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Tweets
- Flexitarianism, a strategy for the reigning diet wisdom (more plants, less processed food, fewer animal products) - http://t.co/30A1JZ6rBOMay 22, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- "Often, Google Glass owners looked strange. Many were using their cellphones while wearing the glasses" Google I/O http://t.co/JNBVJiNH9H
- Anyone know who is doing interesting work in the area of UX for building powerful searches? Boolean searches without knowing the syntax?May 17, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- "Everybody gets their own map” -- Jonah Jones on the new Google Maps - http://t.co/uv6YAzLTxc
- "Every single pixel should testify to content" http://t.co/BJzmuJsVIv
- Here is Today - The flat design trend meets Eames' "Powers of Ten" and time. - http://t.co/FkQLP4691T
- @JessHepburn1 RE: Cartography - Find interesting, untold stories and tell them in a map. Try freehand, digital, data viz but focus on story.
- RT @bluemonday: Pretty much nails the problems w/ Photo mgmt on iOS. >> Dear Apple, let’s talk about photos http://t.co/ntMyHYosPC
- (change) today / traffic -- accidental poem #2 - loading error on SFGate. http://t.co/9KlGZn9CNm
- Congratulations to @TEDchris and the entire TED Team for winning this year's National Design Award - http://t.co/SK1mf4dqGy
- RT @mappingmashups: SF vers of the NYC subway inequality map RT @kelsosCorner: Inequality & Mass Transit in the Bay Area http://t.co/8L…May 08, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- Is Cartography Dead? Of course not but Daniel Huffman has some good critical commentary on the topic. - http://t.co/IvPNKs7G3F
- Is Cartography Dead? Of course not but good critical thinking on the topic by @pinakographos - http://t.co/IvPNKs7G3F via @visually #maps
- @cshirky - Clay, I think your Writings page may have been hacked.May 03, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @jmspool Re: using points. The key question is whether this is "bad design" or "by design"
- “We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders.” -- G. K. Chesterton - #quote
- "Like every tool, a can of Coke... contains inventions that trace all the way back to the origins of our species." -- http://t.co/cvqOnhacvI
- A chart of solar energy costs over time. "This Is what disruptive technology looks like." -- https://t.co/iishON7FO6 -via @brianmsf
- Data-visualization startup Tableau Software files for $150M IPO - http://t.co/qJ9LnorhnPApr 24, 13 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- 4:09:43 - Nicely done interactive piece by NYTimes on the moments immediately following the Boston Marathon bombing - http://t.co/ogFSHoOwb0
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Posts
- May 21, 13
I believe that in 20 years, people will look back on yesterday's tornados in Moore Oklahoma (and their predicted connection to global warming) and wonder how anyone could have advocated for more coal or "drill baby drill" when we knew these environmental problems were unfolding. "I also think people will look back on Sandy Hook and wonder how anyone could have thought that the answer to the
- Feb 05, 13
Particle colliders have been described as being like smashing two watches together to figure out how clocks work. It is at times a crude tool but one that has, none the less, led to real discovery. I've always been fascinated by the images created by particle colliders. The image of spiraling particles recently made me think of the process of corporate innovation. Most big companies
- Dec 03, 12
I'm an introvert. I am reluctant to speak up in groups but I have always felt like I have something to say. Design, and visual design in particular, is a way of speaking or communicating. This was true in my early days as an exhibit designer and it is true in my work as an interaction designer. It is also the case for the presentations I've assembled over the years to visualize issues for
- Nov 05, 12
"For many Americans, Sandy has highlighted the relationship between a warming planet and intensifying extreme weather. For others, it’s provided more fodder for jokes mocking the problem." -- Stephan Lacey writing about Republicans joking about climate change before and after Hurricane Sandy
- Nov 01, 12
A Map of the Hamlet of Cross River, NY as it looked in 1868, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.Another map in my "Lost Towns" series.
