Geography Is Just Physics Slowed Down, With a Couple of Trees Stuck In It

At least, that's what Terry Pratchett said. I have always been fascinated by maps. When I was little, 4 - 5 years old (we didn't do kindergarten), and my brother and sister were off at school learning, my mom would let me sit at a little desk and do schoolwork for an hour or so each day.  My favorite workbook was a book of maps. I have no idea who published it, but it was all about how to get useful information from maps. Since then I have been hooked. I have a few copies of really old maps that I enjoy looking at (here there be sea monsters) and I think the Internet was invented just to give me new maps to look at.    

Here are a few interesting ones I have come across lately (in each case the map that I could reproduce here is small and difficult to read, so go to the highlighted website to see their map more easily).    

National Geographic Surnames Map

This one shows the most popular family names by region of the US. The size of the name tells you how many occurrences there are in that state and the color of the name tells you its country of origin.  You can see the Scandinavian influence in Minnesota and the Hispanic influence in southern California. Zoom in at their website to see things a little better. Around Chicago? Martin, Wilson, and Anderson. And in southern Wisconsin: Mueller and Schultz.     


United States of Scary Things


This map, from a website called Pleated Jeans, shows the scariest thing for each state. Zombie Lincoln shows up for Illinois (there are a lot of Zombies) and politicians shows up for Maryland.  I'm not sure how scary potato bugs are, but in Idaho, maybe so. There's also a United States of Shame that finds a statistical category that your state is worst at and lists it on the map. For Illinois, that's Robbery; for Texas, that's High School Graduation (your national test scores are higher if you get rid of the students who might fail before they get a chance to take the test).     



Mapping the Measure of America

This one is a good example of how a map can give a bunch of information in a fairly small space. This one is interactive as well. Click on the link above and then on start exploring and you will find all the latest info about how the various states measure up in the areas of health, educational, and income.  There is an incredible amount of stuff to see on this map. As you slide down the bars on the left, you can see the states in order for each category (the categories are in the box on the lower left part of the map). If you click on a state on the map, it gives you a breakdown for that state to the right. Then as you mouse over the breakdown, it gives you the numbers or, in the case of representation, tells you the names of all the senators and representatives. I see that Illinois has 14.1% of its population with less than a high school diploma and a life expectancy at birth of 78 years.  And unfortunately, Mary Lou, Arkansas does rank at the bottom on just about every category. Good thing you're close to getting out.  


America's Best Adventures

On this interactive map, you can click on the dots that show up and get some information on a vacation getaway. You could do the RagBrai bike ride across Iowa, climb Red River Gorge in Kentucky, or kiteboard the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon. In spite of all the dots, it is not really a very exhaustive guide to adventuring, and because it is from National Geographic, it takes an incredibly narrow view of what constitutes an adventure. I looked all over and could not find "Betting the Bulls to Win It All" in Las Vegas, "Shopping the Day After Thanksgiving" in Fort Wayne, "Rooting on the Spartans Football Team" at the U of M bar in Chicago, or "Playing Miniature Golf with Grandpa" in Ohio (or anywhere) . Those are all really great adventures, and I feel sorry for them that they have missed out.