Calling All Patrons of Past Pineapple Produce Plantations

Next time you have some extra cash lying around, why not use it to buy a tropical island?  98% of Lanai, the sixth largest island in the Hawaiian chain, was just sold to the sixth richest man on Earth.

Lanai, HI

How does this affect you?  Well, if you happened to be aiming for Hawaiian island ownership sometime in the next few years, let’s just say that it will take more than a few pineapples to barter a deal.  Oracle CEO, Larry Ellison, reportedly forked over roughly half a million big ones to long-time owner and head of Dole Food Company, David Murdock.

Lanai is home to a couple of five-star Four Seasons resorts, amongst other residential and commercial infrastructure, but hold on – it gets more interesting.

Lanai’s Decimated Pineapple Fields

Here’s a breakdown of the island’s geography:

* The land area totals ~141 square miles
* Roughly 3,000 people call Lanai “home”
* At one point in time, 75% of the world’s pineapples were grown on the island
* There is one school: Lanai High and Elementary School
* There are two golf courses; both were designed by professional golfers
* There are NO traffic lights
* 400 of its ~430 miles of roads are unpaved
* Many of the island’s most spectacular spots can only be seen by four-wheel drive

Struggling with tourism, it is speculated that Ellison may provide economic stimulation to draw in more people to Lanai.  Or, maybe he’ll just keep it for himself.  That’s what being a billionaire is all about, right?

Garden of the Gods, Lanai, HI

Related articles

• Oracle CEO Larry Ellison buys Hawaiian island of Lanai, reportedly for $500-600 million (theverge.com)
• Oracle’s Ellison Buys Hawaiian Island of Lanai (pcmag.com)
• Oracle chief buys Hawaiian island (bbc.co.uk)

no one’s snoring in dull or boring

Location related news flash:

The tension is building in the closely related, soon (hopefully) to be sister towns of Dull, Scotland, and Boring, Oregon, according to reports from the BBC and MSNBC, as well as numerous other media organizations on what must be a slow news day.

The scheme, to make them ‘sister towns’ is the brainchild of Perthshire resident Elizabeth Leighton, who traveled through Boring on a cycling vacation and on seeing the name immediately called her friend, a Dull resident. Dull is a small village in Perthshire, not too far from Edinburgh, Scotland, while in mediocre contrast Boring is home, just outside Portland, to 12000 residents in what, unsurprisingly, is an unincorporated area. If that comparison wasn’t startlingly black and white enough for you, Dull’s main commercial activity is tourism, while Boring is considerably more industrial.

Although it is widely reported that Boring was named after settler William H Boring, and Dull from the Gaelic word for ‘meadow’, we are behind the alternative explanation that boring is so called due to a distinct lack of excitement there since the arrival of a straightlaced settler called Bill. Meanwhile Dull earned its name after more than 1000 years of overcast weather predating the Domesday book  (both entirely fictional of course).

A decision out of Oregon is expected to be delivered without pomp or ceremony by Wednesday morning, GMT. It is believed to have been tabled as part of the agenda of the Boring Community Planning Organisation, who’s constitution prohibits ‘extraordinary general meetings,’ we imagine.

 

STOP PRESS: (Well 24 hours later) Officials in Boring DID in fact vote yes to the relationship. Celebrations ensue in Dull and Boring locations. 

 

Dull, Perthshire, Scotland in a rare moment of excitement: Google Maps.

Boring, OR: Enthusiasm couldn’t be higher. Google Maps.

Related articles

• Dull and Boring? Not any more for Scottish village and US town (guardian.co.uk)

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.

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)

Latest ESRI FanMap – Stanley Cup Hockey

Following on from our Bracketology post (there’s just something about sport on maps that our Carto team just CANT RESIST) – Jim Herries from ESRI contacted us with their latest FanMap offering.

Its a Stanley Cup Hockey map  that enables you to vote on the outcome of all of the upcoming games, and then shows you what fans across the country are predicting/rooting for. Type in your Zip code to see how your area is voting.

The map makes no accommodation for ‘who will win the first violent clash against the plexi-glass’ but I am assured by real hockey fans that this is lots of fun.

Stanley Cup Hockey: ESRI

Related articles

• Check-in to the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the NHL GameCenter App! (getglue.com)
• Watch the greatest Stanley Cup Playoff hype video of 2012: ‘Dare To Dream’ (VIDEO) (sports.yahoo.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)

does crowdsourcing make for more accurate directions?

The answer, in this case is ‘no’. But kudos to German soccer fans for trying after their side Magdeburg (the home of the famous hemispheres) went on a dismal run of form and failed to score in 5 games.

FC Magdeburg Fans offer directions: 101Greatgoals.com

According to this article from 101greatgoals.com the team’s fans decided to give them a helping hand by bringing giant fluorescent arrows to direct them toward the goal. They did, in fact, break their duck and scored, but still fell to a 2-1 defeat.

Maps.com Teaches Cartography to Local Elementary School Students

By Eric Wilder, Cartographer, Maps.com.

It's Science Night

Last week marked an exciting time for Maps.com, as it was the culmination of the critically acclaimed Monte Vista Elementary School Science Night.