- Oct 18, 12
I thought of this concept a while back after noticing more and more subway-style maps being used to show other things. I finally got around to mocking it up. I still have more work to do on it but I thought I would post it before someone else comes up with the same idea. After finishing the first draft, I stumbled on the Cool Infographics page on Subway Maps which includes several more
- Sep 25, 12
Steven Johnson, author or a number of great, thought-provoking titles including 'Emergence' and 'Where Good Ideas Come From' has just released a new book titled, 'Future Perfect'. In a post about it on his blog he includes the following quote from 'Emergence', "To old-school progressives, the protesters appeared to be headless, out of control, a swarm of small causes with no organizing
- Sep 10, 12
A Map of the Strange Border and Banking Policies Between Austria and Germany around Jungholz, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.There is no shortage of interesting exclaves around the world and Jungholz does not disappoint. Like many other European exclaves, Jungholz owes its origins to Germany's Feudal era. Jungholz lies in a valley in the Alps. Once a German farmstead, it was sold to a new owner in
- Jul 06, 12
I was browsing through a list of exclaves around the world when I happened upon these two islands in Eastern Africa. The islands are Malawian territory but sit entirely within Mozambique's territorial waters. I am shocked at the lack of drama behind some strange borders and these two islands appear to be no exception. Most of the history behind the border can be traced to the explorer, David
- Jun 23, 12
This is a shot of Lake Wakatipu in New Zealand outside of Queenstown that I took back in 2005. We were on our way to going canyoning (which turned out to be scarier than the bungy jump we had done the day before). Mt. Aspiring National Park might be visible in the far distance in this photo. The hills on the left shore of the Lake might be part of "The Remarkables," so named because they are
- Jun 06, 12
I've always been fascinated that I-280 in Palo Alto goes over the top of a particle accelerator. It's not everyday that you can drive over the top of a Nobel Prize winning Physics Lab. I also find the curve of the highway against the accelerator's "straightest building on Earth" geometry interesting so I decided to make this map. As I was looking at the satellite images, I was intrigued by
- Apr 15, 12
Central Park TypeMap - sketch #2, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.This is another map in my Typemap series. It is still something of an experiment but I decided it was worth posting. I started working on it about a month ago but it was dancing around in my head for the last six months. There are aspects that looked better in my head but it's getting closer. The effect I'm after is a sea of organic
- Jan 22, 12
I've never been attracted to cruise ship vacations and I'm even less interested now that I've seen the news of the Costa Concordia disaster. But any disaster also makes me imagine what it must have been like to be there. My guess is that the chaos of the evacuation and subsequent rescues were quite typical of many disasters even though the Captain of the Costs Concordia appears to have been
- Jan 06, 12
In Louis Sullivan's classic statement, "Form Follows Function" it is function that is usually seen as the dominant member of this design duality. It was one of the first design tenets that I learned in college and one that remains a core part of my design philosophy to this day. That said, I can't think of a single design project where the opposite wasn't true at least some of the time. The truth
- Aug 22, 11
A Map of the Border Between the USA and Canada as it Passes Through the Town of Derby Line, Vermont, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.The story of Derby Line Vermont begins with a mistake and ends with an intentional act inspired by the mistake. For most of it's 2000 mile length, the USA / Canada border follows the 45th parallel. I have already written about the exception at the Northwest Angle in
- Jul 28, 11
The Border Between Egypt & Sudan at the Wadi Halfa Salient, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.See the 52 villages in the map? No? That's because they were flooded by the damning of the Nile and the creation of Lake Nasser (known as Lake Nubia in Sudan). The strange bulge (known as a salient in cartography parlance) along this portion of the Egypt-Sudan border was originally surrounded the villages
- Jul 07, 11
A Map of the Border Between New York & New Jersey on Ellis Island, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.For so many immigrants, stepping off a ship onto Ellis Island was synonymous with arrival in New York City. Many years later, after the immigration station had closed and the buildings lie decaying, the US Supreme Court would decide that Ellis Island, with one small exception, was part of New
- Jun 27, 11
A Map of the very strange border(s) between the Netherlands and Belgium at Baarle-Nassau, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.Without going into excruciating detail about allegiances to dukes, lords and kings, it is hard to explain the origin if this rather unique set of international borders. Suffice it to say that the land was bought, sold, and loaned through many generations to the point where the
- Jun 22, 11
A Map of the Former Town of Monticello, CA in Relation to Today's Lake Berryessa, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.Where Lake Berryessa now stands there once was a fertile valley full of farms, orchards and the small town of Monticello, California. Before Monticello there were the Adobe buildings that were part of the Mexican-owned Rancho de Los Putahs. And before the Spanish arrived, there was the
- May 24, 11
A Map of the Strange Kentucky Border at the New Madrid Bend in the Mississippi River, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.The border of Kentucky at what is known as "The New Madrid Bend" owes it's strangeness to the serpentine path of the Mississippi River. The River was supposed to define the western edge of the state of Kentucky and the Southern edge of Missouri. The result is an exclave peninsula of
- Apr 20, 11
A Map of "The Five Points" neighborhood in New York City and its relationship to today's streets and the old Collect Pond., a photo by amproehl on Flickr.This is my first attempt to try to render the story of "The Five Points" Neighborhood in historical layers. The neighborhood or more aptly, slum was also known as Paradise Square was always notorious but was made famous more recently as the
- Apr 18, 11
Scary Skerry… A Map of the Strange Border Between Sweden and Finland on Märket Fyr, a photo by amproehl on Flickr.How did I not find this awesome border sooner. An island less than 1200 feet long with a border that takes more twists and turns than a Stieg Larsson novel. It is now possible to walk the length of this short island and cross an international border three times. However, despite the
- Mar 23, 11
Newt Gingrich on March 7th:"Exercise a no-fly zone this evening."Newt Gingrich on March 7th:"I would not have intervened. I think there were a lot of other ways to affect Gaddafi."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/23/newt-gingrich-attempts-to_n_839816.html
- Nov 17, 10
Although I didn't plan it, this post is related to my previous post on "Seeing Variety". Both posts explore perception. Behind the brilliance of Christopher Alexander's "A Pattern Language" lies the idea of pattern recognition. Successful designs respect the patterns that enable people to feel good in a space or building. As a visual species, pattern detection is something we are all do. It
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Posts
- Nov 17, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
"Good Fences make good neighbors"
"Something there is that doesn't like a wall".
-- Robert Frost in 'Mending Wall'
My primary focus on this blog is the many interesting stories behind the borders we see today. But there was a time when borders did not exist and not everyone wants them when they're drawn. This is often the case with regards to nomadic people around the Word. It is also a big part of the history of borders on the Arabian Peninsula including this unique set of borders within the UAE.
