Dr. Strange Maps

Maps, Fact or Fiction: For this blog, I chose to use some of the maps found on the Strange Maps website. And out of those maps, this one seemed to be the most compelling to me, because I'm not sure if it is fact or fiction. I mean, it is entirely possible that our current president actually believes and perceives the world this way, according to Dubya.

It is tough now days to accept what is fact and what is fiction. With the Internet allowing almost anyone to post what ever they want, it is hard to decipher truth from reality. It becomes even more difficult when looking at blog entries, because they are specifically someones opinion which doesn't always make them right no matter how convincing they may seem. For example, I found this blog entry on Strange Maps, and to me this seems entirely possible that this was at one time a possibility in the Mormon religion (see map below). The map above is of a proposed State that the Mormons attempted to get from the US government. Supposedly this proposal never reached Statehood because it would have "created a state based on a separate religion, and it was probably too ambitious in its scope" (5th paragraph). It is interesting to note for one, the word "Deseret" is not spelled like the word desert. Apparently the name of the proposed state was based on a Bible passage from the LDS Bible, which means honeybee. It is also interesting to compare this proposed state map with a map of the Great Basin...

I got the map above from Wikipedia. I suppose it is because the Mormon map was based on the mountain ranges that form the Great Basin, but it is interesting to note on the Deseret map that Los Angeles would have been part of the Mormon State. This in its self is quite boggling to the mind...imagine what movies would be like if instead of Hollywood, we had "Mormonwood". I shutter to think.

Good, Bad and Ugly Maps

Maps can be either good, bad and sometimes they can be pretty ugly. The design of a map is crucial to how it is perceived by the viewer. For instance, if a map is not centered correctly or there is too much text, the map can deter the reader from focusing on the key points of the map.

The above map is a good example of what not to do when creating a map. As pretty and colorful as this map is, I can’t for the life of me figure out what information this map is trying to convey. For one, there is no “key” to tell the reader what each color means. And above all, a big “no, no!” goes out to this maps author for stating on the map that it is “highly inaccurate”. This defeats the purpose of the map and makes it pretty much irrelevant.

This map on the other hand, clearly indicates the maps purpose and includes a key to help explain the different data represented. Though the squared numbers are not defined, but one assumes they are the “percent of popular votes”.