In 1932, Charles O. Paullin and John K. Wright published an Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States. It was a seminal reference book, containing almost 700 maps, and now it’s been digitized for you to explore online. It is full of fascinating data, mapped across the US, from weather, travel, population, to gold reserves, oil fields, and vegetation types. It’s been painstakingly transcribed into digital format, which you can view georectified or as scanned plates. Check it out!
A total lunar eclipse on April 15th marks the beginning of a remarkable series of eclipses all visible from North America. For more info, visit the NASA site here.
When you mail in your tax forms that night on April 15th, you can watch the lunar eclipse too … or is that some kind of sign?
Greatest eclipse times in PDT:
April 15, 2014 – 12:47am
October 8, 2014 – 3:54am
April 4, 2015 – 5:00am
September 28, 2015 – 7:47pm
The next generation of the well-known Goodyear blimp is getting ready to take flight as the company moves toward replacing its old fleet of airships with a new trio.
The helium-filled airship, assembled at an Akron-area hangar and unveiled there, is bigger, quicker and more maneuverable than earlier models.
The 246-foot airship fits 12 passengers and has a semi-rigid internal skeleton, a feature that wasn’t present in earlier models and raises questions about whether it is truly a blimp, though the company still refers to it as such. The structure is covered by a silver, balloon-like body emblazoned with Goodyear’s yellow logo on a blue background.
It can travel at up to 73 mph and has custom computer-controlled avionics, an upgrade from the manual flight system used by the blimp pilots since the 1920s.
Every Goodyear blimp needs a name and, once again, the company is inviting the public to participate in a Goodyear “Name the Blimp” contest. Entrants over 18 years of age in the United States and Washington, DC can submit a name for the new blimp.
One name will be chosen from the entries and the contest winner (along with 5 guests) will have exclusive use of the Goodyear Blimp for a day (up to 6 hours). Nine lucky First Prize winners will receive a set of 4 Goodyear passenger or light truck tires.
If you win, the Grand Prize Blimp Ride will depart from a blimp-accessible location nearest the winner’s residence. If you live in SoCal, that would be at Goodyear’s Airship Base in the City of Carson.
Submissions for the contest will close on Friday, April 4. The winner will be announced on or around 45 days after May 9.
Click below to enter … don’t forget me if you win! -mike
I thought the title would get your attention! A group from the Los Angeles Obscura Society recently toured the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant in El Segundo to show you what happens after you flush the toilet. Check it out!
Using real food, two artists have created an edible atlas that shows that we really are what we eat.
I thought this was pretty amazing showing a river changing course over time, from 1984 to 2012.
Remeber leaning about oxbow lakes in Geography class? Well, you can watch them being formed! I believe this is the Rio Ucayali in Huanuco, Peru.
Ah yes, Daylight Savings Time is here again on Sunday. Don’t forget to move your clock forward an hour. If you want to be exact, do it at 2am Sunday morning! If you are in Hawaii, Arizona (except the Navajo Nation), and Alaska Aleutian Islands, just ignore it. For some reason animals ignore DST. I try to convince my dog that meal time is an hour later … like a teenager he refuses to understand!
I bought this book a few years ago about DST. It’s really good and explains the detailed history of DST. Get your copy today! (PS – I do not make any money from the sale of this book, I just enjoyed reading it.) -mike
The Atlas of True Names reveals the etymological roots, or original meanings, of the familiar terms on today’s maps of the World, Europe, the British Isles, Canada and the United States.
For instance, where you would normally expect to see the Sahara indicated, the Atlas gives you “The Tawny One”, derived from Arab. es-sahra “the fawn coloured, desert”.
Here is a True Names map of the USA. Click for more info.
I saw this poster created using a DEM from Lidar data. Very beautiful presentation of a river with a shallow elevation range.
Check out this story of the man behind the Cahill-Keyes world map projection. You can buy a high resolution 61″ x 29″ wall map of it by clicking below.
Crisp 4pt font and 0.05mm thick semi-transparent lines!
SoCalGIS.org 