24 September 2020

Dialect Map

Aschmann's map of North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns is an enormous labor of love. The accompanying information about individual spoken traits adds details that enrich the maps. But my favorite part may be the close-up map of New Orleans that shows more distinct dialects inside those levees than in the entrety of the American West. I have been a sucker for this sort of stuff for years, including the old Joshua Katz maps and the Harvard dialect surveys.

 

17 September 2020

Crowdsourced neighborhood mapping

Maps Mania undertook the exercise of mapping out a London neighborhood (or neighbourhood) using crowdsourced input to determine the boundaries. The neighborhood they mapped, London's West End, is a particularly undefined area and the submitted results show it. But, when combined, the final result seems a somewhat plausible. And the idea behind it remains pretty interesting.

15 September 2020

Subpar Reviewers

 Amber Share turns horrifically bad one-star reviews of our National Parks into art that she calls, Subpar Parks.The art work is beautiful. And, as sophisticated commentary on attitudes to the parks, the reviews she has chosen are masterful.



03 September 2020

Knowledge

 

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. 

Willing is not enough we must do.

- Goethe