT have made writing Overpass QL queries much easier). That’s why I believe there’s a significant demand for simple, user-friendly tools like Download Data from OpenStreetMap.

The tool uses OpenStreetMap categories to populate a drop-down menu. To view and download data, you simply select one of these categories. Any subcategories are conveniently displayed in the map’s sidebar. Then, with just a click of the green 'download' button, you can export the selected data as a GeoJSON file.

Notable People Map

If I wanted to make my Notable Memorials map into something people might actually use when traveling around London I could use the Wikipedia API to add a brief biographical paragraph for each of the notable individuals displayed on the map. 

For now you might prefer Topi Tjukanov's Notable People Map, which shows the most notable people born in locations around the globe. If you want to find memorial markers then the Historical Marker Database records the locations of permanent outdoor historical markers and commemorative plaques across the world. Read the Plaque has also mapped the location of thousands of historical plaques.

Monday, January 13, 2025

LA Fires Damage Inspections Dashboard

satellite map of the Palisades with individual buildings marked to show if they have been damaged or destroyed by fire

Around 105,000 Los Angeles residents remain under mandatory evacuation orders, with an additional 87,000 under evacuation warnings. Many of these residents are uncertain and deeply concerned about the safety of their homes. So far, more than 12,000 buildings have been destroyed by the Los Angeles fires.

To provide clarity and transparency, the County of Los Angeles has published preliminary maps of buildings destroyed in the Los Angeles fires. There are four separate Damage Inspection Dashboards, one for each fire:

These interactive map dashboards display the latest assessments of damage to buildings caused by each fire. Individual buildings are categorized as Destroyed, Major (damage), Minor, Affected, Inaccessible, or No Damage on the maps.

Each map provides a sobering visualization of the devastation caused by the LA fires. Unfortunately, the extent of the damage is expected to increase, as these maps are only preliminary. Damage assessments are ongoing, with updates being made daily. If a building on the map lacks an attached report, it means it has not yet been inspected.

By zooming into a neighborhood on any of the maps, the dashboard automatically updates to show the current statistics within the selected area. These include the number of buildings inspected, the number of residential and commercial buildings, and the count of structures categorized as damaged, destroyed, or unaffected.

Saturday, January 11, 2025

The Big Foot Sightings Map

map of Washington on top of which a video clip is playing of what is clearly a man dressed up in a Bigfoot costume

In October 2004, Rodney Frank Williams's daughters reported hearing what they described as "a combination of a whale and a dinosaur" coming from the state forestland near their home in Joyce, Washington. Upon further investigation, Williams discovered a footprint "much like a large wide human print dressed in a moccasin." Additional incidents, including a mysteriously moved pumpkin, led Williams to conclude - despite skepticism from some of his neighbors - that there was a Sasquatch in the area. He subsequently reported the episode to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization.

The Bigfoot Map is an interactive map of Bigfoot and Sasquatch sightings in Washington state. It is based on data compiled by the Bigfoot Field Reporters Association. The map features a variety of options, allowing users to filter sightings by day of the week and season. Using these filters, I couldn't detect any significant differences in the number of sightings by day. However, there is a noticeable decline in the number of sightings during the winter. This suggests to me that either:  

  1. Sasquatches hibernate,   
  2. Fly south for winter, or 
  3. Humans spend less time outdoors in winter.  
You may also be interested in:

America's UFO Hotspot Map
UFO Stalker - the latest UFO reports made to MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network)
The Anomaly Observatory - mapping reports of paranormal activities around the world