Peter Easton, a commenter on a couple of my maps, has spent time in the region, including Oman, working on water issues. He understands the history and tribal dynamics well and shared the following insights,
"Historically there were no borders, and no concept of nation states. Allegiance was to a tribe and its head sheikh. This could be fluid, with tribes or sheikhs switching allegiances from time to time. Thus, to some extent, modern borders represent a snap shot of allegiances at a given time. The reason for an allegiance was complex. It could be based on family or tribal ties, on religion (with Islam having various sub-sects), on bribery, etc. When a group switched allegiance, its 'territory' went with it. The boundary of a group's territory was also dependent on various factors: where their oases was, where a vital water well was, where their goats and camels preferred to graze, location of historical burial grounds, etc, etc. The idea of a border as a line was quite meaningless. The land of the desert and mountains had no value to anyone except the local tribes. On older Arabian maps, you will often see no lines or just dotted lines. But this all changed when oil was discovered. Suddenly the precise location of a border line became very political and valuable."
By definition, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a collection of separate emirates into a single country. Each emirate is itself a composition of smaller regions with roots in the Arabian Peninsula's tribal era. Oman, a separate country from the UAE is itself separated into two large areas by the UAE. The Oman exclave has existed for some time but the UAE enclave within it appears to be a recent development. There is a village called Nahwa that sits just inside the UAE enclave. The whole region is mountainous and appears quite desolate so I had trouble seeing the "logic" behind the border on satellite imagery. At some point, the Sheikh of Nahwa probably switched his allegiance from Oman to the UAE and the outline of the exclave relates to the extent of the tribe's territory.
In an area where water is scarce, oases bound tribes to an area. It was also the search for more water that led to the discovery of oil on the Arabian Peninsula. Finally, it was oil that solidified so many borders here and around the world and led to strange ones like this.
Sources:
Google Maps
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nahwa
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharjah_(emirate)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madha - Nov 08, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
Such a fall from grace. According to Wikipedia, Maryland's District 3 is one of only 50 districts to have elected a representative to the first United States Congress. That was in 1789. In 2012, the district was found to be the "third least compact congressional district in the United States" according to the Maryland Reporter. The current district boundaries are actually an improvement over its 2011 borders (which you can view at the Maryland Reporter link below).
Yet another example of gerrymandering, this one favors Democrats. Despite the fact that the district surrounds and includes parts of Baltimore, the district is over 75% white. The City of Baltimore, in contrast, is 64% Black (as of 2010 census). Gerrymandering is one of the root causes for the disfunction we see in Congress. Gerrymandered districts tend to vote solidly for one party, either Democrat or Republican. This encourages candidates in these districts to be more extreme in their views to speak to their base. Districts that are politically diverse require a more moderate tone in order to appeal to more voters.
I had been keeping an eye out for another gerrymandered election district to include in this series after my map of Illinois District 4 started getting tons of views on Flickr (over 163,300 as I write this). I realized that part of the reason I've been avoiding maps of gerrymandered districts is that they look so illogical and messy. They don't make for great maps. I did not enjoy tracing the haphazard lines of the Illinois map and I certainly didn't enjoy drawing this one. But the pain of drawing it is yet another sign in my mind of how bad they are. Bad for cartographers, bad for democracy.
Sources
Google Maps
nationalatlas.gov/printable/congress.html
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland%27s_3rd_congressional_dist...
Maryland Reporter: marylandreporter.com/2012/10/03/maryland-has-least-compac...
pjmedia.com/zombie/2010/11/11/the-top-ten-most-gerrymande...
stateintegrity.tumblr.com/post/20800702320/redistricting-... - Nov 06, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
Brunei (officially the, "Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace") is a surprisingly successful and stable states despite its apparent tenuous geography. It is surrounded by Malaysia and separated into two, disconnected states by Malaysia's Limbang District. Brunei occupies just one percent of the island of Borneo that it shares with the countries of Malaysia, and Indonesia. Despite its small size, it has a per capita GDP in the top ten of countries worldwide.
Brunei owes its split existence to the colonial era. It was once a much larger empire that extended beyond the shores of Borneo. Starting in the 1800s, it lost territory to colonial powers and James Brooke, a British citizen who became the first of the "White Rajas" of Sarawak. Brooke was given control of the Limbang District among other territories that eventually became part of Malaysia. In 1888, The "Abode of Peace" agreed to become a British protectorate and stayed that way for a hundred years. It regained it's independence from the United Kingdom in 1984.
Although the Limbang District is connected to the rest of Malaysia, it's roads are not. The only way to drive from the Limbang District to the rest of Malaysia is to drive across the border into Brunei and then across Brunei back into Malaysia.
Countries have come to blows over much smaller parcels of land. I have covered some in this blog. But I always wonder when I see something like Brunei's divided existence, why they couldn't do a land swap or reach some agreement that would have allowed Brunei to exist as a single entity and allowed the people of Limbang to drive across their country without first having to leave it.
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunei
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarawak
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limbang_District - Nov 03, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
Poor little Carter Lake. It reminds me of the phrase, "a mystery wrapped inside an enigma" from the Oliver Stone film, 'JFK'. Carter Lake is a town in Iowa surrounded by a namesake oxbow lake that it doesn't own, then Nebraska, and finally, the sweeping curve of the Missouri River. It is the only town in Iowa that lies west of the Missouri River. According to Wikipedia, there was a flood in 1877 that redirected the course of the Missouri which left Carter Lake on the wrong side from that point on.
