Eurovision 2018 - Jury - Public Vote Difference

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Overcoming geography While dust settles in Lisbon, after another crazy night of Eurovision revelry, we can now take time to analyse the patterns of this most geographical of contests. Netta Barzilai won the contest with the song “Toy” for Israel, overcoming it’s isolated geography and lack of neighbours, to win the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Maybe the best song really does triumph over geography and ‘political voting’. This is a topic I have covered in the past, and while it would be naive to think this is a solely music contest – one only had to hear the audible boos when the televoting came fromRead More →

Global Chocolate Consumption per Capita (2018)

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I Should Cocoa… Ugh. I’ve had too much chocolate. I’m writing this on Easter Sunday, surrounded by temptation in the form of several variations and combinations of chocolate, as is customary in the Western world at this time of year. It turns out you can have too much of a good thing – real ‘first world problems’. Talking of #firstworldproblems, chocolate addiction really is an issue for the developed world, where chocolate consumption is at its highest in this part of world – maps bear this out. So given this time of  year, I thought it would be fitting to look into the geographical patternsRead More →

USA and Gun Ownership

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Right to keep and bear arms? The topic of firearms control and gun violence is one to approach with caution, given one, the fatalities involved, and two, that in the USA particularly, it can often stir strong debate and emotion on either side. However, following (another) mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and the perhaps unprecedented public demonstrations following this in USA, and around the world, as part of ‘March For Our Lives’ – it is a topic which is hard to ignore. With the aim promoting tougher gun control legislation and raising awareness of gun violence, it has brought the debateRead More →

GlobalFishingWatch_map

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Gone fishing Quick question – what do Leonardo Di Caprio, a New Zealand data visualisation agency and David Attenborough have in common? They have all used highly effective visual tools to highlight threats to marine life*. Allow me to explain. I recently stumbled upon a striking and important interactive map from an organisation called ‘Global Fishing Watch’ (GFW), an organisation which is supported by the Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation. In the words of the Oscar winning actor himself,  “with the data Global Fishing Watch provides, governments, fishery management organizations, researchers and the fishing industry can work together to rebuild fisheries and protect critical marine habitats.”Read More →

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The double act of Music and Geography Firstly, a very belated happy new year, as well as celebrating the first year anniversary of The Map Den! I’ve really enjoyed getting further involved in the geospatial community through this website, sharing interesting developments and content in social media, and hopefully contributing in my own tiny way on here. Geography, the study and the communication of this through maps, GIS and other geospatial forms is a great passion of mine and I believe is inherently relevant to the world around us – perhaps more than ever. Everything happens somewhere. Another strong interest of mine is music, aRead More →

Santa Claus Story Web Map

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Santa Claus coming to town…via maps With Christmas coming soon and Santa preparing for his annual global delivery service of presents, I thought it would be an opportune time to investigate the origin of Santa Claus, using a story map created in Mapbox. To get the fullscreen version of the embedded map below click here, and hope you enjoy!   Finally and most importantly, Happy Christmas and have a Happy (mappy) New Year! Happy Mapping, DavidRead More →

Screenshot from Disaster Watch displaying Forest Burn in California

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Earth Observation for Everyone As 2017 starts to draw to a close, we return to one of our earlier (and all too neglected) features, Map of the Day. However, our latest entry isn’t just a map for one day, but one where you can observe changes over time, using satellite imagery and earth observation data at Canadian start up – Remote Pixel. We are in a fortunate position currently where satellite data from such sources as LANDSAT is much more readily available for public consumption. Remote Pixel is one of many to take advantage of this new environment, using the flexibility of Mapbox and LeafletRead More →

Map of knowledge of Celtic language

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Croeso! Fáilte! Degemer mat! Failt ort! Dynnargh dhis! If you managed to work out the languages in the above greetings without Google, congratulations! For those who needed to Google (including myself), will know for the record that the above all means ‘Welcome’ in Welsh, Irish Gaelic/Scots Gaelic, Breton, Manx and Cornish respectively. However, despite being ‘native’ languages to their respective regions of the British Isles and Northern France with long histories, they are minority languages compared to English and French respectively, with differing fortunes and histories. In a previous article exploring the geography of Wales, we have seen how the Welsh language is a historical link to pre Angl0-SaxonRead More →

Distance to UK Train Stations

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Set for departure… *DING DONG* “The train now arriving at platform 2 is the (delayed) 1743 service to London Paddington calling at…” I’ve been spending a lot more time at train stations recently – starting a new job in a different city with a new commute, as well as travelling to see friends etc. Sometimes it can be frustrating waiting in the cold through delays for the next train, or weaving through commuters in the hope of getting a seat. However, being from a railway-boom town like Swindon, I do feel a certain affinity for the railway. But the geographer in me has often wonderedRead More →

UK_ESC_Overall_Post2000_Points Comparison

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Trying to understand and explain the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) isn’t the easy. Tune in on the evening of 13th May 2017 and in between overly-scripted hosts, thumping Eurodance and ballards, you’ll treated performances like Azerbaijan’s which includes a man wearing a horse’s head. Meanwhile Italy is one of the favourites, despite having a man dancing in a gorilla suit- and this is par for the course each year in the ESC. For those unfamiliar with ESC,  on the face of it, this is an annual song contest where each competing European country writes and performs a song, which is then scored by a panel of judges andRead More →