Shoer writes:

With the advent of superluminal travel, each species soon discovered the network of Channels traversing the galaxy, allowing near-instantaeous travel from Channel Anchor to Channel Anchor. The giant artifacts spoke of a precursor civilization - but where are they now? Their ruins, gargantuan structures on planetary scales, float dead in the Burial Grounds or the Sea of Relics, but no explorers have ever located their ruins on a planet. The only unexplored portions of the galaxy seem uninhabitable: the vast Far Reaches, and the irradiated Cathedral at the galactic core...

Sounds like a smashing setup for a novel to me.

via Joseph Shoer

Earlier this fall, AlternateHistory.com held a map-making contest detailing the effects of zombie outbreaks, vampire migrations and other supernatural events in alternate history. Among the entries is a map of the Scourge from Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and a few other standouts (recommended by Metafilter).

[AlternateHistory.com via Metafilter]

The Scourge of 1866
Essex County Cricket (& Zombie Eradication) Club
The Great Golem Uprising of 1848 — A non-zombie entry.

[via LaToya Egwuekwe]

The maps were pointed out by iwatchstuff, who found them at the Jurassic Park uber fan site Jurassic Park Legacy. There Terry Davis, Bernard Kyer, and Jeff Venancio reconstructed these amazing maps of the island based on concept art, facts and plot details. You can literally follow the story on the map. Click on the pictures for a closer look.

Over at Astrobiology magazine, Aaron Gronstal describes new scientific work that led to the creation of this map. What you see here is the landmass which included a land bridge over the Bering Strait - the same bridge that allowed animals and humans to wander from Northern Europe into North America without being hindered by the Arctic Sea. The timeframe here is the Pleiocene and Pleistocene Eras - between 5.3 million to 12,000 years ago - when ice sheets and glaciers covered most of the northern hemisphere. And yet at the same time, some of the iciest parts of today's warmer world were at that time ice-free and full of life. How did that happen?

Gronstal sums up the research:

Temperatures were still low in Beringia during these epochs, but a lack of moisture due to the rainshadow of the surrounding mountain ranges prevented large-scale formation of ice. As the authors [of the new study] put it, "The interior of Yukon and Alaska was cold enough to support ice sheets but too dry for extensive glaciation." Because of this, Beringia was a key location for life during the Pleistocene, when the Earth's climate fluctuated between ice ages and glaciers often covered large portions of the globe.

As the Earth's climate varied, so did sea levels. This ebb and flow of the sea exposed a land-bridge across the Bering Straight between Alaska and Siberia. Not only was this an important route for the migration of animals between the continents of Asia and North America, it also expanded the ice-free land mass of Beringia. This provided a large area that was relatively rich in food – which was a lifesaver for those struggling to survive in the Earth's frozen North. Beringia was by no means a tropical paradise for life, but the cold, wind-swept desert was an important ecological refuge for plants and animals when glaciation of the Earth was at its peak.

This map is a perfect demonstration of how complicated the results are when we see massive weather shifts on Earth. Some areas that were uninhabitable become habitable in unforeseen ways.

via Astrobiology

According to Strange Maps:

Leighton suggested that the old borough boundaries should be altered to conform to a honeycomb pattern. Within a 5-mile radius of the General Post Office all the sprawling, differently sized boroughs were to become hexagonal-shaped areas, 2 miles across. There were 19 altogether with the City in the centre of the honeycomb. Each hexagonal borough would be identified by a letter, and the letter as well as a number would be painted or cut out of tin-plate to be visible by day and night on lampposts at every street corner.

Very efficient!

More weirdness via Strange Maps

Local pro-bike blog Copenhagenize reports that the city is planning a series of super bicycle routes from the suburbs, for people who bike more than 10K to get to work. The idea is to create roads where people can ride their bicycles steadily at over 20 km per hour, without worrying that they'll have to deal with too much car traffic or with passing other bikes on narrow roads.

Copenhagenize writes:

The routes will be developed on the existing bike lanes but they will have a number of improved features, according to the City's vision:

- Smooth, even surfaces free of leaves, ice and snow.
- As direct as possible with no detours.
- Homogenous visual expression, for example, with signage and the trademark blue bike lanes through larger intersections.
- 'Service stations' with air and tools along the routes.
- Possibility to maintain a high speed and with sufficient width to overtake other cyclists.
- Safe and quick crossing priority for cyclists when they approach cross streets.
- Green Wave for cyclists through sections with frequent stop lights. [The Green Wave is in place on three main routes into Copenhagen already. Cycle 20 km/h and you hit green lights all the way.]

