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A Darker View
Comic by xkcd licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License Continue reading "Sunday Comics"...
Just as Deb and I are returning from Waimea for the day, we get word of yet another fire near Waikoloa. At least the upper road was still open, though the lower was closed. The fire conditions are bad today, stiff trade winds and extraordinary dry conditions on...
West Hawaii Astronomy Club Meeting
This month's meeting will feature Josh Walawender of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawai'i Hilo. He will be talking about projects that are using relatively small telescopes to do research... Mauna Kea isn't the only mountain on the Big Island to host an observatory. The NOAA...
History Written in Lava Bombs and Cinder
A stroll anywhere on the island is a lesson in geology for an observant hiker. Much of the Big Island is a raw land where the bones of the earth show through. Lava flows, pu'u, craters, and the massive volcanoes dominate the landscape. On the older areas...
Postcard from the Summit - Dusty Road
Three years of driving the rough, steep road to the summit of Mauna Kea. I still enjoy the drive. Always changing, always beautiful, a drive through a stark landscape of rock and swirling clouds. So often our journey takes place in the low angled light of sunrise...
Postcard from the Universe - Central Virgo
A swarm of galaxies in central Virgo including M84, M86, M87, and M88, NGC4438 and NGC4473, 20x8min with a Canon 20Da and a TV-76mm...
Urban Cartography
USA Today Infographic ...
Rock ‘N’ Roll Metro Map v1.0: The infographic map...
Rock ‘N’ Roll Metro Map v1.0: The infographic map of the most influential rock’n’roll bands. I know there’s a lot of names left and the connections between genres are not perfect… © www.albertoantoniazzi.com ...
last.fm graph artists: LastGraph
last.fm graph artists: LastGraph ...
Top 20 countries with most endangered species: this image is...
Top 20 countries with most endangered species: this image is owned by Meredith Darlington/MMN - found here: www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/in… ...
IMG_1754 ...
IMG_1765 ...
GeoMusings
Integrating ASP.NET with Drupal in the Acquia Stack
A while back, I posted this about running SharpMap on Apache. At the time, the ability to run ASP.NET on Apache was mainly a curiosity to me but had little practical value. Recently, I had the need to revisit this technique for a project. I used the same post I...
Browsing WeoGeo Market Using the ESRI Silverlight API
Updated: This demo application now running here. At the 2010 ESRI Federal User Conference, WeoGeo announced the availability of a toolbar for interacting with WeoGeo Market and private libraries from within ArcMap. This, combined with Dan Dye’s series of posts showing how to use the WeoGeo REST API with Python...
Heading to the 2010 ESRI Federal User Conference
I’m heading out this morning to the FedUC. Since it’s in my back yard, I usually hit it every year but, this year, I’m staying up in the city to save myself an even more hellish commute than usual. The lingering snow and ice has thrown roads in this area...
SpatiaLite Provider Now In SharpMap Repository
I got a surprise e-mail from Felix today letting me know that the SpatiaLite provider I posted some time ago, along with Kev’s great spatial index work, has been included in the SharpMap repository. If you’re looking for one place to pick them up, now you’ve got it. If you haven’t...
My inbox has been busy this week with announcements from gvSIG. New builds of the network extension and the 3D extension have been released. New features of the network extension are described as: “- Create and define network topology (using velocities, or sense of direction, modified costs, barriers, turn costs …) - Calculate...
QGIS 1.4.0 has been released. As Terry mentioned on Twitter, that news seemed to get lost amongst the discussion of the GeoDesign Summit and the rebranding of ArcGIS 9.4 to 10.0. I have made use of QGIS in the past and have been perusing 1.4.0 lately. I must state that...
Free Geography Tools
Rescue Your Data From Platial Before It Shuts Down
Via the James Fee GIS Blog, the online mapping service Platial is shutting down. If you’ve been using it, you have a very limited amount of time to export it in KMZ format; access may shut down as early as March 2nd. Geocommons will be acquiring the data from the...
Create A Horizonless Projection View With Terrain Bender
One more brief post on Terrain Bender, a program that lets you create varying-perspective terrain views, analogous to what you get looking from an airplane window: straight-down for nearby terrain, an oblique view for terrain further away: But you can flip that analogy around 180 degrees, and use Terrain Bender to...
