Map Ties and Other Gifts

Personally I hate ties and wear them as infrequently as possible. However, these map ties are pretty cool. Who wouldn't want a tie with a vintage 1868 pictorial map of Iowa City?

You can customize them too - meaning you can pan and zoom to show your favorite part of town. I don't actually have a favorite part of Iowa City - I just picked one.

There are lots of vintage and other unusual maps listed. I like the weather map one.

Of course these ties would look great with a pair of cuff links.

South Portland, Maine if you were wondering.

Makeup a State

I am currently on vacation so while there's probably lots of important things happening in the world, here are some images of makeup compacts. This is not an item I buy many of but here are two for sale online featuring state maps!
Utah:

 Available from e-bay for $35. There's a zoom viewer on e-bay's page.

Hawaii (not to scale):

This one was on Etsy for a mere $15 - and it features a "scattering of tropical fish." Unfortunately it's been sold. The page is still up and shows more pictures.

The Future of Public Transit?

There has been a movement in municipalities across the country to sell naming rights to schools, parks, subway stops and various other public spaces. In today's Boston Globe there is an article about the MBTA seeking corporate sponsorship. The city I work for is also considering this option for high school spaces. I figured this was a great opportunity for a fun, sarcastic map, but Christopher Jobson of Colossal Art & Design beat me to it with this map of Chicago's CTA.

I like that the loop becomes the "Whirlpool" and the Manischewitz line going out to the Jewish parts of town. Also, it was nice of him to name a stop in honor of Gene Siskel. Click the map for an expanded view (use the magnifier if needed) or here for the original blog post.

Where Your Money Really Goes

Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory began a series of columns about the insurance industry recently, beginning with Soaring greed at Liberty Mutual. The column described the mutual (owned by policy holders like you and me) company's air force, based out of Hanscom Field in Bedford. Mass. He used the Wall Street Journal's Jet Tracker to show the important places these corporate jets are taking their executives.

Former chief executive Ted Kelly, when not whining about the "excess" salaries and "very rich" benefits that public employees like myself get, has no problem taking the public's money and flying to his vacation house on Cape Cod - a very short drive from the Boston area. One of the most popular flight destinations is Vero Beach, Florida, near another one of his properties. All of those trips took place in the cold weather months. There were also several trips to commercially important places like Bermuda and Hawaii. Apparently his $50 million annual salary was inadequate to pay his own way.

The Wall Street Journal made Freedom of Information Act requests to the FAA to compile this flight information and display it on an interactive map. You can find a company that you are a shareholder of or that you pay bills to and see where your money goes. The table view lists the dates and times of flights and the map view is what you see above.

My previous mortgage holder, Citigroup also appears to have a bit of a taste for spending your money on vacations with 14 trips to Nantucket, 4 to the Bahamas, 21 to Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, and one to Marco Island, Florida. My current mortgage holder, Wells Fargo is harder to track because there are so many different entries for them.

Have fun seeing where your money goes while I enjoy my fabulous salary and benefits.

Weekend Special-Intelliglobe Knows Too Much

Here is a cheesy video ad showing gangsters chasing Replogle's Intelliglobe through the streets of Chicago. The globe is not only interactive, but can outrun gangsters while telling passersby how long it will take to fly to Caracas and what animals are native to the southeastern USA.

Map of the Weekend-Sweet Mappy Dreams

The best way to end a Detroit map week is to fall asleep on a nice Detroit River Pillow from the SaltLabs.

Or you can choose from a range of other nice designs. Sweet Dreams!

Map of the Week-Thinking Big in St. Paul

The Minnesota Historical Society is sponsoring an exhibit called "Minnesota on the Map" at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul. The exhibit runs through September 7th and features four centuries of maps from the Society's collection. Below is an unusual example. Published by the St. Paul Board of Trade in 1871, it shows the "projected" railway system for 1900. The map was a response to an earlier map from that year published in the St. Paul Press. The Press map showed the "dominating influence of the St. Paul system" of railroads but displayed "extreme modesty" in "underrating the future of the Great Metropolis...."

The main detail that stands out is the St. Paul & London Inter-Continental Double Track Railway, featuring a "most magnificent" suspension bridge over the Atlantic Ocean.

Other details emerge when zooming in on the map such as the Sub-Oceanic tunnel under the Pacific to "Peek-in" that will be excavated by "gopher power" and the "Balloonic Route" to the North Pole. The text at the bottom details the need to move Minneapolis and the small town of Kandiyohi far to the north to accommodate the growth of the Metropolis. It also mentions that Duluth will be "wiped out entirely, as it deserves to be for having the temerity to exist."

Map of the Week-Holy Smokin' Smokies!

Outrage GIS produces recreational maps for the southern Appalachian Mountains. They have developed a trail atlas of the Great Smoky Mountains and give you an interactive look at the bird's eye view that appears in this atlas. Just use the little pan and zoom tools at the bottom to explore. Complete with fog for some extra realism!

Map of the Week #93 - City Plates

The Rios Celementi Hale Studios have designed map dinner plates for eight cities - Los Angeles, Shanghai, Cairo, Berlin, Las Vegas, Dubai, New Orleans, Washington DC - and the list is growing. In their own words these cities were "chosen by our notNeutral design team for their reputations as gateways, and for the way each is dealing with the effects of agglomeration as its population begins to reach critical mass. These porcelain plates measure 12” across, with each city’s downtown core printed on a black background. Key buildings are represented with orange icons, while rivers and public spaces are shown in blue and green."

MOTW #57

Vwmaps founded by Martin, one of our loyal readers produced this map showing all NPR stations in the USA.

MOTW #10

For the Christmas season - a map of Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana.