5 ways to travel the united states and end up 100 miles (or less) from where you started

This article by Eric Wilder from our Local, National and International Travel Desk.

Have you ever scored tickets to the big game in the city over the weekend and been stuck without a car? Ever wanted to fly back home for the weekend to visit the ‘rents, rather than battle through traffic or miss the train? Ever needed to hop on a quick flight upstate to help your brother move out?

Someday I’ll fly away.

Sometimes, catching that 1-hour nonstop flight is no problem. Other times, you may want to bring your collection of USA Lonely Planet Travel Guides to kill time with some joy reading.

We researched 5 ways you can fly to a final destination that is less than 100 miles away and end up seeing much, much more of the country than you bargained for. How did we do it?

We picked a hypothetical travel day at random and went search-happy on various air travel booking websites to find some of the more absurd connections you could make on your next flight!

Live in Manhattan and need to catch a business meeting at your company’s satellite office in Hartford, CT, but don’t own a car and can’t use public transportation to get there? If you need to fly, you could book a flight that departs from NYC, touches down in Orlando and Atlanta, and finally, makes its way over to Hartford.

What if there are no nonstop flights to your destination? Take this one, for example: if you live in Ontario, CA and need to fly into LAX, you could get a flight that has layovers in Dallas and Chicago, en route to your Los Angeles destination. Sure, the Ontario and LAX airports may only be 57.1 miles apart in driving distance, but anything is fair game in air travel.

Trying to get from Daytona Beach to Orlando, FL? If time is a concern, we recommend that you avoid booking the flight with the layover in Atlanta, followed by the layover in Washington, DC, followed by the layover in Detroit. That’s a whopping 14 hour, 45 minute flight itinerary when all is said and done.

“Hurry, only 200 left at this price”.

Madison to Milwaukee, WI? Hope you enjoy Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and Denver International Airport. San Jose to San Francisco, CA? Better plan to pick up lunch in Salt Lake City and take a cat nap in San Diego.

Which of our routes gets you traveling the greatest distance, you ask? The Ontario to Los Angeles itinerary comes in victorious, traversing nearly 4,000 miles of American air. Being that we all enjoy a good map, we of course had to plot these routes. Below is a map that displays the simple straight-line distance of each of these ludicrous flight paths, for your cartographic viewing pleasure. More bang for your buck? More airline miles? More crying babies? Maybe, but one thing is for sure – if you are a crazy cartography geek and travel lover, there is no better way to fly the United States and end 100 miles from where you started.

Eric contributes regularly to Maps.com’s social media output. If you have suggestions, comments or ideas for new articles, or you have some of your own  ridiculous travel itineraries, let us know in the comments. Eric will have plenty of time to read them during his daily commute,  from Santa Barbara to Goleta, by cruise liner, stopping  at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, en route.

Get quickly from A to B. Via F, D, R, S and Y.

another member of the axis of google-bashers speaks up

With China actively seeking to eliminate Google from its virtual shores, even going to the effort of creating its own version, Iran has turned up the heat on the internet mapping giant this week over its failure to label the Persian Gulf, according to a report from CNN.

1938: National Geographic – The Bible Lands

The Iranians believe that Google is making a political statement by failing to use the Persian Gulf label, which has in recent years been re-titled ‘The Arabian Gulf’ by some believing it is more ‘politically correct’.

The Persian Gulf is coveted by Iranians as a statement of power and ownership over the gulf, and refers back to the nation’s history in the Persian Empire. Proponents of the Arabian Gulf name suggest that as 70% of the Gulf coast is NOT in Iran, that the Arabian Gulf is more appropriate, and that the use of Persia is an anachronism even in Iran, where the population is a mix of Persians, Arabs, Kurds and numerous other ethnic groups.

Iran has raised similar complaints against various institutions for decades. A simple Google search finds correspondence with the Dutch Airline KLM during the mid 1990′s after they referred to the Arabian Gulf in their in-flight magazine. More recently thousands of people protested through Facebook ’causes’ when the US Navy used Arabian Gulf, the Economist magazine was banned when it referred to the waterway as ‘The Gulf’ and reportedly the infamous Louvre gallery in Paris, France found itself in hot water when its guidebooks did the same.

A look at maps going back to the turn of the century in Maps.com’s National Geographic Classic Collection reveals, interestingly that published print maps have always typically used the Persian Gulf label. One edition from 1991 shows both Arabian Gulf and Persian Gulf labels, but was designed to highlight the various disputes and issues of the region at that time.

