geomantic

A couple recent articles in the Washington Post having to do with things geospatial. Rob Pegoraro describes his experience using the neighborhood boundaries in Yahoo! Maps live. Just goes to show that not only are those boundaries are loosely defined, but when those who approximate the location of those boundaries have no local knowledge, there is bound to be disagreement. Do we each need our own private gazetteer made up of our mental maps?

Link here.

The second article features a clever mashup from the Center for Neighborhood Technologies that compares the trade-off between housing/commuting costs. Sure, the data are a little out of date, but it doesn’t really detract from the overall utility of the concept. Quibble with the currency of the data and the assumptions behind the cartography, if you like. Still, you look and you ‘get it’, don’t you? Where should I live if I want to lower my carbon footprint AND not be a slave to the steering wheel? Incredibly useful, I think, and all the more so, if the issues of data currency are addressed.

Link here.