Glimpses of humanity in an unlikely corner of the internet.
Maps
Posted inArts & Culture
Which Way to Westeros?
With a plethora of fantasy appearing on streaming services, we take a look back at Adrian Daub’s essay on world-building maps.
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, Reading List
Charting Worlds: Five Longreads About Maps
From fantasylands to unique cartographers (including one that’s non-human), here are five stories about maps.
Posted inEditor's Pick
How to Map Nothing
“What if we took each sourdough selfie, each Zoom class, each Peloton ride, each Netflix binge and mapped the ecology of resources and services that have made it possible for some of us? And at the same time impossible for others?” On pandemic maps and the Great Pause.
Posted inHighlight, Nonfiction, profile, Quote Posts, Quotes, Technology
A Young Cartographer’s Mission to Map the Catholic Church — and Fight Climate Change
“The role of the cartographer isn’t just data analytics,” says Molly Burhans, an activist mapping the land assets of the Catholic Church. “It’s also storytelling.”
Posted inEditor's Pick
How a Young Activist Is Helping Pope Francis Battle Climate Change
“Molly Burhans wants the Catholic Church to put its assets—which include farms, forests, oil wells, and millions of acres of land—to better use. But, first, she has to map them.”
Posted inNonfiction, Story
Here at the End of All Things
On losing oneself in the geography of fantasy worlds, from Middle Earth to Westeros.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Practical Cartography: I Am Mapped, Therefore I Am
Lois Parshley’s wide-ranging, fascinating story on mapping the unmapped — from black holes, to the bottom of the sea, to the populations of the Congo and Haiti — looks at not just the science of map-making, but the morality.
Posted inEditor's Pick
Here Be Dragons: Finding the Blank Spaces in a Well-Mapped World
Maps are how we orient ourselves, and how we donate a place’s value — and by extension, the value of that place’s inhabitance. What does that means for the place still left un-mapped?