Live Talks for International Women's Day

For International Women's Day Facebook is hosting live broadcasts from across the globe. The event features live videos from "influential leaders, public figures and NGOs".

The best way to find out which events are being broadcast right now is on Facebook's #SheMeansBusiness website. The site features an interactive map showing the locations of the live broadcasts happening today. Any broadcasts that are happening at this moment are shown on the map with an animated flashing map marker. If you click on a flashing marker you can watch the live broadcast directly from the interactive map.

If you've missed a scheduled broadcast or it isn't yet live the map marker provides a link to visit the selected organization's Facebook page.

LEGO Maps of the World

The LEGO-IFER is a simple but essential tool for turning the world into a Lego-ified map, a map consisting entirely of colored plastic bricks.

To create your own LEGO map just use the LEGO-IFER's Esri map to zoom-in on your location and press the 'LEGO-IFY it' button. That's it. You now have your very own LEGO map. You can adjust the size of the map using the three yellow brick buttons beneath the Esri map. You also have the option to switch between a map and satellite view of your chosen location.


If you can turn LEGO into a map then why not turn Street View into LEGO. Brick Street View does just that, re-imagining Google Maps and Google Street View as they might appear in Legoland.,

Type your address into this Legoized Google Map and then drop the LEGO Pegman onto your street and you can actually view your house as it might look if it was built with little plastic bricks.

Brick Street View is the work of Einar Öberg, the creator of the awesome Urban Jungle Street View, which allows you to see your street transformed into a jungle. Brick Street View makes use of the same undocumented depth data stored in Street View. Both apps use that data to create a depth map which can be used to plot geometry and sprites in the 3d space of the Street View panorama.


Mapzen's free Vector Tile Service, which complements their Tangram WebGL map renderer, has also been used to create a LEGO map.

This LEGO Style map is made out of colored plastic brick textures, creating a LEGO map of the world. When panning around on the map notice how the perspective on the 3d buildings changes depending on your point of view.

The Breath of the Wild Map

If you are struggling to lead Link around the vast Kingdom of Hyrule in the latest incarnation of The Legend of Zelda then you might want to use these interactive maps. In the Breath of the Wild the world of Hyrule is reportedly twelve times as large as the game world in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Sp you just might need to consult these maps.


Zelda Dungeon's interactive map of Breath of the Wild uses the Google Maps API to help you find your way around Hyrule. The map includes categorized map markers showing you the locations of important places and collectibles in the game. It also includes map labels and a handy search facility which can help you navigate around the map.

IGN's interactive Breath of the Wild map is similar to the map from Zelda Dungeon. It also includes categorized markers, map labels and a search facility. IGN's map of Hyrule appears to have been created using the Leaflet.js mapping library.

Visually Impaired Street View

Do you know how it feels to be visually impaired? See Now can't tell you how it feels but they can give you an insight into how the visually impaired see the world with their Sight Loss Simulator.

See Now's Sight Loss Simulator uses Google Maps Street View to show you how the places you are familiar with might appear if you suffered from cataracts, glaucoma or retinopathy. Enter an address into the Sight Loss Simulator and you will be shown the Google Maps Street View for that address. However the image will be obscured to show you how the scene might look to someone who suffers from a visual impairment.

Each Street View scene is displayed with three options. These options allow you to view the Street View as the location might look to someone suffering from cataracts, glaucoma or retinopathy. Each scene also includes a 'Take Action' button which leads you to more information about visual impairments and a request to sign a See Now petition.

See Now is an international development organization dedicated to ending avoidable blindness.

How Healthy Are Your Neighbors?

The people of Gary, Indiana like to play Russian roulette with their health. According to a new interactive map from the CDC Gary has the worst problems with smoking and physical activity of the largest 500 cities in America.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has mapped the health of 500 of the largest cities in the USA. Using the CDC map you can view the prevalence of health and unhealthy behavior down to neighborhood level. The purpose of the 500 Cities project is to "help develop and implement effective and targeted prevention activities (and) identify emerging health problems".

Using the 500 Cities interactive map you can view model based health estimates of neighborhoods at census tract level.  The map allows you to view the prevalence of a number of behaviors effecting health at neighborhood level, such as binge drinking, smoking, obesity and physical activity. You can also use the map to view the prevalence in neighborhoods of a number of different health issues and diseases.