There are a number of strange borders in the US that are the result of river courses. When the initial borders were being drawn up, care was taken to not orphan small areas on the far side of a river that would make the area hard to govern. Bridges across major rivers were rare in those days and the natural boundaries of the rivers mattered. But rivers are dynamic and their courses are always changing particularly in flat, easily flooded land. I have already documented two other examples where this has happened, The "New Madrid Bend" border between Kentucky and Missouri and the winding border between the Louisiana and Mississippi along the Mississippi River near Vicksburg. If I was asked, I would suggest that a river border should stay a river border even if the river changes course. It seems like the natural recommendation. History has judged me wrong. Once a border has been staked out, human forces will act to keep it unchanged even as the underlying river seeks a new course. Since this land is often prone to flooding it is not usually prime real estate. Rarer still is the case of Carter Lake where a whole town occupies that changing landscape.
Omaha Nebraska lies just West of the map I've drawn. If you fly to Omaha, you land at Eppley Airfield. The strange border around Carter Lake creates a situation where, after landing in Nebraska, one must drive through Iowa to get back to Nebraska and the city of Omaha. As out-of-towners are often confused about directions, it must by particularly confusing to see the otherwise friendly signs in Carter Lake announcing, "Welcome to Iowa".
Sources
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Lake,_Iowa - Oct 25, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
Thanks to Käty Tarkpea for alerting me to this border curiosity
Valga, or Valka as it is known in Latvia, has more than its fair share of existential challenges. Between 1298 and 1558 it was invaded and burnt to the ground or destroyed six times. It has been colonized or occupied by Sweden and then Russia and Germany twice. Finally, from at least 1920, the town was split into two pieces and divided between Latvia and Estonia. The fences and border gates finally came down in 2009 but the town remains divided by two very different languages, one Nordic and similar to Finnish, the other one of only two still-spoken Baltic languages. As a result it is hard for people from the two sides of town to communicate and Russian is often used as the common language for those that speak it.
As with several other strange or disputed borders in this set, the people of Estonia and Latvia have a Brit to thank for the border running down the middle of their town. In 1920, Colonel S. G. Tallents helped lay out the border with most of the town going to Estonia with the exception of the area surrounding Lugazi Square.
As with other strange borders, the town's unique history has now made it something of a tourist attraction. The Visit Estonia website asks, "Where else could you stand, one foot in one country, holding “jäätis” (ice cream in Estonian) in your left hand and other foot in another country, holding “saldejums” (ice cream in Latvian) in your right hand?"
Sources:
Google Maps
geosite.jankrogh.com/borders/valga_valka.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valga,_Estonia
www.visitestonia.com/en/holiday-destinations-in-estonia/c... - Oct 12, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
Although most of my map research focuses on the geography or history of an area, I often stumble on other topics of interest. In this case, it was the strategy of "Divide et Impera" (Divide and Rule) and how this strange set of exclaves relates to Joseph Stalin, James Madison and contemporary USA politics.
Under the former Soviet Union - Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were all united despite being composed of a number of different ethnic groups and regions. Today's exclaves are a holdover from the Soviet days when Stalin sought to keep the various factions in the area at bay by implementing "divide et impera". The strategy is essentially the same as "divide and conquer." and includes getting local rulers to turn against each other in order to distract them from their conqueror. Another technique is to introduce impediments that divert local resources that could otherwise be used for military revolt. This seems to have been the case here. Farmers living in an exclave who want to sell their crops must deal with hostile border guards, extra transportation costs and tariffs in order to sell their crops back in the mother country. Exclaves are a formidable tool in the divide and rule arsenal.
The exclaves became official in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union. To keep the map simple, I focused on these five exclaves, four belonging to Uzbekistan and one belonging to Tajikistan. There as many as four more in this region, the Fergana Valley, described by "Chirol" in the Coming Anarchy as, "a virtual archipelago of enclaves". Two of the exclaves are little more than a square kilometer in size and hard to find on many maps. One is described as "the immediate area surrounding a train station". Another might have no inhabitants.
Caesar, Stalin, and Napoleon all made use of divide et impera in their various conquests. Research on the topic led to references to James Madison's 'Federalist Paper No. 10' written in support of the US Constitution (and against the potential for independent states to implement defacto divide and conquer strategies. Madison believed that a strong federal government was key to overcoming the problems of independent factions arguing for their own interests at the expense of others. No. 10 is considered by many to be the most important and influential of the Federalist Papers. According to the Wikipedia entry "Madison argued that a strong, big republic would be a better guard against those dangers than smaller republics". This is a debate that continues today.
During the American Civil War, the South's stated position was not in favor of slavery but in favor of the States' rights to choose. At the end of the day, it was about slavery but arguing for the right of each state to decide on its own is classic "divide and conquer" behavior. This strategy, intentional or not, continues today on topics like healthcare and immigration policy. These are difficult issues. Local control often satisfies local opinions but can keeps an issue from being fully resolved and has the potential to create enclaves of policy.
