Tag: Maps

Free True Marble Downloadable Global Dataset

Unearthed Outdoors offers a free download of its True Marble global dataset. The catch is that the free download is of the 250m set, which is relatively low resolution — though for many more casual uses this is still relatively high resolution. Especially since the 15m high resolution image goes for $25,000 for the whole thing (you can buy smaller subsets of the images for less, however).

Even at only 250m, this is 32 images that take up several gigabytes (for $20, Unearthed Outdoors will send you a copy on DVD).

And the best thing is the 250m version is CC-licensed with an Attribution license. Use it however you like, just credit Unearthed Outdoors. Nice.

Strange Maps

Strange Maps digs up interesting and oddball maps and sometimes more. For example, there’s this map that was the cover of a 1951 issue of Collier’s that was devoted entirely to a hypothetical occupation of the Soviet Union by U.S-led United Nations forces. Conelrad.com has a more complete look at the way Collier’s fictional scenario was played out in the magazine.

Collier's Occupation of USSR Cover

EightMaps.com and the Future of Public Records

EightMaps.com is an interesting mashup of Google maps and publicly available information on donors to the anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 which narrowly passed in California. So you can select where you live and see if anyone nearby donated to a pro-Proposition 8 group.

It would, of course, be just as easy to set up a similar application showing who donated to groups opposed to Proposition 8 (my wife did even though I told her it was going to pass), so presumably my house would show up on such a mashup.

But using public records, we could get at a lot of interesting data. For example, I’m assuming that marriage records in California are public, so someone opposed to gay marriage could create  a mashup showing the homes of every single gay couple married in California prior to the passage of Proposition 8 (which would include quite a few people who are not residents of California).

All-in-all, this sort of use of public records in general seems abusive and I suspect over time will lead us to reconsider the wisdom of making so many records public. Frankly, I’ve never thought political donations should be public records. The interest in preventing corruption is more than overwhelmed by the chilling effect that mashups like this will increasingly cause.