Geospatial Redux: Wartime Escape Maps, Map of Australian Heat Wave, OpenStreetMap Game
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This geospatial roundup takes a look at silk escape maps during World War II, extreme weather forecast maps for Australia, and the OpenStreetMap game Kort.
World War II Silk Escape Maps
Neatorama has a reprint of a 2007 article from Mental Floss about the hiding of silk maps containing escape routes to prisoners inside Germany’s POW camps during World War II. The maps were printed on silk to get around the issue of the crinkling sound made when unfolding a map as well as to make them waterproof. The maps were smuggled inside of Monopoly boxes added to Red Cross aid packages. See: Waropoly: How History’s Most Popular Board Game Helped Defend The Free World.
Australian Weather Forecast Maps
The temperatures in Australia have been so unusually high that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology has had to add additional colors to the higher end of its color gradient for temperatures. The previously recorded high temperature was measured on January 2, 1960 at Oodnadatta Airport in South Australia at a reading of 50.7 degrees Celsius.
The color range has now been extended to 54 degrees Celsius (129.2 degrees Fahrenheit) with the addition of a bright purple color swatch. The last four months of 2012 in central and south Australia have experienced extreme heat with many locations setting new record highs for temperature readings.
See: Weather Forecast maps from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
Extreme temperatures had been forecasted for Monday, January 14, 2013 at 5pm AEDT by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology using the new 54 degrees Celsius category. Current predictions show less extreme temperature highs for the same time period.
OpenStreetMap Game
Kort is a crowdsourcing game with the aim of improving OpenStreetMap data through “gamification”. Users are presented with missions to complete. Users can then collect Koins for successfully completed missions and earn badges (Gold, Silver, and Bronze level) for being among the highest point gatherers. Other users provide feedback on the accuracy of completed missions. When enough approval is received for a completed mission, the changes are forwarded to OpenStreetMap. Kort has an app written in HTML5 und JavaScript and is available for iOS, Android und BlackBerry devices. Users can participate either via their OpenStreetMap or Google login. Play: Kort
Screenshots from the Kort OpenStreetMap app.
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Tags: Australian weather, Kort, Monopoly, OpenStreetMap game, silk escape maps, weater maps
Reading your articles is always inspiring and keeps me interested in the different facets of this profession.