MAPPING NEVADA

I may say I absolutely love California, or that I am willing to move anywhere in the country once I graduate college but the truth is, I am a desert rat at heart! I love Nevada (unfortunately) that I decided to throw some maps up of Nevada's mountain ranges (elevation) since I love the outdoors (hiking, camping, swimming in Lake Tahoe, etc.)

Below shows an elevation map of Nevada we have some high peaks:

Below you will find pictures of some of the tallest mountain ranges:

The above picture shows Wheeler Peak in Snake Range in eastern-central Nevada (White Pine County), it is 13,063 ft tall, which I believe is one of the tallest peaks in Nevada.

This is Mt. Charleston the tallest peak in Southern Nevada

If you care to check out the rest of the mountain ranges in Nevada Wikipedia has a list of them along with some great pictures (where the above pics came from):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mountain_ranges

GO NUTS!!!

GAMES TO HELP YOU BEEF UP YOUR GEOGRAPHIC KNOWLEDGE

It is quite amazing and sad that not many people are able to point out on a map where Mississippi or even Louisiana are at, so there is a cool website that links to many different geography games for all age groups to help you gain more knowledge about the world.

Here is the website:

http://unrgeog.wikispaces.com/Standards,+Lessons,+and+Games



This one is my favorite, it definitely is a challenge:

http://www.mentalfloss.com/geographyzone/



This is another one I really like:

http://www.maps.com/FunFacts.aspx?nav=FF#



Now that you have access to all kinds of different geography games there should be no more excuses for your geographic ignorance. :)

POLITICAL CARTOGRAPHY

Everyone is very aware politics is a touchy subject to chat about so instead of chatting about politics which could lead to a heated argument, why not create a political map to get your point across without throwing out insults or chairs for that matter. Here are a few examples from a website I used in a previous blog of politics mapped, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/:


This map represents the percentage of voters for Republican and Democrat using red, blue, and purple to show the variation.

















The map below shows the colors red and blue to indicate Republican and Democratic majorities on the county level.

















And here is a fun political map I got off the website http://www.aavc.vassar.edu/vq/spring2004/politics.html of the Republican elephant and the Democrat jackass.....I mean donkey going head to head. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!!!!!

3D Cartography

Technology has changed dramatically over the years especially when it comes to making maps. Map making has come such a long way that it is almost impossible to keep up with all the different types of software used to make them. One genius way to create a modern day map that jumps out and speaks to your viewers is to explore 3D software. To give you an idea of what I am babbling about, below are some examples of 3D maps of Kentucky's forest and park areas used from the website http://www.outragegis.com/3d/3d-right.html#:
































Here are some more 3D mapping examples which are of the Cherokee State Resort Park also located in Kentucky:

































And lastly a 3D map of Xterra, Hawaii's trails for biking, hiking, and running, and an area for swimmers:

















It is pretty amazing what you can do with 3D software, it can turn any ordinary map into an extraordinary piece of art.

XTREME CARTOGRAPHY

So what the hell does Xtreme Cartography mean anyway? Well let me explain to you my idea of Xtreme Cartography by using this website as my reference:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/ this website has perfect examples of how far you can go with cartography. For instance, the cartogram below represents red state blue state from the last presidential election and is rescaled according to each state's population to show how misleading the 2004 election was. The red states have a smaller population while the blue states have a larger population, so are there really that many republicans or people who prefer George W. Bush? I think not!

Go to the website above to check out more cartograms.

Old Maps and New maps, Which do you prefer?

I have come to find that there are many websites out there dedicated to selling and displaying old maps a.k.a antique maps and new maps. So what constitutes and old map? A map printed on antique paper showing boundaries of owned territory from the 1800s? A map actually from the 1800s or any era that was discovered and stored in a museum? Well whatever the answer is, in my opinion an old map is all of the above. Here are a couple of old maps I consider interesting and fit both questions.















This is a map from the website http://www.rootsweb.com/~mecoakla/old-maps/MapsOld.html of West Waterville in Oakland back in 1856. This is what the website said about this particular map: "This map shows most of the major buildings in town at the time that Water Street was built. The map is not dated, but OAHS members have determined that it was made in 1856 because of the buildings shown, some of which were not built until that year."


Here is another old map I find interesting:






















This is a regional map found on the website http://fp.ayrshireroots.plus.com/Genealogy/Old%20Maps/Britain%20Gaul%20Spain.htm of Gaul which was the name given to Western Europe in ancient times (around 390BC).



Last but not least here is, in my opinion, an example of a decent new map:

















This map was found on the website http://208.145.80.1/pacific/png/show_maps.asp?map=N , I like the color scheme, the picture, and the paragraph explaining the different languages in the New Ireland Province in Papua New Guinea.

Mapping the News

We all know a newspaper would not complete without a map or two. For instance a map could spice up the weather section showing cloud coverage for the rest of the week, or even a gruesome story about 10 murders in the Reno/Sparks area showing all the locations where they took place. Below are some examples of maps in the news:

Temperature Map on the weather forecast website http://weather.msn.com/region.aspx?wealocations=North+America

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/maps/index.html , this website is really cool, it shows a political, terrain, population, oil fields, regional and palaces map of Iraq since the war started in 2003.