If the future of urban transport is the bicycle, and many city planners as well as energy experts argue that it is, then surely this kind of road represents the future of commuting. A similar plan is underway in the Danish city of Aarhus too.

via Copenhagenize

Well, first off, it looks as though people in the early 1990s mostly saw UFOs in major metropolitan areas — although it looks like there were a lot in Hull. Also — and this might just be obsessive fandom speaking –- but doesn't it look like there's a correlation between the number of UFO sightings per year, and the popularity of homegrown science fiction classic Doctor Who? You'll notice the sightings drop off almost completely after Who gets canceled in the late 1980s.

Head over to the Guardian for the nifty interactive version of the map. [Guardian]

According to a release from Nature Geoscience, where the study was published yesterday:

Itsushi Uno and colleagues used satellite and model data to show that a storm in China's Taklimakan Desert in May 2007 generated dust clouds that were lifted 8-10 km above the Earth's surface, and transported more than one full circle around the Earth. When the dust reached the north-western Pacific Ocean for a second time, the subsidence of a high-pressure system caused the dust-laden clouds to descend into the lower atmosphere and some of the dust was then deposited in the ocean.

The analysis also suggests that the dust particles may have triggered ice formation in the high-altitude clouds.

The researchers suggest that this ice could have affected temperature as well.

Coupled with the amazing infographic, above, this news makes it clear that particles in the atmosphere affect the entire Earth - not just the regions where they formed. This obviously tells us something about how pollution could affect regions far removed from it. But more generally, it gives scientists more information about the formation of weather patterns.

via Nature Geoscience

Dubbed the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL), the project allows astronomers to observe submillimeter-wavelength light (between infra-red and radio waves), a "cool" area of the spectrum which reveals a lot of new information about our galactic core and the dust-clogged regions where stars come to life with a bang.

In this picture, astronomers say:

The ATLASGAL submillimeter-wavelength data are shown in red, overlaid on a view of the region in infrared light . . . in green and blue. Some of the most prominent features visible in the image are (from left to right, top to bottom): - Messier 20 (the Trifid Nebula): A nebula containing an open cluster of stars as well as a stellar nursery. The name "Trifid" refers to the way that dense dust appears to divide it into three lobes at visible wavelengths. - Sagittarius B2 (Sgr B2): One of the largest clouds of molecular gas in the Milky Way, this dense region lies close to the Galactic Centre and is rich in many different interstellar molecules. - Galactic Centre: The centre of the Milky Way, home to a supermassive black hole more than four million times the mass of our Sun. It is about 25 000 light-years from Earth. - NGC 6357: A diffuse nebula containing the open cluster Pismis 24, home to several very massive stars. - NGC 6334: An emission nebula also known as the "Cat's Paw Nebula". - RCW 120: A region where an expanding bubble of ionised gas about ten light-years across is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps that are the birthplaces of new stars. - The Norma Arm: The region of somewhat brighter emission extending over about 10 degrees on the right-hand side of the image corresponds to the position of the Norma Arm, one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way.

The map is comprised of a very long, narrow slice of the galactic core which is two degrees wide and 40 degrees long. It's been very difficult for scientists to observe the galaxy in these cooler ranges because it requires extremely dry atmospheric conditions. Luckily, the APEX telescope array is located in a very arid region - the plateau of Chajnator in the Chilean Andes mountains.

According to a release about the new atlas:

The interstellar medium - the material between the stars - is composed of gas and grains of cosmic dust, rather like fine sand or soot. However, the gas is mostly hydrogen and relatively difficult to detect, so astronomers often search for these dense regions by looking for the faint heat glow of the cosmic dust grains.

Submillimetre light allows astronomers to see these dust clouds shining, even though they obscure our view of the Universe at visible light wavelengths. Accordingly, the ATLASGAL map includes the denser central regions of our galaxy, in the direction of the constellation of Sagittarius - home to a supermassive black hole (ESO 46/08 - http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2008/pr-46-08.html) - that are otherwise hidden behind a dark shroud of dust clouds.

The newly released map also reveals thousands of dense dust clumps, many never seen before, which mark the future birthplaces of massive stars. The clumps are typically a couple of light-years in size, and have masses of between ten and a few thousand times the mass of our Sun. In addition, ATLASGAL has captured images of beautiful filamentary structures and bubbles in the interstellar medium, blown by supernovae and the winds of bright stars.

