“Mapping Generic Terms for Streams in the Contiguous United States” was made by Derek Watkins by using the USGS National Hydrography Dataset. It can be found on Watkins’ blog (http://derekwatkins.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/generic-stream-terms/). This map displays the varying names of streams across the United States. As can be seen from the map, these flowing waters are often called brooks in New England, bayous in Louisiana, and washes in the southwest. I find this map to be very interesting because it shows the diverse influence of language and culture in different areas of the United States.
“World’s Most and Least Touristy Places” is a map that shows how many tourists are in certain places based on photos uploaded to Panoramio. The highest level of tourists are shown with yellow, followed by red for medium level and blue for low level of tourists. It was made by Bluemoon Interactive and can be found at http://maps.google.com/maps/mapplets?moduleurl=http://www.bluemoon.ee/~ahti/touristiness-map/touristiness-map.xml. This map interests me because when looking at the map, you have to take into account that Panoramio may not have an accurate distribution of tourists in certain areas in relation to the actual level of tourists. Regardless, I enjoy finding the high tourist levels across the world and hope that I can go to those one day in addition to the gray areas (where Panoramio has no pictures).
“Nerdy Day Trips” is a map that shows the locations of day trips for nerds on http://www.nerdydaytrips.com/. When you click on each orange icon, a window pops up telling you about the nerdy day trip. For example, in San Pedro, CA, you can visit a World War II ship and nerd out on all the history. This map interests me because of the sheer amount of nerdy day trips there are in the world and I am excited to take my fellow scholars/nerds to some of these hidden gems.