Sources
cominganarchy.com/2005/12/23/enclaves-iii-the-fergana-val...
enclaves.webs.com/centralasia.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalist_No._10
Google Maps - Sep 10, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
There is no shortage of interesting exclaves around the world and Jungholz does not disappoint. Like many other European exclaves, Jungholz owes its origins to Germany's Feudal era. Jungholz lies in a valley in the Alps. Once a German farmstead, it was sold to a new owner in what would eventually become Austria in 1342. Its location, completely surrounded by Germany was overlooked and eventually accepted as fact. There are no direct roads from Austria proper to Jungholz. By car, you must leave Austria, travel through Germany and then re-enter Austria in order to get to Jungholz. Accommodations have been made to ease the situation by giving Jungholz two area codes and two postal addresses, one German and one Austrian.
Perhaps the most interesting "dividend" of Jungholz's unique location is its banking rules. It has three German banks that operate a bit like their Cayman Island counterparts… off-shore banking without all the sand between your toes. As German banks operating inside Jungholz's tax-free status they offer the ability to transfer money to and from other German banks without incurring any fees. And since they operate inside of Austria, they are allowed to provide the cover of Austria's confidential banking laws which are second only to Switzerland's. One bank even has a James Bond-inspired bank product called, Goldfinger. According to an article on the Travel Intelligence website, the Reiffeisenbank offers the following reassurance to the prospective customer, “There are moments in life when you can’t compromise on confidentiality - for instance, when it comes to your money. Our Goldfinger Numbered Account makes absolute confidentiality a reality.”
Geographic isolation has its privileges.
Sources:
www.travelintelligence.com/travel-writing/jungholz
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungholz - Jul 06, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
I was browsing through a list of exclaves around the world when I happened upon these two islands in Eastern Africa. The islands are Malawian territory but sit entirely within Mozambique's territorial waters. I am shocked at the lack of drama behind some strange borders and these two islands appear to be no exception. Most of the history behind the border can be traced to the explorer, David Livingstone's explorations in the region and the establishment of the, "Universities Mission to Central Africa" Station on the Island of Likoma.
Upon reaching Lake Malawi in 1859, Livingstone named it Lake Nyasa. As the British began to colonize the African continent, they eventually claimed all of the territory surrounding the lake and named it Nyasaland. Portugal then colonized the Eastern shore of the lake. Since the British still had their mission station on Likoma Island, the islands were given to Malawi when the final borders were drawn up.
Although ownership of the islands is not under dispute, the name of the lake is. Malawi obviously prefers "Lake Malawi". Most other nearby nations prefer "Lake Nyasa". According to Wikipedia, the name Nyasa came about from a mistake in translation. Upon arriving at the Lake, David Livingstone reportedly asked his guide for the name of the lake. The word that came back was "Nyasa". However, nyasa basically meant "lake," the generic word not the lake's proper name (if it had one). Lake Nyasa stuck but should really be translated as "Lake Lake" in other languages. I have seen this happen many times when researching the history behind a place name for my maps. Many of the names for native peoples are the result of this type of confusion between a local population and foreign explorers. - Jul 02, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
You can call it, Gambia but the real name is, "The Gambia"... a bit of attitude from the smallest country in continental Africa. The country's entire border is defined by its namesake river and, were it not for its outlet to the Atlantic would be surrounded by Senegal. Rivers are used to mark borders all over the World but usually the river IS the border. Gambia is unique in that the river and its banks essentially define the country rather than the border.
Like too many countries in Africa, The Gambia owes its strange borders to its colonial-era overlords which included Portugal, Great Britain and France at various times. The country follows the path of the Gambia River with borders falling between 10 and 15 miles north and south of the river banks. The river and region have unfortunate close ties to the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Gambia River was navigable by tall ships far into the interior of the African continent enabling a disproportionate number of slaves to have left Africa by this route. Though the active slave trade had long-since ended, Gambia only officially abolished slavery in 1906.
Sources
Google Maps
Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gambia - Jun 26, 12
amproehl posted a photo:
I debated what to draw for this map for reasons that will become clear. In the end, I decided to show only water because Socotra Rock, the focus of this dispute lies about 18 feet under water even at low tide) and the nearest borders are miles away. It is the first land dispute I’ve come across with no land involved. For a rock that rarely appears above water, it sure does have a lot of names. South Korea knows it as Leodo or Parangdo whereas China calls the rock, Suyon. Socotra, the commonly accepted name, comes from the British Ship that first “discovered” and charted the rock (more as a navigational hazard than a landmark).
Both the Peoples Republic of China and South Korea claim the rock. By objective measures, it lies closer to Korean territory at roughly 93 miles from the island of Marado (near the much larger Jeju Island). Sucotra Rock lies approximately 178 miles away from China's nearest island, Yushandao, almost double the distance between Korea and the rock. In the late 1990’s, Korea built a helipad and “Ocean Research Station” directly over the rock. Here is an image of the station, static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3929211.jpg
Wikipedia claims that China later burned that station down in a raid. I was hoping to be able to see something in a satellite view on Google Maps but I think the rock is too small and insignificant to be covered by their images. You can see for yourself by using these coordinates, 32°07′22.63″N 125°10′56.81″E. - Sep 21, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
I had trouble finding background information about this strange section of border between India and Bangladesh. As you can partly tell from the lack of relationship between the rivers, the border here does not seem to be based on geographic features. As far as I can tell from the satellite images, the land here is fairly flat and mostly farm land.
Clearly, the border here is the result of some strange decision making. It is hard to know from a glance which side is India and which side is Bangledesh. My original guess was that it was part of the difficult and tumultuous partition of India into Pakistan, India and Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan). But apparently the complexity originates much earlier when the area was under the rule of two different kings. According to Wikipedia, "The enclaves were part of the high stake card or chess games centuries ago between two regional kings, the Raja of Cooch Behar and the Maharaja of Rangpur."
