North American Environmental Atlas

This is incredibly cool. The Council for Environmental Cooperation
(i.e. the governments of U.S., Canada, and Mexico) have created a free, online atlas of the environment. You can add and subtract layers, remove political boundaries, etc. The pretty banners you see on this page are actually the lines of marine vessel emissions, which is to say pollution from ships.

Atlas of True Names

Okay, this is brilliant and I need one immediately. If the names on the map above look a little odd it is because this is from the Atlas of True Names, an etymological guide to place names. For example, the name New York means New Wild Boar Village. As several people have commented, the names in Europe sound remarkably like they come from Middle Earth.

The two Atlases (World and Europe) haven't been published in the U.S. (United States of the Home Ruler) yet. I want 'em.

Thanks to the Map Room for pointing this out and Spiegel for the illustration.

An amazing book, 3

People of "American Ancestry"
Originally uploaded by fifteeniguana

Third and last unofficial screen capture from the magnificent new Census Atlas of the United States. This is my salute to the rugged individualist. The Census form asks people to identify their ancestry and most people meekly admit to being Swedish, or Native-American, or Italian-English-Irish, etc.

But there will always be somebody who sets his/her jaw, folds his/her arms and says "I'm an American!" This table shows the percentage of people in each county who identified their ancestry as "United States, a state name, Southerner, American or Northern American." The darker the color, the higher the percentage. The darkest represents about 7% of the respondents.

An amazing book, 2

California Migration Waves
Originally uploaded by fifteeniguana

Another unofficial screen capture from the Census Atlas of the United States. The red arrow shows migration to California between 1955 and 1960. The blue arrows show the reverse trend between 1995 and 2000.

Everyone who lives in Washington knows that a lot of Calfornians moved up here in the late 1990s (60,000+). But how many know that 40,000 Washingtonians headed to the Golden State in the late fifties? I sure didn't.

An amazing book

Year of Maximum Population
Originally uploaded by fifteeniguana

Our library just received its federal depository copy of the Census Atlas of the United States. It is just a wonderful piece of work. You can see it on the web but I respectfully suggest you find a library that has the hardcover. That way you can stick your nose down into the details.

I'll put up a few unofficlal screen captures for your enlightenment. See this one? It shows the (census) year of maximum population for each county in the United States. The brightest yellow means the highest number is 2000 - the county is bigger now than it has ever been. That's true of my home, for example.

But the darkest colors are reserved for counties that reached their pop peak BEFORE 1860. Wow.

Before New York, New York

Manhattan - Mannahatta, Walt Whitman's New York
Originally uploaded by c_riches

Next year marks the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's visit to the island of Mannahatta, now known as Manhattan. Eric Sanderson, a landscape ecologist, has created a map of the island as it would have looked back then. You can read about it and see pictures in the New Yorker
Thanks to My Green Element for pointing it out.