For many K-6 graders in Santa Barbara, Science Night is one of the most anticipated days of the year; Monte Vista Elementary School hosts dozens of local scientists from a wide variety of disciplines who enthusiastically share their profession with young minds of tomorrow. The evening gives students the opportunity to touch a human brain, hold a python, experience static electricity, and as of 2012, learn about MAPS!!!

As a past student of Monte Vista who vividly remembers the thrills of Science Night, I was ecstatic to see things come full circle and return 15 years later as a cartographer. Teamed up with my partner in crime, Maps 101Customer Account Specialist, Terry (also a proud Monte Vista graduate!), we prepared a presentation that we hoped would engage students and get them interested in maps.

Global Appeal

Despite the fact that the cartography exhibit was placed right next to the reptile exhibit – tough competition to say the least – it is safe to say that the kiddos were enthralled to learn about maps. Crowded around the big maps we brought with us, Monte Vista students were quickly able to spot their school’s location on a map, identify ways that the Santa Barbara area has changed in the past century using our Santa Barbara Antique Wall Map, find their California mission on our Maps 101 missions map, and discover the uses of imagery in mapmaking. You would be shocked to learn how many first, second, and third grade students have used Google Maps before!!

No, THIS is longitude, Mr.

Seeing that I once had a cartographer visit my classroom in fifth grade, we at Maps.com understand the value of introducing the science of cartography to our society’s next generation of geographers. After a very fun evening complete with prize giveaways and contests, it is without doubt that the future looks bright for the cartographers of tomorrow!

Related articles

• Cartography Can Be Fun (travelbetweenthepages.com)
• The best American wall map: David Imus’ “The Essential Geography of the United States of America” – Slate Magazine (slate.com)

what next for the middle east?

With the current happenings throughout the middle east region, cartographers everywhere are watching with interest, trying to work out how they could fit ‘Peoples Republic of Bahrain‘ onto a country less than one third the size of Rhode Island.

Maps.com - Middle East Political Map

Following  successful coups in Tunisia and Egypt, notable demonstrations have taken place in Yemen, Iran, Bahrain, Libya and Algeria as the people increasingly sense that they can make a difference. In spite of the almost shining example which led to the resignation of Hosni Mabarak, other regimes have chosen to meet the resistance with violence.

The ripple effect is being felt first and foremost in oil prices. Already the cost at the pump is rising steeply, as oil prices surge past $100 per barrel. Tourism has been severely affected, with carriers to the region seeing falling passenger numbers, and hotel occupancy rates in normally popular destinations significantly down (except for those filled with journalists of course). Meanwhile much of the focus of the US government, already heavily immersed in a domestic financial crisis of its own, has been diverted to these events, offering verbal support for ‘non-violent’ routes to democracy whilst ensuring that regimes who have protected US interests for long periods are not alienated in the event that they should prevail.

Analysts trying to anticipate possible shock waves are trying to predict where trouble might flare next, and the possible outcomes. Many of the world’s banks, who have significant interests in the Middle East, have had their own researchers provide reports on possible outcomes using available data.

Key features in the analysis include -

• Average age of the population
• Religious/Ethnic profiles
• The age of the regime
• Unemployment levels

Middle East Data Table - Nomura Financial Group

This helps to give a snapshot of where significant change could occur. Unsurprisingly, Libya leads the group, with high unemployment and more than 40 years of dictatorship. As the world’s 12th largest oil producer, instability here is of serious concern to western nations including the United States. Bahrain boasts a Sunni Royal Family overseeing a mostly Shiite population, and this inherent tension was severely exacerbated after police opened fire on a previously peaceful protest, while Yemen is almost the perfect storm when it comes to potential trouble – corruption, poverty, unemployment, water shortages and an activist Shiite population could see violence levels rise further.

Deutsche Bank offers a full report on 10 potential hotspots reproduced here by Kathy Lien in her Forex Blog.

Related Articles

• Explainer: Tensions between Sunnis and Shiites (cnn.com)
• Clinton condemns Libya violence (politico.com)

Map World launches ‘Final’ version

With a Presidential visit in full swing in the US, the Chinese leader Hu Jintao will have no problem finding his way around now that China’s answer to Google Maps is fully operational.

During the final quarter of 2010 the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping added more than 2 million items of geodata covering thousands of miles of roads and points of interest in the China region. There is also now an English translation for the 11 million place names the service includes.

The site, which is free to access, has been visited by 30 million users from over 200 countries according to official figures. The service is the basis for a push by the Chinese government to control online mapping services in the region. All companies providing such services will be required to purchase an operating license, with the deadline recently extended to July 1st of this year. Around half of the 200 domestic and overseas companies who have applied for licenses have received them so far.

Meanwhile with global businesses increasingly woven into the fabric of Chinese industry and Mapworld’s specifically detailed content for this region, it is bound to become more relevant as a business tool, and go some way to achieving its overall goal. This is,  according to Song Chaozhi, Deputy Director of the bureau  ”to build Mapworld into an international brand”.

Try Mapworld here.

Related Articles

• It’s a map, Map World (custommaps.wordpress.com)
• China Online Map Service: Can it Compete? (blogs.wsj.com)
• Beijing’s online map sparks spat with Hanoi (ft.com)