The specific reasons behind the border's strange path is possible to see in the places where the border creates almost a complete loop in it's already erratic course. When I zoom in on these spots, they seem to encircle a single estate or perhaps, a small village. I'd love to know the specifics of how the border-drawing process unfolded. If anyone knows some of the specifics, please let me know.
Source:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Bangladesh_enclaves - Aug 21, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
The story of Derby Line Vermont begins with a mistake and ends with an intentional act inspired by the mistake. For most of it's 2000 mile length, the USA / Canada border follows the 49th parallel. In New York and Vermont, this switches to the 45th parallel but in both cases, the intention was the same... a simple and straight border line. I have already written about the exception at the Northwest Angle in Minnesota (which follows an altered course due to an error regarding how far North the source of the Mississippi River was. Here in Vermont, the surveyors were intending to follow the 45th parallel but unintentionally marked the line too far North. The Town developed along the line, as marked as did it's sister town in Canada, Stanstead Quebec.
Sometime in the latter part of the 1800s, Carlos Haskell, an American, met Martha Stewart (not that Martha Stewart) who had grown up on the Canadian side of the border. They married and settled in Derby Line. Sometime around the turn of the last century, they decided to honor the town's erratic border by building a library and opera house right on the border so that Americans and Canadians would both be able to use it. If I were erecting such a monument, I think I would have aligned the building so the border passed symbolically through the middle. Not so with the Haskell Free Library as it came to be known. The border passes diagonally through the building. The line is marked in the floor (you can see pictures of the interior by visiting one of the links below). The line was requested by the insurance companies so they would pay only for damages to their part of the building.
In the library, the reading room is on the US side while the stacks are on the Canadian side. In the upstairs opera house, most of the seats are on the US side with the stage in Canadian. This has prompted locals to call it, "the only library in the USA with no books" and "the only opera house with no stage".
Having such a small town straddle an international border invites a different perspective on international relations. The Center for Land Use Interpretation has an essay about the town on their website. The author makes the comment that two kids having a game of catch across the border would be perfectly legal. However, each time someone caught the ball they would have to walk over to the customs office to declare the ball.
When the Haskell's built the library, their intention was that people from both sides of the border would be able to use it. There are doors on both the Canadian and USA side to enable this. The town also has several small roads that cross seamlessly across the border. All of this is threatened in the post-9/11 world because open, fuzzy borders make the US Department of Customs and Immigration nervous. There have been talks to tighten the links but, according to Wikipedia at least, the Haskell Free Library remains free and open to American and Canadian alike.
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derby_Line,_Vermont
web.archive.org/web/20070618080148/http://www.cnn.com/200...
Pictures of the Library: www.clui.org/lotl/v29/m.html - Aug 07, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
The Siachen Glacier is part of a larger territory dispute between India and Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan have had a significant military presence here (mostly along the Saltoro Ridge) since April 1984. The conflict has been called, The Highest Battleground in the World". Pakistan and India spend upwards of $1 million dollars a day to keep troops amassed along such demanding and inhospitable terrain.
The strangeness of the border is largely due to the history of the conflict with an important contributing role by the USA. The majority of the border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir is defined by what is known as the "Line of Control"... essentially the cease fire line that was negotiated and agreed to by both sides. The Line of Control is the dashed line in the lower left area of the map. In that agreement the border extended only to a point known as NJ9842 (shown on the map). The geography north of that point was considered too mountainous, cold and inhospitable to be of interest to either party. So the agreement fixed the NJ9842 point and then added the clause, "and thence north to the glaciers". This description actually worked for many years because the area was of little strategic interest. Sometime in the 1980s, the US military created a map of the area that continued the border all the way to the Karakoram Pass. This effectively gave the otherwise unclaimed territory to Pakistan. Around the same time, Pakistan had also started to grant climbing permits to K2, the Himilayan mountain known as the hardest mountain to climb. When the Indian Army learned of this, they immediately assembled a military expedition to the Siachen Glacier. The glacier and the surrounding mountains range from 19,000 to 22,000 feet above sea level. The whole area is extremely cold and heavily glaciated. It is sometimes called The Third Pole. Never-the-less both Pakistani and Indian troops have chosen to remain amassed along the Saltoro Ridge.
Most conflicts seem to start when one party draws a border that another doesn't like. In this case, It was the absence of a clear border that started all the fuss. Both India and Pakistan realize that the standoff is an exercise in futility and hope to end it. There have been discussions between the two countries but none have proven successful. - Jul 24, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
See the 52 villages in the map? No? That's because they were flooded by the damning of the Nile and the creation of Lake Nasser (known as Lake Nubia in Sudan). The strange bulge (known as a salient in cartography parlance) along this portion of the Egypt-Sudan border was originally surrounded the villages that dotted this section of the Nile.
Egypt and Sudan have 3 areas of land under dispute and a fourth that neither country claims. The original 1899 border between the two countries ran straight along the 22nd North Parallel line with no deviations. In 1902, Britain amended the border to account for some tribal and administrative issues. There were 52 villages where the Nile River crossed the 22nd Parallel. It was decided that these villages would be easier to maintain from the Sudanese side of the border so the border was changed to how it appears above. There appears to be a stretch of rough and desolate terrain North of this area that separates it from the next set of villages in current maps.
