Map Keys 2005-12-17

Your signposts to interesting bits, news items, and blog posts, in convenient digest form

European Time Exposure

An interesting European map display is available on the Web, showing 21 snapshots of the continent’s political units from from the year 1 to 2001 CE, spaced off at 100 year intervals.

The site, The Periodical Historical Atlas of Europe, is a subset of Euratlas, an e-map purveyor based in Yverdon, Switzerland. The Periodic Atlas has low-quality images available for free display and sells vector versions in the Euratlas shop.

I Am The Eye In The Sky…

Google Earth, the innovative application bringing the world’s satellite photography to your very own desktop, is a hot property these days; renowned by people all over, and apparently alarming governments and authorities the world over.

Satellite imagery, of course, sees all – from your neighborhood and even your very back yard to installations vital to many nation’s security interests. This article by Jason Lee Miller of WebProNews notes that the Australian government has raised concerns about satellite photos of a nuclear power plant near Sydney available to the world; Google avers that, in this case, not only is the information dated it’s not particulary secret, being discernable to any person who is essentially driving by the property. The CCA’s blog Cartography notes an article in The International Herald Tribune (who has since pulled the article from its site) with an observation that in this respect the “genie is out of the bottle” and it may be hard if not impossible to put it back in.

Access to worldwide satellite imagery of secure installations is, surprisingly, still an open question. Undoubtedly we can expect censoring on certain fronts; the US Government already censors satellite images of such locations as the White House and The Pentagon, it is reported. This issue may take a while to work out. In the meantime, a quick Google search reveals a great amount of discussion on the matter.

The Great White North Makes Its Choice

Canada is preparing to mount elections for a new Parliament (Canada has a European-style ‘parliamentary’ system where the legislature is dissolved and a new one is chosen). While bicameral (an upper and a lower house, similar to the U.S.), the upper house (Senate) is selected by the government while the lower house (Commons) is elected by direct ballot.

Thus, insetad of Representative and Senatorial elections, the Canadian voter votes for thier local Members of Parliament who then go to Ottawa to establish the makeup and complexion of government for the current term. 308 districts nationwide, called constituencies, do the choosing.

Elections Canada (http://www.elections.ca) provides a Web reference to any Canadian citizen wishing to know which district in which they live, or anyone anywhere interested in Canadian electoral politics. Searchable by postcode, place name, or graphically by map, the system documents the current district alignment of 308 consituencies as well as the former 301-district alignment. (via Cartography).

NYPL Establishes Map Lovers’ Paradise

The New York Times reports that the New York Public Library Map Room, formely known as Room 117, has reopened after a nine-month, USD $5 million restoration program as the Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, after its two principal donors. The city of New York also chipped in USD $2.5 million toward the effort.

Commanding a corner view of Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, the new Map Room brings the old together with the new, merging the old (approximately 420,000 pieces, some centuries old) with the new (digital technology for searching and display). Decades of wear and tear were made new, in a reference center now superlative with statistics: 360 storage shelves with another 1,800 drawers in another storage space.

With the improvements, it would now seem that map lovers don’t necessarily have to die to go to heaven; just visit the New York Public Library.

(Via The Map Room)