Converting DEM Files To .asc Format For Terrain Bender; Creating Matching Raster Overlays
In an earlier post, I covered Terrain Bender, a program that lets you create varying-angle terrain views from digital elevation models (DEMs), with optional overlay imagery, analogous to the view you get from the window of an airplane: One problem with Terrain Bender is that the only DEM format it accepts...
Intro To GIS/Mapping For Non-Profits (And Everybody Else)
SlashGeo posts about the Illustrated Guide To Non-Profit GIS And Online Mapping from MapTogether, a website from the Community Cartography Project. It’s a really good, basic introduction to the concepts behind GIS and digital mapping, and examples of their use. The whole site is worth poking around if you’re interested...
Varying-Angle Terrain Views With Terrain Bender
Standard terrain visualization programs like MicroDEM or 3DEM typically give you the option of viewing terrain either from top down: Or from an oblique angle, looking in one direction: Terrain Bender offers you the ability to warp the terrain so that you can combine both views in a single image; this is...
Getty Thesaurus Of Geographic Names Online
With 895,000 records and 1,115,000 names, the Getty Thesaurus Of Geographic Names Online lets you look up position and hierarchical data for geographic features around the world: The position data is described as “approximate and … intended for reference (“finding purposes”) only”; a few test cases showed that the positions ranged...
GIS Education Community Blog
Investigating the Haiti Earthquakes of January 2010 Using GIS
A new lesson in the ArcLessons library allows for investigations of the devastating earthquakes in January 2010 in Haiti using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as the analytical tool. Through this lesson and data set, you can examine fault lines, population, ocean floors, plate boundaries, volcanoes, and other phenomena to gain...
Teaching GIS in Higher Education
Many of you are familiar with Action Research. One of the ideas behind Action Research is that we are all researchers in our classrooms and we are all attempting to improve the practice of teaching as we engage in the practice. Many of you may also be familiar...
Why Geodatabases Promote Education
Geodatabases encourage creativity and higher levels of cognition. Geodatabases require design which, by nature, is creative. Creativity stimulates the brain. Geodatabases are models. Working with the elements that need to be modeled to create a digital world requires that the creator understands how the real world...
GLOBE at Night 2010, March 3 - 16
GLOBE at Night is an annual 2-week campaign in March. People all over the world record the brightness of their night sky by matching its appearance toward the constellation Orion with star maps of progressively fainter stars. They submit their measurements on-line and a few weeks later, organizers release...
Exploring Near-realtime Earthquakes with AEJEE
A new lesson has been posted to ArcLessons, exploring recent worldwide earthquakes with the free, cross-platform ArcExplorer Java Edition for Education (AEJEE). Map and analyze the last 30 days of earthquakes around the world, examining depth, magnitude, relationship to plate boundaries, and comparing recent earthquakes to historical earthquakes. Explore, download, or rate...
Fun with GIS #39: Learning STEM Thru Tragedy
Once again, we have been delivered a stunning lesson in earth science. A tremendous earthquake (magnitude 8.5 or so) rocked Chile this weekend, spawning tsunami warnings across the Pacific. The questions I, as a geography teacher, would have asked my students are my standard three: "What's where? Why is it...
Ogle Earth
Using Google Earth and GPS to Track Afghanistan Cash | Danger Room | Wired.com To avoid fraud, Afghanistan cash-for-work...
Iran threatens airline ban over Arabian Gulf tag | Reuters "Iran has threatened to ban airlines from using its...
Google LatLong: Google Earth now available for Android Google Earth for Android: Faster than iPhone, with bigger screen, voice...
Bing To Use Flickr Photos, Live Video, But Google’s Got Goods, Too | Gizmodo Australia Remarkable what a difference...
AP: Google Enters Fray in Thai-Cambodia Border Dispute AP confirms yesterday's story on Xinhua: Google will review its Thai-Cambodia...
Xinhua: Google to review Cambodian map over Preah Vihear Temple Xinhua is China propaganda central and not always reputable,...
Strange Maps
443 – Secret Caves of the Lizard People
This map is an essential ingredient of a story that has ‘Indiana Jones’ written all over it: secret caves, a lost civilisation and above all, a treasure trove of gold in unimaginable quantities. And all this in the ground below the present-day metropolis of Los Angeles. Below are two extracts from...