Egypt now claims this area along with the other two areas (Bir Tawil and the Hala'ib Triangle) in dispute. They maintain a military presence in the other two but not here as there is little of interest to guard. My map of Bir Tawil and the Hala'ib Triangle is here, www.flickr.com/photos/amapple/4038420915/in/set-721576163...
I've also made a map of the area showing the location of the former towns and ruins based on a 1953 British survey map. That map is here, www.flickr.com/photos/amapple/5973317950/in/photostream
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadi_Halfa_Salient - Jul 06, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
For so many immigrants, stepping off a ship onto Ellis Island was synonymous with arrival in New York City. Many years later, after the immigration station had closed and the buildings lie decaying, the US Supreme Court would decide that Ellis Island, with one small exception, was part of New Jersey.
The original colonial land grant for New Jersey defined it's border as the waterline of New York Bay and the Hudson River, meaning that the water and all islands within it belonged to New York. Most treaties place borders in the middle of natural borders like lakes and rivers. New Jersey tried to fight the claim starting in the early 1800s. In 1834 a compact between New York and New Jersey and ratified by the US Congress set the border as the middle of the Hudson River. This put jurisdiction and bragging rights over the island completely in New Jersey which they were quick to assert and claim in a court filing. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court. New York fought hard but in the end was awarded only the small 3.3 acre section of the original island. Since that border follows the island's original shoreline it appears quite random today and passes through the middle of numerous buildings. The majority of the current island (most of it created by landfill from the digging of New York City subway tunnels) is now officially part of the State of New Jersey. Payback for Jersey's actions and perhaps the best argument for custody came from then Mayor Rudy Giuliani who remarked that his Italian father "never intended to emigrate to New Jersey."
In the pre-colonial days, Ellis Island was one of several, oyster-rich islands on the western tidal flats of Upper New York Bay. Other nearby islands included Liberty Island (originally Bedloe's Island and site of the Statue of Liberty) and Black Tom Island (named after an African-American that lived on the island according to local legend). Before becoming known as Ellis Island, it had been known as Dyre's Island, Bucking, Gibbet (Gibbet's being cages for displaying the dead bodies of convicted pirates), and lastly, Little Oyster Island. Samuel Ellis acquired the island during the American Revolution and first tried to sell it in 1785. New York State leased the island in 1794 until the Federal Government bought the island in 1808 and began expanding it before opening it as an immigration station in 1892.
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_island - Jun 27, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
Without going into excruciating detail about allegiances to dukes, lords and kings, it is hard to explain the origin if this rather unique set of international borders. Suffice it to say that the land was bought, sold, and loaned through many generations to the point where the current land owners felt allegiance to either the Dutch or Belgian side of the border. When it came time to make the border official as art of the 1843 Treaty of Maastricht, 5732 separate parcels of land had to have their nationality laid down separately.
Fortunately the borders are all friendly. In fact, there were several opportunities to clean things up in subsequent treaties and negotiations that the residents refused to act on. The residents of Baarle-Nassau seem to enjoy their quirky borders and the ramifications they present.
There is at least one border line that passes directly through a building. With borders sometimes passing through the middle of properties, taxes were sometimes a challenge in the area. To clarify matters, the Dutch government set the rule that taxes would be paid to the country your front door opened up on. With taxes being higher on one side of the border than the other, the ruling was an invitation for creative renovations. If shop keepers didn't like the taxes they were paying, they were known to just move their front door so that it opened on the other country.
The primary border between the two countries lies about 5 kilometers south of Baarle-Nassau... just a short distance beyond the bottom of this map. What is truly unique about this set of borders is that it happens completely inside the Netherlands border. These are Belgian exclaves inside the Netherlands. But even more amazing is that there are Dutch exclaves completely inside the Belgian exclaves. The smallest plot, identified as H12 is just 28,331 square feet (a bit more than 1/2 an acre) in size. With all of the dysfunction between Israel and the Palestinians over land swaps, it is nice to see two countries getting along so well that there's no need to swap.
Sources:
Google Maps
ontology.buffalo.edu/smith/baarle.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle-Nassau - May 27, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
This is a map of Kashmir region of India. The areas tinted red are all disputed territory with Pakistan or China. I started the map with the intent to explore the border dispute between India and Pakistan but as I started to create the map, I realized the area included multiple areas of disputes. The "Northern Areas" is the largest and considered by most international bodies to be part of Pakistan. India claims the territory as its own while acknowledging that the area is administered by Pakistan.
On the right is the territory of Aksai Chin. This area is largely an uninhabited salt desert but is still an ongoing dispute between India and China. As I started to work on the map, I learned that the dispute is actually five separate disputes wrapped up in one.
But the most interesting story behind the various border disputes depicted here is the area known as the Siachen Glacier near the upper middle part of this map. I have made several maps of the Siachen Glacier. One is posted here in my Strange Borders series. - May 22, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
The border of Kentucky at what is known as "The New Madrid Bend" owes it's strangeness to the serpentine path of the Mississippi River. The River was supposed to define the western edge of the state of Kentucky and the Southern edge of Missouri. The result is an exclave peninsula of land in Kentucky that is completely surrounded by Missouri and Tennessee. To drive here from the rest of Kentucky, you must leave the state, drive through Tennessee and come back into Kentucky.
