Curious who is rooting for which team in the upcoming Super Bowl? Esri has an application that maps out Packers versus Steelers fans across the United States. Type in a ZIP code or place to find the distribution of fans for a local area. Nationwide, the Packers are leading with 65% of the vote versus the Steelers with 35%. Visit: Super Bowl Fan Map
The Washington Post reports on the record setting sale of the first U.S. printed map.
The first map of the United States, created in 1784, has been purchased for the record price of $1.8 million by Washington philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, who is lending it to the Library of Congress.
The map, titled “A New and correct Map of the United States of North America Layd down from the latest Observations and best Authorities agreeable to the Peace of 1783″, was created by cartographer Abel Buell and is considered the first map copyrighted and containing the U.S. flag. The map covers the 13 colonies plus the area east of the Mississippi River. Read more: First U.S. map purchased for record price (tip: Mike Carson)
Google has another quirky oceanic travel directions for traveling from the U.S. to Japan (tip: MapHist):
Go to Google Maps
Click “Get Directions”
Enter USA as the start, Japan as the end.
Scroll down the instructions to 31 and 46.
The Sacramento Bee has a sad story about “Death by GPS”.
Danger has long stalked those who venture into California’s desert in the heat of summer. But today, with more people pouring into the region, technology and tragedy are mixing in new and unexpected ways.
“It’s what I’m beginning to call death by GPS,” said Death Valley wilderness coordinator Charlie Callagan. “People are renting vehicles with GPS and they have no idea how it works and they are willing to trust the GPS to lead them into the middle of nowhere.”
Read more: ‘Death by GPS’ in desert – Sacramento Bee