442 – Distilled Geography: Europe’s Alcohol Belts
It matters where we are, for it helps determine who we are. Or, as the quote often attributed to Napoleon states: Geography is destiny. That destiny extends to drink, as demonstrated by this map. Where we are determines to a statistically significant degree what kind of alcohol we prefer. Or...
441 – Sense of POPOS: Secret Spaces of San Francisco
Scattered across the centre of San Francisco are almost seventy semi-secret spaces, privately owned but open to the public. Subject to the fine print of a little-known pact between City and Commerce, these so-called POPOS (Privately Owned Public Open Spaces) allow alluring vistas of San Francisco and access to its intimate interiors....
440 – Dissuasive Cartography: the Emerald Desert
With an army numbering a mere 7,000 soldiers and an official policy of neutrality, the Irish Free State’s attitude at the outbreak of the Second World War was that of a very nervous bystander. While covertly providing the Brits with some intelligence and assistance, the overt goal throughout what was...
We could rattle off some statistics, about size and distance. But sometimes a picture is more eloquent than a thousand words. Here are two postcard maps. That’s two thousand words right there. Many thanks to Anna Chlebinska, a collector of cartographic postcards, for sending in these beauts. ...
438 – The Great Firewall of China
“China’s internet is open.” (PRC government spokesperson responding to a question on Google’s announcement to stop filtering its Chinese search engine, citing concerted hacker attacks on the e-mail accounts of political dissidents) Will Google leave China? Probably so. After the online giant challenged the Chinese government by announcing its intention to stop abiding...
GIS in Education
How to Open AVIRIS Image in ENVI
How would you open a hyperspectral AVIRIS Image in an ENVI environment? If you are new to using AVIRIS data, you may have problems importing them to ENVI. ENVI software support hyperspectral datasets and it is quite easy to open them.A downloaded Airborne Visible InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) image from...
Remote Sensing Tools for Human Evolution Studies
Science Mag reports that researchers have often proposed that dramatic changes in ancient climates triggered major events in human evolution, such as the emergence of a new species or migrations of our ancestors in and out of Africa. But it has been notoriously difficult to tie deep-sea records of global...
Daniel Civco - 2010 SAIC/Estes Memorial Teaching Award Winner
ASPRS Announces Daniel Civco as 2010 SAIC/Estes Memorial Teaching Award Winner.Daniel Civco, PhD, a professor in the Department of Natural Resources Management and Engineering at the University of Connecticut, has been named as the recipient of the 2010 SAIC/Estes Memorial Teaching Award.The SAIC Estes Memorial Teaching Award was inaugurated in...
Free ESRI Live Online Training Seminar
Next week, ESRI will host a free, live online training seminar. Best Practices for Working with Map Templates will air at www.esri.com/lts on Thursday, March 4, at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. Pacific standard time. Cartographers, geographic information system (GIS) professionals, and ArcGIS Desktop users of all experience...
CARIS Launches Spatial Fusion Enterprise 5.2
CARIS, a leading developer of marine GIS and hydrographic software, announced today the release of Spatial Fusion Enterprise (SFE) 5.2 as part of its well known Ping-to-Chart product suite.SFE is Web-enabling technology for geospatial information that aims at leveraging the investment of collecting and maintaining data by making it more...
ERDAS Announces TAHAL as New Distributor
ERDAS Inc. announces that TAHAL Consulting Engineers Ltd. is now the official ERDAS distributor to customers in Israel. TAHAL has its Israel headquarters in Tel Aviv.TAHAL has accompanied Israel's economic development since the 1950s, addressing the lack of water by playing a key role in the legendary blooming of the...
GIS Lounge - Geographic Information Systems
GeoBriefs: Platial No More, Brief History of Ordnance Survey
Platial announced its demise. The site went offline March 2nd and GeoCommons will be hosting all “geo-data (maps and places) from Platial’s 5 years of neogeography.” (Via James Fee) The Platial blog and Twitter account platialmaps live on. Learn about the Ordnance Survey with their quick “A brief history of Ordnance...