This spot along the Mississippi River is also the site of several historic events. Most notable is the "Battle of Island Ten" in the Civil War where Confederate Troops occupied Island Ten (now mostly part of the shoreline at the southern-most part of the bend in the map). The plan was to block and defeat the Union Troops coming down the Mississippi from the North at a slow point in the river. The plan didn't work so well. Although this was a potentially vulnerable spot in the river, Island Ten was also remote and could only be re-supplied by a single road through swamp and marsh land (the Union eventually succeeded in cutting off Confederate supply lines).
Mark Twain wrote about the area in his book, "Life on the Mississippi" and in particular about the feud between the Darnell and Watson families. One family was from Kentucky, the other from Tennessee. According to Twain, the two families attended the same church at what is/was known as Compromise Landing. The Church straddled the border between Kentucky and Tennessee enabling the families to walk up the aisle on their side of the church and attend services without stepping into the other state.
Lastly, New Madrid was the epicenter for several of the strongest Earthquakes ever felt in the United States in 1811 and 1812. According to Wikipedia, the earthquakes were so disruptive that they reportedly reversed the course of the Mississippi River around the area.
Read more...
New Madrid Bend: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kentucky_Bend
Battle of Island Number Ten: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Island_Number_Ten
The Earthquakes: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1812_New_Madrid_earthquake - Apr 11, 11
amproehl posted a photo:
How did I not hear about this border sooner. An island less than 1200 feet long with a border that takes more twists and turns than a Stieg Larsson novel. It is now possible to walk the length of this short island and cross an international border three times. However, despite the strangeness of the border, Sweden and Finland have always agreed on shared ownership of the skerry (a Norse word for rock in the sea) and the serpentine border results from an effort to correct Finland's accidental siting of the island's lighthouse on the Swedish side of the border. The island is otherwise a textbook example of international cooperation and agreement.
Market Island or Reef (Market Fyr in Swedish) is part of the larger Aland Island chain that lies between Sweden and Finland. According to Wikipedia, ownership of the islands has been shared ever since the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809. Prior to the building of the lighthouse, the border between the two countries passed down the middle of the skerry so that half the island's land mass was in Sweden and half was in Finland. When it was discovered that Finland had accidentally built the lighthouse on Sweden's half of the island, a fix was necessary. The resulting zig-zag border allows the lighthouse to be in Finland while retaining the 50/50 split in land area and avoids any changes to the maritime border. Any alterations of that would have resulted in a change in fishing rights… Perhaps the one thing that might have caused strife between the two herring-loving nations. Phew. - Nov 12, 10
amproehl posted a photo:
There is no dispute over this one, it's just your garden variety error. It stems from a bad map and a negotiated treaty between England and the United States.
The error created several unique geographic situations including,
-- the fact that it is the only section of the Continental U.S. Border that extends above the 49th parallel, the latitude that marks the majority of the US border with Canada. Even Maine, which optically appears further North on some projections remains south of the 49th Parallel.
-- it creates a situation where driving from one spot in the Minnesota to another spot in Minnesota requires a 63 mile drive into Canada and then back into the U.S. even though the two spots are just 18 miles apart as the crow flies.
-- It is one of only four places in the continental U.S. where a section of a state (other than an island) is disconnected from the rest of the state.
According to the Wikepedia entry,
"The Treaty of Paris, concluded between the United States and Great Britain at the end of the American Revolutionary War, stated that the boundary between U.S. territory and the British possessions to the north would run "...through the Lake of the Woods to the northwestern most point thereof, and from thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi..."
That all sounds pretty simple and clear as far as border descriptions go. The only problem was that the line could extend West all the way to the Pacific Ocean and never run into the Mississippi River. The source of the Mississippi, Lake Itaska lies almost 150 miles south of where it was expected to be. The error started with the Mitchell Map, a map that was in widespread use at the time.
When the problem was corrected by the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 it created a chunk of land that is part of Minnesota but cut off from the rest of the state. That land is called, The Northwest Angle, or simply, "The Angle" by locals. It is sparsely populated and most of the land is under the stewardship of a local Indian tribe. The immigration and customs office for The Angle is actually a phone booth with a video phone in it.
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- Summary
Seasoned design director with deep experience in consumer product, web, and interface design. Able to manage projects ranging from strategic R&D to monthly product launches. Significant international experience and a proven ability to make design a trusted, respected, and successful partner with business. I’m driven by an interest in understanding people over technology and focusing design on the needs of the end user.
Specialties: Product Design & Development, Interaction Design, Design Strategy, Web Design, Visualizations & Cartography
Experience- Mar 2013 - PresentDirector Of User Experience / Meltwater Group
- Jul 2012 - Mar 2013Freelance Designer / in form design
- Mar 2010 - Jun 2012Director of User Experience / Plastic Logic
- Jul 2007 - Apr 2010Director, User Experience Design / Yahoo!
- Oct 2005 - Jun 2007Director, User Interface Design / Motorola, Inc.
- May 1999 - Feb 2005Director, Sony Design Center / Sony Electronics, Inc.
- Oct 1994 - Apr 1999Manager of Interaction Design / Sony Corporation of America
- Sept 1987 - Oct 1994Exhibit Designer / Edwin Schlossberg Inc.
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Interests:maps / cartography, kayaking, camping, hiking, travel