Referring to the International Hydrographic Organization, sometimes used by Cartographers as the ‘final word’ on water naming conventions (“The Vision of the IHO is to be the authoritative worldwide hydrographic body which actively engages all coastal and interested States to advance maritime safety and efficiency and which supports the protection and sustainable use of the marine environment” ) last updated its materials in 1953 and clearly refers to the water as The Persian Gulf. But for those who use the Times Atlas of the World there is a distinct lack of controversy as they opt to name it ‘The Gulf’ (what next, “The Ocean” and “The Land Mass”??)

1991: National Geographic – Middle East States in Turmoil

Google is of course an easy, and high profile target when it comes to this type of dispute. For one, any assault on Google, the world’s third biggest superpower behind Apple and Microsoft, is bound to make headlines or at least come out near the top in a Bing search. And for two, any irate consumer who wants to bash the search engine giant can take their pick of lost cities and mislabeled waterways to rant about.

Today: National Geographic – The Middle East

What they can be accused of is sidestepping the issue a little. If you type ‘Persian Gulf’ into Google Maps, it will take you to the center of the unlabeled body of water with a nice red pin to mark the spot. If you type in Arabian Gulf, it suggests “Arabian Gulf, Kuwait” which when clicked takes you to the same body of water, very close to the coastline of Kuwait. Type in other waterways of lesser profile – Caspian Sea, English Channel, Baltic Sea, Strait of Gibraltar and every one of them is labeled. So maybe Google lost its nerve on this one. (Google maps in fact fails to label the East Sea, AKA The Sea of Japan, depending on whether you are from Korea or Japan – so it has previous form here).  An anonymous Google representative argued that they simply ‘dont have labels’ for every body of water. It can be really frustrating when you run out of labels. Perhaps they could have borrowed the one from “Ditch #1, Osceola AR.”

From our point of view at Maps.com, newly published maps follow the convention set by leading cartographic publishers and organizations like the IHO – and will continue to be ‘The Persian Gulf’ until further notice.

Today: Maps.com – New Century World Map

Related articles

• Iran ‘to sue Google’ over Gulf (bbc.co.uk)
• Iran threatens legal action against Google for not labeling Persian Gulf (fox6now.com)
• Iran to Sue Google (forbes.com)

congratulations mcgraw-hill on your codie award

Maps.com is celebrating with Educational Publisher McGraw-Hill after they scooped a CODiE award for “Best K-12 Course or Learning Management Solution”

“Networks: A social studies learning system” is a complete Social Studies resource incorporating print and digital solutions. The system is designed to bring abstract concepts to life through hands-on, interactive activities such as interactive maps and games, graphic organizers and engaging multimedia.

US History – Grades 6-8: McGraw-Hill Networks

The publisher included comprehensive teacher resources, worksheets, training videos, lesson plans and assessment tools.

Over 600 maps were produced for the project by Maps.com Cartographers, while the company’s programming team developed a presentation platform for the digital content that included  timeline animations, voice narration and editing tools for a truly interactive classroom experience.

“The success of this project was the result of a huge effort by the McGraw-Hill team and we congratulate them on this significant recognition.” Revealed Bennett Moe, who coordinated the digital and cartographic elements delivered by Maps.com. “We are proud to have played a key role in such a high profile and challenging project and delivered exactly what was required.”

The CODiE awards are annually presented by the Software and Information Industry Association – the principal trade association for the software and digital content industries. Initial reviews are carried out by tech-savvy educators, with a shortlist of 128 finalists reviewed by a panel of SIIA members.

Maps.com has more than 20 years of experience in the mapping industry and serves a variety of markets including education and news media. They have an in house development team producing  location based applications including online store locators and smart phone apps and ebooks. Maps.com is also home to the world’s biggest map and map related online retail store which receives almost 1 million visitors each month.

Related articles

• McGraw-Hill School Education’s Proven Digital Solutions Selected as Finalists for 2012 CODiE Awards (prnewswire.com)
• McGraw-Hill Networks press release - http://mheducation.com/releases/20120508.shtml

apple dropping google in cartographic celebrity divorce?

According to several sources close to Apple, the new IOS6 operating system for iPhone will no longer include Google Maps, and will instead feature an Apple developed mapping service believed to be faster, cleaner and more reliable. It will also proudly boast awe inspiring 3d rendering developed by C3, a spin-off of the Swedish auto and aerospace manufacturer SAAB, which was purchased by Apple in July 2011. C3 specialized in developing 3d rendering from color aerial photography.