MapTogether, which focuses on providing GIS support to community and nonprofit organizations, has released a booklet called the ”Illustrated Guide to Nonprofit GIS and Online Mapping.” The 45-page PDF file reviews basic GIS concepts, provides examples of nonprofit mapping, free data sources, and provides an overview of the more commonly available low-cost...
GPS Briefs: Number of GPS Satellites Expanding, Jamming Threat Increases, “Wakening” Sun
The number of GPS satellites in operation will increase over the next couple of years from 24 to 27. Driving this increase, in part, is the need for increased GPS coverage and accuracy in Afghanistan. That country’s deep valleys and steep mountainous terrain make GPS coverage spotty or non-existent in...
Clip Art for GIS and Geography
Find commercial free sources of clip art for globes, maps and other images useful for developing reports, web sites and banners relating to GIS and geography. Outline maps Growing collections of outline maps in PDF format to print out for educational and personal use. These maps can be used as teaching...
For a little fun, watch this animated car chase short video which uses imagery pulled from Google Earth (the description of the video says Google Maps but clearly the opening zoom from the world down to the streets of Manhattan is pure Google Earth). The video was created by Honest...
GeoBriefs: Please Rob Me, ESRI in the Cloud, Plea for Metadata
Dutch developers created a stir with their web site “Please Rob Me” that uses information gleaned from the popular online game Foursquare to determine when people aren’t home and to post that information. Foursquare is a game that has users check-in online with their mobile phones to locations they are...
Features
Pedestrian Simulation for the Sustainability of the Built Environment
If sustainability means to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations, pedestrian simulation software can contribute to this aim in the field of building design and engineering. Simulation of human walking allows to identify planned or existing flaws regarding pedestrian comfort and...
Pedestrian Simulation for the Sustainability of the Built Environment
If sustainability means to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations, pedestrian simulation software can contribute to this aim in the field of building design and engineering. Simulation of human walking allows to identify planned or existing flaws regarding pedestrian comfort and...
Geomatics: Research of Novel Applications in Heritage Management
Geomatics for Heritage Management is strategic for sustainable development and cultural tourism, for economic development, cultural tourism, civil protection, for environmental monitoring and management of emergencies. The positive results of the work carried out convinced us to intensify the efforts and survey a wider area, aiming at covering European regions...
Geomatics: Research of Novel Applications in Heritage Management
Geomatics for Heritage Management is strategic for sustainable development and cultural tourism, for economic development, cultural tourism, civil protection, for environmental monitoring and management of emergencies. The positive results of the work carried out convinced us to intensify the efforts and survey a wider area, aiming at covering European regions...
It used to be that good design was signified by form following function, but as we’ve moved through the first decade of the 21st century, it’s clear that good design requires so much more. While function is still primary, there are many other factors inherent to good design. Factors like...
It used to be that good design was signified by form following function, but as we’ve moved through the first decade of the 21st century, it’s clear that good design requires so much more. While function is still primary, there are many other factors inherent to good design. Factors like...
All Points Blog
Microsoft Breathless About Latest, Largest Imagery Update to Bing
Our MS PR contact e-mailed to tell us about Chris Pendleton's blog post. Interestingly, MS didn't e-mail us about the Navizon deal noted earlier this week. Last month we pushed out our largest amount of new imagery EVER in terms of square kilometers...Read more...
Harris Steps Up to Fund Geospatial Revolution Project
Also noted: "Release of the first episode is planned for mid-September 2010." Disclosure: I'm an advisor on the project. - press release - Geospatial Revolution Project...Read more...
DNI to Crowdsource a "Safe Routes through Afghanistan" App
Or at least that what I understand from Greg Gardner, deputy chief information officer for the Director of National Intelligence who spoke a lunch in Pentagon City hosted by the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association yesterday. DNI...Read more...
GIS Used to Help Decrease Stroke, Heart Disease, and Cardiovascular Risk 25%
Ten years ago the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) committed to a reduction of 25% in stroke, heart disease, and cardiovascular risk. And, they achieved it! How? A new report chronicles the systematic changes required....Read more...
Helping the UN Help Haiti Via GIS Corps
Christopher G. Markuson, GISP, the GIS Manager of Pueblo County, Colorado took on another full time GIS job last month. He and Graham Smith, the Geomatics Coordinator from the Grand River Conservation Authority in Cambridge, Ontario are both working ...Read more...