Slavery and the Modern Jail Population

The United States likes locking people up. According to the Prison Policy Initiative's report States of Incarceration: The Global Context 2016 "every state (in the USA) is more likely to incarcerate its residents than almost every other nation on the planet".  The NAACP reports that 25% of the entire world's prison population is living in American jails. This propensity to lock up its citizens affects African Americans more than most other Americans. The NAACP says that "African Americans are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of whites" in the USA.

There is also a geographical factor at play in the incarceration rates of the different states in the USA. The Prison Policy Initiative states that "the South has consistently had a higher rate of incarceration than the other regions of the United States". The Pudding decided to explore if there was any connection between the high rate of incarceration in Southern states and the legacy of slavery. By mapping 150 years of census and incarceration data they wanted to see if historic incarceration rates differ between the former slave states and the non-slave states of the North.

In the Shape of Slavery The Pudding examines the number of slaves in Southern states before the Civil War, the black population across the United States over time and the number of prisoners in each state over time. Using these different map views it is possible to compare the rate of incarceration between Southern and Northern states.

Cartographic Connections

The Notre Dame School has produced a Story Map which examines the techniques that cartographers use to show connections between different locations on maps. Switched On or Switched Off explores how map makers use isochrones, proportional flow lines, isolines and other techniques to show connectivity.

Switched On or Switched Off not only provides explanations of the various ways that cartographers show connections but also includes a comprehensive number of examples of interactive and static maps to illustrate these connectivity techniques. As you progress through Switched On or Switched Off the example maps are embedded within the Story Map. Many of these maps are live which means that you can interact with them in the map panel.

How London Gets to Work

According to the Mayor of London's office the number of people cycling on London's roads has seen remarkable growth over the last few years. Last year the GLA's report into the impact of the Mayor's Vision for Cycling stated that during the morning rush hour "on some main roads, up to 70 per cent of vehicles are bicycles" and across the city "32 per cent of all vehicles on the roads are now bicycles".

You can see how cycling in London has increased drastically over the last 15 years on a new mapped visualization of cycling during the morning rush hour from Suprageography. Suprageography's London Traffic Counts Map visualizes the mode of transport used in the morning rush hour on London's roads over the last 16 years. The map uses Department of Transport traffic count data for the hour of 8am to 9am to show how people are commuting to work on London's roads.

The map shows how, particularly in central London, cycling has become one of the most popular methods of traveling to work for commuters on London's roads. Using the map you select up to three different modes of transport. Each mode of transport is shown as different colored circles, with the size of each circle proportional to the flow.

The map also allows you to allow you to visualize the change in the popularity of any of the modes of transport between any two years. In this visualization the green circles show an increase and the purple circles indicate decreases in the traffic counts for selected mode of transport.

Animated Flow Mapping

The Canvas Flowmap Layer is a library for the ArcGIS JavaScript API which allows you to map objects flowing from one location to another.You can see the Canvas Flowmap Layer in action on this demo, which uses the library to add animated flow lines to a world map.

The library uses Bezier curves to visualize the movement of objects from one location to another. One purpose of using Bezier curves is that you can show the direction of flow by using either a convex or concave curve on your flow line. The direction of flow is also visualized by the library with animated dots which travel along the flow map lines in the direction of flow.

The library allows you to adjust the speed of the animated flow dots and provides options to use linear, ease-out or ease-in animations.

Make Your Very Own Toposcope

A toposcope is a marker that is placed on the top of a hill or other elevated position to show the direction and distance to notable locations which can be seen from that point. Toposcopes can usually be found at popular vantage points to help you spot nearby locations which can be observed from that position.

If your favorite hill or elevated position doesn't have its own toposcope then don't worry as you can now make your own with this new Toposcope Maker. The Toposcope Maker is a simple to use tool which helps you make your very own handy guide as to what can be seen from any location on Earth.

To create your own toposcope for an elevated position you first need to click on the provided map to show your central position. You can then add nearby points of interest to your toposcope by selecting the marker option from the map toolbox and clicking the POI's location on the map. A line will then be added to the map showing the direction and distance to your added point of interest. You can edit the text label on the line to add a label for your point of interest. You can then continue to add as many other points of interest to your topscope as you want.