Rumors about this change have been circulating ever since the purchase of Placebase, a mapping software developer, was revealed in 2009. Initial evidence of a split was seen earlier this year when iPhoto for the iPad was found to be using Open Street Map instead of Google Maps as in previous versions and the outcome became an inevitability when Apple failed to renew its contract with Google that was due to expire at the end of 2012.

9to5Mac Mockup of 3D rendering comparisons

Whilst nothing has been officially announced it is expected that maps will once again be making the headlines at the forthcoming iOS6 launch. Who knows, maybe they can make some fundamental improvements like including the names of rivers in the new maps and find some of the more recently ‘lost cities’.

Related articles

• Apple Moving to In-House Mapping Service with 3D Views in iOS 6? (macrumors.com)
• Report: Apple Is Dropping Google Maps from iOS 6 [Apple] (gizmodo.com)
• Two months later, Apple acknowledges use of OpenStreetMap in iPhoto (arstechnica.com)

GPS – For the love of the rain forest.

People indigenous to some of the world’s most precious natural environments are helping to preserve their way of life using GPS mapping.

Communities native to the world’s second biggest rainforests in the Congo Basin, for example, rely on the ecosystem for 80-90% of their resources, through activities such as hunting and fishing that they have practised for years.

GPS training in the DRC: Rainforest Foundation.

Because they are semi-nomadic, meaning that they move around the rainforest rather than living in a single, fixed location, the extent to which they live and work there is often disputed. The rainforests are under constant threat from industries such as logging and farming (both legal and illegal), so already these people are used to seeing their world shrink around them. But even conservation itself can, ironically threaten their way of life, as frequently protections not only prevent the destruction of the forest but also their right to continue their own activities there.

Tribes are also enabled, using their GPS devices, to hold companies who have been granted specific rights to be held accountable when they exploit or violate restrictions that have been set upon their operations. For example more than 6000 Bantu and 1500 Pygmies are now involved in policing logging activity in the Bandundu and Equateur provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo through participatory mapping.

Organizations such as Rainforest Foundation UK have been training community members as ‘Master Mappers’ to create maps by initially sketching their homeland out and then using GPS devices to accurately locate the places on the map.

The aim is to create a territory map that can be presented to the Congolese Government when they meet on May 8^th to determine the future of the rain forest – with regard to parceling of the forest for industrial purposes. The government has already made 11 concessions to logging companies from several European nations.

The maps will be offered as hard proof that these communities exist and live throughout the rainforest, and offer their representatives a chance to play a part in negotiations about their homeland.

As reported on CNN, a similar project has existed for more than 10 years in the Cameroon, where tribes in the Boumba Bek collected honey, mangoes and medicinal plants prior to it receiving National Park status under the jurisdiction of the World Wildlife Fund.

The Baka people were able to provide similar GPS based evidence and restore their right to operate within the region.

GPS offers an opportunity to these indigenous peoples to talk in the technological language that those contesting their rights have traditionally used to defeat them, and provides a very portable, low impact way of preserving their way of life.

Villagers celebrate completion of a community map, this time in the Central African Republic.

This article was also published on our K-12 Education blog – The maps101 blog.

Related articles

• Tropical Rain Forests (socyberty.com)
• What happens to the wood that is cut down from the rainforests? (greenanswers.com)
• Digital defenders: Tribal people use GPS to protect their lands (energybulletin.net)
• Social Innovation: GPS Technology Empowering Indigenous People of the Congo Basin (emmageraln.com)
• Maps.com donates print maps to schools in Tanzania (maps.com blog)

More Maps in the Kitchen

Hot on the heels of our recent article on ‘Map Skillets’ the Cartophile has another reason to break out his wallet with these super geo-themed chopping boards. Who needs Gordon Ramsey recipes when you can have the best works of Vasco da Gama right there on your counter-top?

Available in the shapes of all 50 States including Hawaii as well as France, Italy, Germany and Australia. No confirmation as to whether a new Poland shaped version is due to be created as a ‘Chopin Board’.

Where can I get a loaf of bread to fit on this?

Next week: Salad servers shaped like Michigan, and Jello-moulds accurately contoured to the world’s most famous mountain ranges. Probably.

Cartography with Pan-ache

If you’ve ever wanted to have your pancakes Pennsylvania shaped, or your eggs over easy and in the shape of Ohio?

