I think its great that artist Alyssa Toninato's cast-iron map of america won the top spot in Martha Stewart's "American made" Awards - it showed that in our ever-changing world, we still value permanent / 'cast iron' conduits. Possibly though, it shows just how influential the pancake lobby group out there is!.. I hear Obama is a pancake man - just saying
You know how there are some people that claim that when you die you leave a ghostly residual presence behind (?) - well, what if the same were true for your virtual 'life' in computer games?! For one thing, those spooky zeros could then be mapped to reveal where we live our lives - like in this map of Just Cause 2
Some maps are good. 
I cant help myself from satisfying women lately... cause heres another hot fashion accessory for all the ladies of the world - just wanna do a little something special for ya; like tell you about meshu's customisable map jewellery!
Most people are probably familiar with the water-colour paintings of Monet or Kandinsky and assume that this style is no longer relevant to us in this day-and-age, but then again most people are idiots, and aren’t familiar with Stamen designs. Stamen (pronounced in a similar way to ‘Newman’ of Seinfeld) are always doing such cool things, that they make us fellow map-makers jealous. One such work is this dynamic water-colour world-map. "Stamen!"
Look away from this geographical phenomenon if you can, but the chances are you're not even reading this. It's a shame, because I was going to tell you exactly where in the world this is located. Yes, captured here is the recorded process of zooming in upon an actual location in google earth - some say this particular location is the gateway to Hell, others ponder the fractal nature of our universe - as a map maker though it presents an intriguing situation where every map of the area is always at the perfect scale.
Who doesn't love fireworks night?! The Roman Candles and the screaming Sky-Rockets in flight (afternoon delight) are pretty cool, but secretly; the 'lame' sparkler is really our favourite - you can spell out your name or draw a picture or even... create a map. This particular instance is just a piece of corporate art that you can buy from a soulless Internet retailer, however, don't let that ruin the idea of a sparkler map - it represents the fluid, transient nature of the stuff on a map. Other maps in comparison, just seem so static and dated.
It's not immediately obvious, but a good book can be considered to be something of a spatial journey; our minds leave our bodies, and we gradually get transported to somewhere else. Character-development, sentence-structure, plot etc subsequently become hills and valleys along an imaginative path. Logically then, if someone wanted a review of a book; rather than read a laborious textual review, perhaps they would be better directed to look at a map and drink in the visual patterns all at once?! For example, are you considering reading Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road? Well, perhaps the beautiful maps of Stefanie Posavec can guide you to a decision!
Creating public art-works represents lots of challenges: Will the public understand it? Will it be salient years down the track? and possibly most importantly; will it survive continued vandalism? Let us applaud then this map roller triumph created by Carl Cheng in 1988! The 14 tonne concrete roller was cast with an inverted relief of a Los Angeles city block, including cars and buildings. Periodically it is rolled out onto the beach and leaves behind a positive relief in the sand ~~~ to be washed away by the inexorable tides.
