All stories about "Maps"

The design of a foldaway map is being called into question in a British Court. Designer Derek Dacey, owner of Compass Maps, claims that his map, the Unfolding Flower, which is inspired by origami, was copied by a rival company, Berlitz travel guides. [The Times]

A Vancouver-based artist and designer has launched a Where's Waldo viral game. Melanie Coles has placed a large-scale painting of Waldo on top of her roof in Vancouver and is challenging people to see if they can find it via Google Maps. The only thing is, you'll have to way until Google refreshes its maps of Vancouver, whenever that is, before you can start looking.

The next installment in the popular Grand Theft Auto video game series comes out on April 29th, 2008. This fourth edition of the controversial crime game deals with a Russian mobster running amok in Liberty City, a fictional stand-in for New York. Photos of a Liberty City map were leaked on Kotaku this morning and to help whet your appetite for spreading murder and mayhem through this virtual cityscape, I've mapped some GTA IV locations onto their New York inspirations.

L'Observatoire des medias has mapped out the media coverage of varying regions worldwide. The color-coded chart focuses on general editorial coverage in 2007, but there are also individual charts for publications such as the New York Times, Slate and the Guardian. The United States and Europe are "media darlings," surprise, surprise. Jossip points out that "the map of the blogosphere forms fancy lava-shaped blot patterns that show we still don't care terribly much about Africa, even with Angelina Jolie running around there." (A commenter then points out that a blog wouldn't be complete without a snarky mention of Angelina's name, despite the fact that she wasn't in Africa last year. She was there in 2006.) [via]

The map above is a "what-if" showing Los Angele's future public transportation in 2030, if current trends and planned expansion actually happen. Devised by the designer and transit planner at SF Cityscape, it's got subway, light rail, high speed rail, and busways, and although it was done before the Long Range Plan of 2008 was produced, it still seems "pretty accurate" to MetroRider LA. Click here for a full-sized GIF -- it covers a total of 2,000 square miles. [via]

In the Sity has a map that's likely to be handy for lots of travelers passing through Spain : the free Wi-Fi hotspots in Madrid.

Over the last few years the trendily signless NYC bar has paved the way for a new crop of exclusive nightlife spots. Typically run by friends of celebrities, who can attract first an A-list crowd (and after that all types of hangers on), semi-private clubs seem to be the new novelty. But how "private" are these spots? Most give an impression that they're list-only, but if your party is well dressed, has fewer men than women, and looks like it belongs, there's a very good chance you'll be ushered in alongside a regular. At most of the following, except for maybe the newly opened Submercer, getting in may have the most to do with your mindset going in. As a last resort, claiming to know someone somehow associated with the space (owners, investors and/or interior designers) never hurts either... (photo)

Former Lonely Planet writer-turned-internet travel guide creator Robert Reid speaks to WorldHum about the future of the travel writing industry and why LP considers its biggest competitor to be Google. He also muses on the web replacing print, especially for travel guides. He goes on to say, "another thing is that many sites with travel content online don't have maps. And maps are HUGE." You don't say, Robert? Wink wink. [via]

March Madness starts today and, just in time, Urban Tailgate has singled out around 60 NYC bars participating in the tournament. The site has mapped out many of the city's NCAA-friendly spots, specifying during which hours they'll be offering drinks specials, as well as what teams they're officially rooting for, or if they're neutral. From the upper, Upper West Side, to Houston (they're not much for Soho and further south), these are either the spots that will seem like heaven, or exactly the spots to avoid. [Urban Tailgate]

The new service OUTALOT is based on maps, and of course that's a particularly fond method of information-filtering for us here at Gridskipper. Only working for New York City right now, OUTALOT focuses on the various places you're likely to be when out (a lot): Food, Bars and Movies. Each section is then divided into categories, such as cuisine or types of bar. The only particularly curious aspect of the site is the serious mobile phone product placement when you click "outalot on your mobile phone." But, all in all, it looks a lot like menupages-meets-yelp. [via]

Self-described feminist, female, and geography major Stefanie Gray recently created a great map for the blog Strange Maps (head there for a bigger version). It graphs the places in which Ludacris claims (in his 2001 song "Area Code") to have "hoes." As you can see, there's a definite ho belt, and it also more or less matches up with the Bible Belt. Although most of the Great Plains are given a pass, there is that area in eastern Nebraska -- "he might favor white women as much as he does black women, or perhaps, girls who farm." Perhaps strangest is the fact that "Ludacris has hoes in the Midway and Wake Islands. Only scientists are allowed to inhabit the Midway Islands, and only military personnel may inhabit the Wake Islands. Draw your own conclusion." [MeFi]

Scientists have unveiled a new map in Nature detailing the world's emerging infectious disease (EID) hotspots. Researchers from Columbia University's Earth Institute, the University of Georgia, and London's Zoological Society banded together to make the map, which "shows the majority of these new diseases come from wildlife." Among the diseases included are Malaysia's Nipah virus, Sars, Ebola, and the ever-popular bird flu. An excellent resource for those not already terrified by the Global Incident Map. [BBC]

Well not really, but it could. If you plotted it. I rarely mention neat toys that don't yet have the depth of data to make them fun yet, but the Time Space Map is pretty ingenious. Really it's just a wiki-fueled Google Map that adds a third axis of data -- that being time. So you can not only search for a geographical place or keyword, but also for a year. Events or places or situations placed on the map have a date range that will let them show up, depending on your search parameters. Like I said, just a couple hundred map points so far means the coverage is very thin. But a great concept. [via]