Some striking highlights of the map include the centre of the Milky Way, the nearby massive and dense cloud of molecular gas called Sagittarius B2, and a bubble of expanding gas called RCW120, where the interstellar medium around the bubble is collapsing and forming new stars.

This could become a road map for galactic explorers of the future.

via Astronomy & Astrophysics [PDF]

According to National Geographic:

From most locations in the Northern Hemisphere, the opposite spot is water, since oceans cover 70 percent of the Earth . . . Playing antipodes produces amusing pairings. Bermudans would still enjoy sea breezes by Perth, Australia, but climate shock would await Timbuktu's desert dwellers, who'd come up near tropical Fiji. And as one player says, "Imagine the disappointment of someone digging their way out of Siberia and ending up in Antarctica."

via National Geographic (thanks Marilyn Terrell!)

Using data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, researchers from Austin-based economic development consulting firm TIP Strategies created a map that uses simple but effective visualizations to help people understand the way economic disaster spreads geographically. If you visit their site, you can watch the map slowly slide through each quarter since 2004, with job gains and losses ballooning outward when various sectors grow or shrink.

It's worth quoting at length from their analysis:

The timeline begins in 2004 as the country starts its recovery from the 2001 recession, following the bursting of the dot-com bubble. At first, broad economic growth was apparent across most of the country. Two notable exceptions are the Bay Area - the hub of the tech boom that drove job growth during the prior decade - and several metropolitan areas within the Midwest. The map reveals that much of the industrial Midwest never fully recovered from the previous recession, as manufacturers continue to shed jobs while other parts of the country were adding them in large number.

Equally telling is the short-lived expansion of construction- and real estate-related job growth in Sun Belt states, such as California, Florida, Georgia, and Arizona, during the middle of the decade as the nation's appetite for new homes increases. During this period, the map also captures the dramatic job losses in New Orleans in 2005 as a result of Hurricane Katrina, as well as the city's slow recovery driven largely by construction-related employment.

By 2007, regional evidence of the coming economic downturn starts to appear. Employment growth in California and Florida starts to wane, with the first signs of actual losses beginning in the middle of the year in Los Angeles and Tampa. At the same time, layoffs accelerate in the nation's manufacturing heartland. By the first quarter of 2008, job losses in the Southeast and Midwest begin to spread, setting off a chain of losses in neighboring areas until the two regions unite in recession. The same pattern appears on the West Coast, with the epicenter in Los Angeles marching eastward to the Front Range of the Rockies.

Check out all the maps, and the full study, on the TIP website.

The Astronomy Picture Of The Day site featured one of these maps the other day, and it's easy to see why. They're startling and informative, but also eye-catching. They dramatize our nascent climate clusterfuck in a way that's hard to look away from.

[via The Map Room]

TrailBehind is a Google maps mashup that lets people share data (maps, pictures, and reviews) of recent hikes they've taken. And of course, Area 51 is one of those regions that people are a wee bit curious about. Turns out there's a lovely hike to the top of a local mountain, Tikaboo Peak, which gives you a perfect view of Area 51's distant buildings on a clear day. The trailhead is about 90 miles from Vegas, and you'll want to bring binoculars to watch the UFOs coming and going out at Area 51. Check out local Area 51 hikes here.

TrailBehind also has other hikes for fans of the weird and paranormal. There are a number of hikes for people who want to catch a glimpse of Nessie at Loch Ness. You can plug any region you like into the "search" field, and come up with everything from hikes through H.P. Lovecraft's beloved/feared Rhode Island forests to places you can camp near Dracula's Transylvanian haunts in the Carpathians.

via TrailBehind

This scenario is part of an elaborate and whimsical futurist mapping project called Radiant Copenhagen. If you navigate around the Copenhagen city map created by people working on the project, you'll discover information about everything from bizarre new venereal diseases (spread by Fuck Sects of course) to a crucial research organization called the Center of Improbability and Invisibility.

Artist Kristoffer Ørum explains Radiant Copenhagen:

Anders Bojen, Kristoffer Ørum, Kaspar Bonnén and Rune Graulund have worked with a team of architects, artists, designers, engineers and musicians to create an alternate vision of Copenhagen, an imaginary future as a reaction to present day. All contributors share an interest in alternative realities and how these, through the internet and other media, play an increasing important role in our common understanding of the world . . . Using Google maps and Wiki technologies, the group has created a Copenhagen dressed in dystopian scenery and amusing attire.

