According to Apartment Therapy, there is not only one but TWO topographic themed rug collection designers out there right now. They say that Austrian designer Florian Pucher was inspired by the ariel topography of farmland and tulip fields to create his Land Carpet collection. Designer Liz Eeuwes was also inspired by tulip fields and agriculture to create landscape rugs. After the questions, “How comfortable and stable would they be to walk on?” “Would it go with our living room?”, I wondered “How accurate are they?” and “What was their source?” Florian Pucher’s seemed to use satellite imagery as his pattern. Topographic inspiration for rugs isn’t new. In 2004 Downtown Express did an article on designer Rama Chorpash’s “Topo Rug” of Central Park. In 2008, the New York Times did an article on Maude Decor designer Patricia Baun’s mountain topography rugs of Famous Canadian Mountains.

One of the great things about comments sections on blogs is that they often contain great follow-up information. Because of a post about mapping philanthropy, I was introduced to a great interactive website called Tutor/Mentor that uses Google maps to show where tutor/mentor programs are located, poorly performing schools, churches, Boundaries of Chicago zip codes, Counties, Chicago communities and District maps. It is part of TMC Program Locator Cabrini Connections & University of Michigan. Reading through the site and the background of its founder, Daniel F. Bassill, makes me feel like I am at an ESRI plenary. At every plenary, Jack Dangermond, showcases how geospatial technologies are being used to make the world a better place and encourages people to make their own impact on society.

I spend a lot of time looking for grants, reading about requests for proposals, and generally immersed in all things “soft money”, so it was I was excited to find The Foundation Center‘s Philanthropy In/Sight tool. The Foundation Center states that, “It’s the essential tool that grantmakers, policymakers, researchers, and academics are using to visualize the scope and reach of philanthropy — from local communities to countries around the globe.” It uses data on thousands of grants, grant receivers and funders, and other demographic information to provide a both a useful analysis and search tool.
If you are interested in the impact of philanthropy as a subject, there is a book called, “Mapping the New World of American Philanthropy: Causes and Consequences of the Transfer of Wealth: Causes and Consequences of the Transfer of Wealth” which is about the history of non-profits from 1940 until the current day and the impact of the baby boomer generation on philanthropy today and in the future.

The second edition of ‘The Visual Miscellaneum: A Colorful Guide To The World’s Most Consequential Trivia” by David McCandless is out soon. He also has a website called “Information is Beautiful” for anyone wanting to check out his awe inspiring visualizations of seemingly everyday data. The is also an interactive visualization of health supplements that updates itself from as Google Doc changes.

Think back to when you needed to share maps before the Internet. Did that give you the heebie jeebies? Now think back to when you needed to share maps before the invention of the copier. It has been 50 years since the invention of the Xerox copier in 1960. Back then academics were still debating the impact of the USE OF A PHOTO COPY MACHINE IN MAP REPRODUCTION in the AAG Professional Geographer. Patents, such as this copy machine table United States Patent 4066023 described the map copying process as “Before my invention, it was impractical to copy specific portions of large maps, surveys, blueprints, or plats on a standard office copying machine because the surface of most copying machines was insufficient to permit such large sheets being copied to be spread out. Consequently, the sheet had to be folded, or allowed to drape over the edge of the copy machine.” Which explains the convoluted directions for How to Use Your Copy Machine as a Draftsman and this really cool book from 1982 on Thematic Maps: Their Design and Production. Many people would argue whether copiers make life better or not but it is only a matter of time before something more complicated and just as aggravating but necessary comes along.

I recently attended the The 25th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management held in Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A. If you are a geospatial professional looking for an interesting and challenging career, solid waste management is a growing industry with world wide appeal. Some of the interesting topics discussed were policy issues such as municipal solid waste policies at the core of the waste fires in Naples, professional certifications in different countries and their impact on the image of solid waste professionals, and many case studies from all world regions. Other topics were related to site placement such as for landfill siting, waste to energy, and electronics waste. Some of the most fascinating were waste composition studies, mapping of pollutants, and other GIS applications. I also found out that Institute of Information Technology employs more than 5 former ESRI employees at their route logistics company. I would encourage geospatial professionals, educators, and vendors to consider attending the conference next year.

Oscar time is here and several news sources have stories about vacationing in your favorite movie setting. The Telegraph UK article “Oscars 2010: film location holidays” explores locations of this year’s Oscar-nominated films such as Avatar,District 9, Precious, and Crazy Heart. Film induced tourism is a growing tourism draw according to books such as “Film-induced Tourism (Aspects of Tourism)”. Many tourism bureaus now have film tourism locations on their websites such as Scotland (Harry Potter, Chariots of Fire), Vancouver Island‘s flash map of locations, and New York City’s wonderful “Scenes from the City“.

Spring is a great time to start a new hobby or practice a very old one – walking. A Telegraph UK’s article on old-fashioned map reading skills discusses orienteering versus GPS. The U.S. Orienteering Federation calls orienteering the sport of a lifetime because it is both challenging and a lifetime sport. They believe it isn’t just a Scouting Merit Badge but should be an Olympic sport. There is even an internationally active Facebook page called “Orienteering should be Olympic“. According to an interview in Ultimate Orienteering “World Games is a unique opportunity to show our great sport to a big international crowd. I really think orienteering is a sport for the Olympics and by participating in the World Games I do my part in getting orienteering into the Olympic Games.” While it didn’t make it into the 2012 Olympics in London, maybe it will be in the 2014 games in Sochi.

It’s that time of year again. If you are in North America are you ready to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count February 12 – 15th? Each year “citizen scientists” helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology,the National Audubon Society , and Bird Studies Canada learn more about bird population and migration creating the largest map of bird populations ever recorded. You only have to observe for 15 minutes and the GBBC site provides downloadable tally sheets of birds in your region. This year after reading a great article in the New York Times on landfills and bird diversity, I am participating in it along with several recycling centers and landfills in our state. I was inspired by the landfill bird blog hosted by a Wildlife Control Biologist on a landfill in Kentucky. His pictures are stunning. Other “citizen scientist” bird counts include the UK Big Garden Birdwatch (January 30 -31), Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count (December 14 – January 5) which is the largest and oldest at 110 years old, and Cornell’s eBird which is a year round on-line bird count from citizen scientists around the world.