Penn State University Map Library

Ok, if you are into messing around with scripts in your browser (for firefox you can download greasemonkey or stylish) you can make google maps do some fun things. At the link below is a script which will get google maps to tell you how long it will take to walk or bike a certain distance. It does so via a pop up when you mouse over the time it takes to drive...


http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/21895

just good, cool map stuff

this is the new version of moveable type we are using for our blogs here at penn state...i'm a little frustrated because i spent hours getting the design of the old one set and looking pretty good (even if i didn't post as often as i'd like)

ANYWAY - patience please as i weed through documentation and put my css skills to the test!

this is the new blog platform and i'm checking to see if I have it working right...

I am always on the look out for tools and tricks to make traveling easier! Imagine my surprise when I came across oanda.com

It is a currency site geared toward everyone - business folks, trading folks and traveling folks. I've linked directly to the travel page since for the purposes of this blog that is the information of importance. Be sure to check out the travel currency cheat sheet. Simply choose the two currencies you want to know the exchange for and poof! there is your cheat sheet to carry around with you when you travel. Much easier than dragging along a calculator I'm sure!

I was reading book reviews today and the website for the Genocide Studies Program at Yale caught my eye.

I'm not sure if under "normal" circumstances this would have caught my eye - but I happen to currently be reading a book by a South African journalist who covered the genocide in Rwanda. I was in the middle of my college years when the tragedy in Rwanda happened and like most college students I didn't pay close attention to what was going on. But I know about it now after reading this book and I have to say I'm pretty appalled at what human beings can and will do to each other. I hope sites like this will educate those (like me) who aren't informed about these tragedies in history.

This site provides some great maps of regions across the globe which have been witness to this heinous crime.

Sometimes I find really cool things like this:

http://www.telegeography.com/maps/index.php

I will buy some of these maps for the collection, they look really interesting. I can't wait to see them!

This is a really cool website of the map collection at the New York City subway website. Of particular note are the maps under the historical collection. Beautiful scans and tons of great maps! I love when I find sites like this!

Have a great weekend!

There is an article today on Rueters news service talking about the search for missing pilot Steve Fosset. A good friend of his - Richard Branson (Of Virgin Records) says the following

"I'm talking with friends at Google about seeing whether we can look at satellite images over the last four days to see whether they can see which direction he might have been flying and whether they can see any disturbances anywhere that they can pin from space," he said from Barcelona, Spain.

now this is the Google Earth website which discusses the data contained within Google Earth:

http://earth.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=21414&topic=1129

What is so disturbing about this is Mr. Branson thinks that Google is the supplier of satellite imagery - even better he thinks they have up to date satellite imagery. My only hope is that Google has set him in the direction of finding the information from the sources who actually provide it.

sigh

An interesting site I read about the other day where you can view maps made by a wide variety of contributors. There is also a data download portal - drag and drop the data you need then export to KML or CSV and you are on your way.

When I was in graduate school this was the type of application we dreamed of - the kind of application that gives power back to the people. There is no need for fancy GIS software and the extensive amount of time needed to learn how to use it. Anyone with some technical knowledge or the with the time it takes to get a smidge of that knowledge can make a map like the ones displayed in GeoCommons. And in turn be able to tell the story of the data. That is what is so incredible about the changes in web mapping we are seeing these days...it is no longer only the experts who have the capacity to make and use maps to their advantage...

Give the maps some time to load, some of the data sets are large and it takes a few minutes.

One of the more interesting maps produced by the Nature Conservancy (disturbing for me considering I grew up in NJ)

UFOs and Sasquatch

Here is one relevant to the ongoing news regarding subprime mortgage failures

and finally a map showing the areas where alternative fuel or alternative fueled vehicles are in highest use

Did you know you can view your search results on a map in Google? It is pretty simple but the results you receive are general run of the mill facts, so this search is best used when looking for information on a person, place or thing.

I did a test search using mercator

in the Google search box type mercator view:map

and these are your results http://tinyurl.com/2wsumk
enjoy!