You can navigate through the delightfully bizarre world of future Copenhagen using Google maps.

This is one of those delightful time-wasters that will actually make your brain explode with new ideas - and weird ones. You'll learn about everything from "bubble architecture," below, to the history of nano accidents in the city.

Check out Radiant Copenhagen. It's worth the trip.

At BLDG BLOG, Geoff Manaugh talks about the history of "nuclear urbanism," calling this map mashup by CarlosLabs in Australia as its latest example. The mashup, called Ground Zero, is disturbingly simple: You can pick your city, then pick your weapon (anything from 1950s "Fat Man" to an asteroid collision), then hit the button that says "Nuke it!". Then the map blooms with flame and destruction. I chose to send an asteroid into my fair city of San Francisco, just to enjoy the destruction. Perfect distraction for 4:20 in the afternoon.

Ground Zero via BLDG BLOG

Called the Milky Way Transit Authority, the map was created by Samuel Arbesman, a Harvard computational sociologist (most awesome job title ever). He says he got the idea to make the map because he was reading Carl Sagan's Contact and started mulling over how to organize galactic data in the same easy-to-read, condensed format of a subway map. He writes:

This map is an attempt to approach our galaxy with a bit more familiarity than usual and get people thinking about long-term possibilities in outer space. Hopefully it can provide as a useful shorthand for our place in the Milky Way, the 'important' sights, and make inconceivable distances a bit less daunting. And while convenient interstellar travel is nothing more than a murky dream, and might always be that way, there is power in creating tools for beginning to wrap our minds around the interconnections of our galactic neighborhood.

I have attempted to actually make this map as accurate as possible, where each line corresponds to an arm of our galaxy, and the stations are actual places in their proper locations.

Arbesman welcomes input from anyone who had ideas about how to improve the map or make it more accurate. Check out his project page devoted to the Milky Way Transit Authority.

via Spurgeonblog

According to the Google Earth Blog:

Someone has discovered there is a nice little easter egg. Type "Meliza" in the search window while looking at Mars (look for the planet icon at the top of GE 5 and switch to Mars). This will fly you to a place on mars with a placemark labeled "MELIZA". Click on that and the placemark bubble will open and start talking to you. The program is based on an old computer application called "Eliza" which simulates talking to someone (very poorly).

I'm so excited that Google is using its niceness powers to send people to Mars to talk to the old Eliza online therapist program. I'll bet therapy works way better on Mars because all those pink rocks are so calming.

via Google Earth Blog

Read more about the Martian addition to Google Earth via C|Net

According to Strange Maps, this map "shows the UN flag flying over Moscow, with the Eastern Bloc countries, the Baltic Soviet republics and Ukraine (but not Belarus) marked as ‘occupied’."

The Colliers editors wrote that the point of the issue is:

To warn the evil masters of the Russian people that their conspiracy to enslave humanity is the dark, downhill road to World War III; to sound a powerful call for reason and understanding between the people’s of East and West — before it’s too late; to demonstrate that if the war we do not want is forced upon us, we will win.

Ah, the good old days of Cold War science fiction.

via Strange Maps

In 1941, Theodore Kaufman self-published his controversial manifesto Germany Must Perish!, which advocated, among other things, the sterilizations of Germans and dismemberment of the German state, insisting that Germany be divided up and absorbed by its neighboring countries. Ironically, Kaufman’s work enjoyed its greatest exposure from the Nazis themselves. Nazi propaganda claimed that Kaufman’s book was not the fever dream of a single man, but the Allies’ actual plan for Germany. The Nazis reprinted Kaufman’s speculative map on fliers next to pictures of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin, hoping to scare the German people with visions of a future where their country, culture, and legacy would be eradicated.

The map at the top, which was commissioned for a magazine, is more detailed in its vision of alternate Europe. After the elimination of the German state, it suggests that German geographical names would be translated into the language of their adoptive country. Polish Berlin and Dresden become Berolinsk and Drezno. In the hands of the Netherlands, Cologne and Essen are renamed Keulen and Eeten. And French Mannheim and Aachen become Foyer-d’Homme and Aix-la-Chapelle.

337 – Europe Without Germany and 50 – “Germany Must Die” [Strange Maps]