New Policy for GNIS

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New Policy Regarding the Maintenance of Administrative Feature Names in the GNIS

Effective October 1, 2014: As a result of reprioritized budgets and resources, the decision has been made to suspend the maintenance of feature categories classified in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) as administrative (i.e., cultural or manmade).

However, a select number of administrative features will continue to be maintained by other USGS programs supporting The National Map. These features will be updated in GNIS on a periodic revision cycle. If you are interested in participating in the USGS National Map Corps program, which “encourages citizens to collect structures data by adding new features, removing obsolete points, and correcting existing data for The National Map database,” please visit the following web site: http://navigator.er.usgs.gov. To identify the administrative features to be maintained through The National Map Corps program, click Structures List, located on the left-hand side of the web page.

If you have further questions, please visit The National Map home page at: http://nationalmap.gov. Inquiries may be submitted to The National Map via the link at the bottom of the page.

 

LA County Assessor Maps Have Moved

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Just an FYI to all City GIS staff in LA County.  If you have GIS applications or data that have links to the LA County Assessor maps, you might find them broken now.  It looks like LA County has moved the links since they updated their Property Assessment Information System application here.

For example, this old PDF link:
http://maps.assessor.lacounty.gov/mapping/viewAssessorMapPDF.asp?val=2438-018

has been replaced with this new one:
http://maps.assessor.lacounty.gov/Geocortex/Essentials/REST/sites/PAIS/VirtualDirectory/AssessorMaps/ViewMap.html?val=2438-018

Burbank has a few apps that are broken now.  I bet you do too!  -mike

MaptimeLA October Meetings

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@MAPTIMELA is getting busy! Head Downtown in October to Fehr and Peers at 6:30pm, Late Happy Hours After Meetup at Library Bar downtown. Bring Your Projects and Your Data!!!

Thursday, 10/2
New Stamen LA’s Chief Jon Christensen Tells His Story http://www.meetup.com/MaptimeLA/events/204146282/

Monday, 10/6
“Expedition to the End of the World” Special One-Day-Only MaptimeLA Encore Showing
http://www.meetup.com/MaptimeLA/events/209330342/

Thursday, 10/16
Data Day:  Ben Welsh from the LA Times Data Desk and Mark Greninger from the LA County GIS Data Portal!
http://www.meetup.com/MaptimeLA/events/204146652/

Thursday, 10/30
Maptime 5:  Details To Be Announced! http://www.meetup.com/MaptimeLA/events/206462042/

Woodcut Maps

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Want a custom handcrafted wood-inlay map?  Zoom into an area on a map and this company will create a woodcut map of that area for you.  Choose type of wood combos for land, water, parks, and roads, and also customize the border, data source (Google or OpenStreetMap), road detail, and if you want to include hospitals, schools, and buildings.  Check it out!

woodcut

Remember, only 96 days until Christmas!  Or less if you are reading this later.

Death Valley’s Moving Rocks

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For at least a century, the moving rocks of Death Valley have presented a puzzle, and researchers have been trying to solve it since 1948.  The rocks, some of them boulders weighing more than 600 pounds, show signs of movement across the desert floor by leaving long trails behind them.

Explanations including dust devils, flooding, hurricane-strength winds, and even UFOs have been offered, but the mystery was finally solved when researchers caught the rocks in the act!

Check out the National Geographic article and watch the video below.

Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow

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Most people do not realize that the original vision of Walt Disney World included a plan for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (E.P.C.O.T.), known today as Epcot.

E.P.C.O.T. was Walt Disney’s one of a kind project composed of several elements which included a prototype community, an industrial park, an airport of the future, a Disneyland type theme park, transportation systems, and much much more.

All these elements were imagined by Walt Disney and his staff with new and advanced designs and technologies. The project was conceived between 1962 and 1966 and even if it did survive a couple of years it was stopped in the mid 70’s and never developed. Some elements did survive in the Walt Disney World resort as we know it today, but so much more was planned. Unfortunately, the project lost it’s main energy: Walt.  Walt Disney died just two weeks after filming the “E.P.C.O.T. film” in 1966, a promotional film created for the media and investors.  The film is a great Disney landmark since it’s the last movie of Walt Disney alive and since it’s content is Walt Disney’s last and unbuilt dream … E.P.C.O.T.

Check out the website and watch the film.  Walt Disney was very focused on transportation and how to move people and goods around.  If you are into urban planning and design or transportation, this piece of history will be very interesting to you!  Click below to check it out.

Almost looks like a GIS map!