Our Favorite Maps of the Year Cover Everything From Bayous to Bullet Trains by Greg Miller (Wired MapLab)
From the post:
What makes a great map? It depends, of course, on who’s doing the judging. Teh internetz loves a map with dazzling colors and a simple message, preferably related to some pop-culture phenomenon. Professional mapmakers love a map that’s aesthetically pleasing and based on solid principles of cartographic design.
We love maps that have a story to tell, the kind of maps where the more you look the more you see. Sometimes we fall for a map mostly because of the data behind it. Sometimes, we’re not ashamed to say, we love a map just for the way it looks. Here are some of the maps we came across this year that captivated us with their brains, their beauty, and in many cases, both.
First, check out the animated map below to see a day’s worth of air traffic over the UK, then toggle the arrow at top right to see the rest of the maps in fullscreen mode.
The “arrow at top right” refers to an arrow that appears when you mouse over the map of the United States at the top of the post. An impressive collection of maps!
For an even more impressive display of air traffic:
Bear in mind that there are approximately 93,000 flights per day, zero (0) of which are troubled by terrorists. The next time your leaders decry terrorism, do remember to ask where?