Interesting odds and ends from around the world of cartography in news brief form

The blog Google Blogoscoped has put together a map compiling some prejudices – assumptions about national character accepted as conventional wisdom – of several nations of the world. Not every nation is covered, but many are, and the results are humorous in some cases, quizzical in others, and thought-provoking all around. Amongst the ones that caught my eye:

• Italy: impeccable style, use of hand gestures, passion, pasta
• Brazil: informality, partying, bikinis
• Turkey: hospitality, weapons

In all, is the sort of thing that makes you go “hmmm”. Personally, i’d take Brazil over Turkey…and you can view “The Predjudice Map” [1] by going here.

Blue Pin Ads On Google Maps?

Also from the blog Google Blogoscoped we hear that [2] new blue-pin icons have begun to show on some Google Local maps that return advertisers as part of the query results. This apparently hasn’t been announced just yet; speculation is that Google may be rolling this out incrementally or perhaps running a test.

So far as is known, few (if any) examples of this “in the wild” have been found, and though reports are sketchy, so far no sign of the blue pin has shown up in any public Google API users’ maps. Also, they don’t seem to be visible to all users. Something to look out for.

The Topography of Sound

Daniel Rothaug, a student at the University of Applied Sciences, Würzburg, Germany, sees a flaw in the display of sound. From his website:

Actually, to us, the idea of an “acoustic camera” or “acoustic holography” are mind bending all by themselves, but we digress.

Rothaug’s answer to this shortfall is to take the sound waves, create a surface from them, and then map a picture of the object that created them to that surface. The result is a “relief sound map” of the object which makes one see these objects in a new light – the higher “elevations” come from the louder parts of the thing. Indeed, they somewhat transcend mere topography and become entracing bits of abstract art.

He calls this “digital acoustic cartography”, [3] and you can learn all about it here. To be sure, it’s some beautiful, award winning work.

Good Google Earth News for Mac addicts

On 10 Jan, [4] Google Earth became available for the Macintosh. System specs: OS X 10.4, 400 MHz processor, minimum 32MB video ram (of course, the more the better – sorry, Panther users, you’ve got to get the new cat).

Google Earth Plus and Google Earth Pro ($20 and $400 respectively) are still solely available for the Wintel platform.

Good Garmin GPS News for Mac Addicts

Also verturing into the land of Macintosh is the well-known GPS equipment designer and manufacturer Garmin.

[5] According to this press release, Garmin is immediately undertaking to make its ranges of GPS and mobile elecronics systems compatible with OS X 10.4. Garmin says that this makes them “the first major GPS designer and manufacturer to announce direct support” for Mac OS Tiger.

Availablility will begin with Training Center and MotionBased.com in the spring; complete compatibility will be achieved by the end of 2006

(Thanks also to [6] Cartography and [7] The Map Room)