Slightly Off Topic: Going Social? Don't Forget the Press Release
If a company is mounting a social media presence it should announce that presence via social media. I also think it's important to offer a traditional press release. Why? A personal story: I took it upon myself to join Twitter a year or more ago s...Read more...
Mapping Center
Graphics from Map Use available for your use!
I am not sure why I didn’t think to write about this earlier, but there is a great resource sitting out there waiting for people to take advantage of, and many do not know about it! Last year, ESRI Press released the book, Map Use: Sixth Edition by Jon Kimerling, Aileen...
Share Your Maps with the GIS Community on wiki.GIS.com
Everyone loves maps; whether it's using them to get us to our destination, studying them to gather particular information about a region and its attractions or features, or just looking at them for their intrinsic beauty. Wouldn't it be great to have a place where the maps we create and...
We recently received this question on Ask a Cartographer: "I am using a bar chart with 2 data fields to display data on my map. In the legend, I have my 2 data fields displayed, and there is a random number (not sure if it is a mean or median...
Simultaneously displaying hillshades of multiple resolutions and extents
I have been working on an online, multi-scale map of Yosemite National Park. This map will be incorporated into the World Topographic Map at map scales of approximately 1:9,000, 1:4,500, 1:2,000, and 1:1,000. From Yosemite National Park, we received elevation data at two grid cell resolutions: ten meter data for...
I am working on a small scale map of the world that shows political boundaries over time from about 2000BC to the present. For this map, I want to show the world's water with a bit of variation along the coasts. This is desirable for a couple of reasons: 1)...
A Concise History of Bump Mapping
Hi, folks— I have never blogged before so forgive me if I ramble on too much. I have been working with ESRI to convert ideas and snippets of code from my past work presented at the ESRI International User Conferences into a usable set of tools for all to use....
ScienceDaily: Geographical News
Salt-seeking satellite shaken by quake, but not stirred
NASA's Aquarius instrument, and the Argentinian spacecraft that will carry it into space, the Satelite de Aplicaciones Cientificas (SAC-D), successfully rode out one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history Feb. 27 with no problems....
Americans favor conservation, but few practice it
Most Americans like the idea of conservation, but few practice it in their everyday lives, according to the results of a national survey....
Dust in Earth system can affect oceans, carbon cycle, temperatures, and health
Dust is a powerful thing. Not the stuff that we wipe off the coffee table on a regular basis, but the tiny particles floating around in the Earth's atmosphere, which originate primarily from deserts in North Africa and the Middle East. It can affect the oceans, impact the carbon cycle...
New NASA Web Page Sheds Light on Science of Warming World
Climatologists have long known that human-produced greenhouse gases have been the dominant drivers of Earth's observed warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution. But other factors also affect our planet's temperature. Of these, the ocean plays a dominant role. Its effects helped nudge global temperatures slightly higher in 2009,...
Great Southern California shakeout results provide new communication strategies
Researchers who devised the largest earthquake preparedness event ever undertaken in the United States say one of the biggest challenges was translating devastation projections from a hypothetical magnitude 7.8 San Andreas Fault temblor into timely, usable information to the more than 5 million California participants in 2008....
NASA and NOAA ready GOES-P satellite for launch
NASA is preparing to launch the NOAA Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-P (GOES-P) from Space Launch Complex 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. The launch is targeted for March 2....
Geographic Travels
Armenian Genocide Fight Once Again Returns to the United States
From the late 1800s to the end of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the Republic of Turkey, Ottoman and Kurdish forces massacred over a million Armenians in a program of ethnic cleansing. There were also genocidal programs against Assyrians, ethnic cleansing, both peaceful and violent, targeting Greeks,...
Ukraine and CNN's Mixed-up Geography
Ukraine's President Viktor Yanukovych has been having a very good time being president. He managed to get Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to back down, placated Russia by all but saying that the Black Sea Fleet can stay in Crimea past the 2017 deadline, and showed the West that he...
