This is a map of the world that was adapted from one by Abraham Ortelius of Antwerp- who was the first cartographer to show the full outlines of North and South America, and is dated to the 1500s. I find this map interesting because it shows what early maps look like, and how different they are to maps nowadays. Not only is the scale different from current maps- the most obvious of which is for Antarctica, the color scheme and information they portray is also vastly less. For example, only a dozen or so cities are named on the map, which is vastly different from current world maps that lists hundreds of cities. However, there are also many similarities to current maps, as we can easily figure out the respective continents on the 500 year old world map due to its generally correct size and shape. This map also reminds me of the age of explorers, where men would risk their lives and voyage out in ships to try to map the world, which lies in sharp contrast to the current satellite map technology that can be accessed over a click of the mouse. The source of this picture is actually from a site called "The Savvy Traveler," that specializes in different kinds of mouse pads and mouse rugs with special prints. Source: www.thesavvytraveller.com
This is another interesting world map because it shows the distribution and intensity of light pollution over the entire world in 2003. You can simply see that most light pollution comes from North America- particularly in the East Coast, Europe and Japan. By contrast, Africa is almost invisible in this map. And by looking at the map as a whole, the entire Northern hemisphere of the world is much brighter than its southern counterpart. It is interesting to note that Australia seems to be very dark even though it is generally considered to be a first world country. And South America, which is generally considered to be a third world country outshines Australia. Another interesting country is India, which is much brighter compared with other neighboring third world countries. There are many different implications that can be further explored by using the information in this map, such as difference in wealth levels, levels of development and energy consumption levels. This is a map hosted by the Astronomical Society of New South Wales regarding light pollution and how it may affect star gazing and the general enjoyment of the night sky. Source: www.asnsw.com/articles/lightpollution.asp
Map 3:
This is also an interesting map. It shows the locations of different Walmart Stores in the year 2006 in the contiguous United States. You can see that the east part of the US is much more densely dotted by Walmart stores than the west coast, and followed much further by the sparsely dotted middle part of the country. From this map, one can deduce different implications- namely that maybe the eastern part of the US is more densely populated and maybe also more wealthy, that's why their demand can support so many stores. I was surprised that California has not too much more stores compared with other west coast states, as it was once considered the sixth largest economy in the world. You can also see how the desert states in the middle have less stores because of the lower population density. However, it is interesting to note in the Eastern US, that areas above and below the sunbelt seem to have around the same amount of stores, meaning that weather has seemingly no effect on people's purchasing power, because I would have assumed that the high costs of heating required in the cold areas would mean people generally have less to spend on goods than those who live in areas that don't require heating costs. Another interesting fact about this map is that it is a user-created map. This map is hosted on the blog by "Excelhero," who used a Google map function to plot the dots manually using data acquired from Walmart. Source: http://www.excelhero.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=walmart&IncludeBlogs=4&limit=20
Ming