These super cast iron skillets come (soon) in the outline shapes of your favorite (48)  states, cost a sizeable number of dollars and weigh even more in pounds. They come with a magnetic wall hanger and can be seasoned (so your food doesn’t stick to them) on request. Buy a whole cluster of states and fit them together, they are fun to collect.

Nonetheless they are the coolest additon to the map geek’s kitchen. Check out FeLion’s website  for more info.

Send us your pictures of your culinary creations especially if you managed to use Michigan. And if you are planning on cooking up a barnstorming breakfast using Delaware, we’re busy that day.

Look Mom - I see Wisconsin in my eggs!

What Did You Have for Dinner Last Night?

Despite what most observers consider a success in the transition of Sudan into two separate states, there is still a great deal of unrest in both countries. A conflict has been raging in Sudan since last May that has arisen from issues never fully resolved in the civil war because people in those states, particularly in the Nuba Mountains, fought in alliance with the South. Though they remained in the North, their issues were to be resolved in a process called popular consultations. Those consultations did not get finished and a ‘very serious’ conflict broke out, in the words of Ambassador Princeton Lyman at a press briefing today.

The UN and the U.S. are very concerned about predictions made by the Famine Early Warning System Network that warn of a major humanitarian crisis in those areas, particularly Southern Kordofan. By March, they feel that a large number of people, as many as a quarter of a million or more, will will reach what they call emergency status, which is one class short of famine and constitutes a very serious food emergency. The Sudanese government has resisted efforts by the administration and the UN to assist in relief efforts. Part of their arguments against receiving aid is that they ‘learned a lesson’ in Darfur, meaning that if they let the UN in, it will result in a peace-keeping mission and result in human rights charges against the Sudanese administration and further loss of territory. They further argue that they are concerned that food aid will reach supporters of the SPLM in the North and that the situation really isn’t that serious.

To complicate matters, there is also conflict between Sudan and South Sudan about the sharing of oil revenues. Most of the oil in the two countries originates in the South, while the refining and distribution facilities are in the North. The North has imposed increased tariffs on Southern oil and has blocked ships carrying it from leaving port. In response, the South has threatened to shut down all oil production and move to build pipelines to Kenya. Needless to say that with this much at stake for both countries, this is a very dangerous game.

Acute Food Insecurity in Sudan, especially Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile, where conflict has broken out.

In the South, hostilities between regions and ethnic groups that was temporarily mollified by the independence movement are now beginning to show up again. Recently clashes between the Lou Nuer and Murle ethnic groups in Jonglei have resulted in the death of several individuals (perhaps several hundred) and widespread displacement of civilians. Fortunately, UNMIS was able to inervene and prevent a major conflict in one incident in Pibor, but there is still the threat or reprisal attacks. South Sudan is still a fragile state and we can only hope that all the ethnic, political and economic conflicts can be resolved as soon as possible.

Pibor, South Sudan. Site of serious clashes in recent weeks

View Larger Map

Source: U.S. State Department

I’d like a return ticket from Bowel mind to Godparent Bikers please.

London Underground Map

To answer that age-old question – “has anybody ever done a London Tube map with anagrams of all the station names? Well YES, and here it is.

Enjoy.

That’s great, but how do I get it home from the Library?

The Earth Platinum world atlas is about to start shipping this February, and UPS drivers around the world are quaking in their boots, booking vacation time and frantically planning their ‘sick’ excuses.

That’s because it opens to 6′ x 9′ and weighs 120kg – over 260lbs (34lbs heavier than the author of this post at time of writing) and according to publicity materials at its world premier at Frankfurt in 2010 “Never has the envelope been pushed this far”. Quite literally if you are planning to get it shipped via priority mail.

The project was inspired by the Klencke Atlas, which we wrote about back in May 2010 when it was included in a collection of unusual maps on display at the British Library. It was presented to King Charles II in 1660 and nothing like it has been produced since.

Platinum includes the work of more than 100 international cartographers as well as stunning photography and is hand bound. According to Millenium House it is set to become “a prized reference and a focal point of the world’s major libraries and repositories.”  Of course with health and safety laws being what they are in most public buildings, it will need a dedicated member of staff to turn the pages, and only after a risk assessment has been completed. I have already placed a loan request at my local library but I’m not sure how long I will have to wait.

Average sized man stands by giant atlas.

I considered ordering a copy even after I saw the US $100,000 price tag, but when I saw the price of appropriately sized coffee tables in Ikea I realized this was completely out of my comfort zone.

However, if you are looking to splash the cash on the map geek in your life, you can join the waiting list here – make sure you have your Amex Triple Gold Card to hand for faster service.