Geocurrents Takes on Continents
The geographers over at Geocurrents have two good introductory posts on why the generalized theory of "continents" is flawed. The series is started by Nonsense about Continents and finished with How Many Continents Are There? The posts briefly describe a point brought up in blogger Dr. Martin Lewis'...
Best Affordable Suburbs in America 2010
Business Week has released their study of the best affordable suburbs in the United States. One can navigate the report's website by clicking on the map of the states. Each state has a brief profile of the best affordable suburb.The criteria was chosen by "the selected suburbs were...
Map of Hamburger Fast Food Restaurant Dominance in the United States
Long-time reader and good friend Torgo Jr. has sent me a link to the above map of hamburger fast food restaurant dominance in the contiguous United States of America.Torgo Jr. and another reader have been sharing their thoughts about the map with me. One thing pointed out is how...
Colombia Continues its March to Peace and Democracy
At the dawn of the twenty-first century things were looking bad for Colombia. The Communist terrorist group FARC used cease fires to create their own narco-insurgent state called the El Caguan "Demilitarized Zone." Meanwhile nacro-mafias, other Communists groups such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), and rightist drug...
Google LatLong
A new way to edit places on Google Maps
Back in 2008, we started opening Google Maps up to user edits. With the launch of Place Pages in September, we decided it'd be a lot easier if editing had its own page too. Today, we're pleased to announce a new, easier way to edit places on Google Maps.If you...
Dive into Google Earth with marine scientists
Have you ever dreamed of being a marine scientist? With today's release of a Google Earth tour by the Pew Environment Group to introduce the 2010 Pew Fellows in Marine Conservation, you can put on your virtual scuba gear and join them in the underwater ecosystems, coral reefs, and...
Announcing the winners of the Street View trike contest
[Cross-posted from the Official Google Blog]The polls have closed, the votes have been tallied and the people have spoken: it’s time to announce the winners of our Street View trike suggestions contest. Last October, we gave Street View fans the opportunity to vote for the special attractions around the United...
Resources for Chile earthquake response
After hearing of the devastatingly powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile overnight, we began to mobilize several teams to see what Google resources could help with disaster response.Google Map Maker is currently available in Chile, and we are making this map data available for download by relief and aid...
No knowledge is ever wasted. In college I took three semesters of Greek civilization because I thought it was nifty (and apparently I also had some plan involving never graduating, but that eventually fell through). Although this makes me more fun at parties than I'd otherwise be, I have had...
Navigate your way through user photos in Street View
With Street View in Google Maps, you can explore millions of images taken in places across the world. But the photographs you see are based on what the cameras on top of our cars, driving on public roads, can capture (or, in a few cases, what the cameras on our...
The Map Room
Emanuele Pizzolorusso’s Crumpled City Maps are made of Tyvek and are meant to be scrunched up and stuffed rather than folded. (Personally, I would have thought silk, or some other fabric, was more scrunchable than Tyvek — I’m reminded of escape maps — but I guess Tyvek works too;...
Slate’s Julia Turner is the latest to put out a call for hand-drawn maps, in a post that is part of her series on signs: The maps we draw for one another also have a certain ephemeral beauty. Each map is the product of a conversation. While most professional maps serve...
Via MapHist, news of the passing on Thursday of Bernard V. Gutsell (1914-2010), who founded the journal Cartographica in 1965. Bernard Gutsell first appeared on The Map Room: A Weblog About Maps on March 7, 2010. Copyright © 2010 Jonathan Crowe. Distributed under a Creative Commons licence. ...
Fine Books and Collections magazine has published an article by Jeffrey Murray, former archivist and author of Terra Nostra, about trench maps used by British forces in World War I. In its day, the Great War was the largest survey and mapping operation undertaken in history. No previous military engagement had...
Over on Autostraddle, Taylor posts a “love song” to maps in video games. Well, no: no actual singing involved; it is, however, a long, appreciative post on maps found in various video games. Video Game Maps first appeared on The Map Room: A Weblog About Maps on March 6, 2010....
The Sunday New York Times on Map Books
Steven Heller’s roundup of map books in the book review section of tomorrow’s New York Times includes some familiar titles, such as Mark Ovenden’s Paris Underground (which I reviewed last November), Frank Jacobs’s Strange Maps, and The Map as Art by Katharine Harmon (a review of which is forthcoming). It...