Essential bookmarks
[email protected] 13 - 26 November 2019^17
Old Maps Online
Browsing historical maps is not only educational but illuminating, too, if you have the
time to skip between websites to explore different areas and time periods. Old Maps
Online makes navigating the past much easier by providing a gateway to historical
maps in libraries around the world. These are sourced from external sites such as the
British Library and the David Rumsey Map Collection, and you can either click a map
to browse it full-size or see it as an overlay on the current view. As you explore the
globe, the search results in the sidebar update automatically to show you all available
maps for the highlighted area. You can then click the Timeline button at the top of
the page to filter the data by date range. It’s fascinating stuff.
Mapmerizer
mapmerizer.mikavaa.com“Think of London,” sang Talking Heads in
1979, “a small city”. But is it really smaller
than New York, Bangkok or Rio de
Janeiro? And is Birmingham, Alabama
bigger than Birmingham, West Midlands?
Find out by visiting Mapmerizer, which
lets you compare Google maps of any
two cities, towns or countries in the
world side by side. You can zoom into
and out of both locations simultaneously,
view roads, transport routes and cycling
lanes, and – best of all – switch to
Satellite view to get an accurate picture
of how they look from above. It’s a
brilliant way to discover the differences
and similarities between places situated
many miles apart.MarineTraffic
There are lots of great sites and apps for
tracking planes in real time, of which
FlightRadar24 (www.flightradar24.com)
is undoubtedly the best, but if you want to
know what’s happening at sea, you should
head to MarineTraffic. This site provides a
live map of all the ships, boats and other
vessels currently sailing around the
waterways and seas of the world. The
oceans are a lot busier than you’d imagine
and MarineTraffic helpfully colour-codes
craft by type, so you can identify, for
example, fishing trawlers, cruise ships,
tankers and cargo vessels. You can search
the map data by vessel and port, and apply
filters and layers, though advanced
features require you to pay £11 a month for
a subscription.A People Map of
the UK
bit.ly/people
Launched back in June, this ingenious
map replaces the names of towns and
cities across the UK with the names of
the most famous people who were born
there, lived there or have a strong
connection with the place. Rather than
make arbitrary decisions about notability,
the map is based on the popularity of the
residents’ Wikipedia pages – the more
traffic they receive, the larger their
names appear. Some of the results are
predictable, such as Shakespeare for
Stratford-up-on-Avon and The Beatles
for Liverpool, but there are plenty of
surprises, too (Carol Vorderman for
Bedford). A US version of the map is
available to explore at bit.ly/peopleus488.
ESSENTIAL BOOKMARKS THIS ISSUE: Marvellous mapping sites
Police.uk
http://www.police.ukNot all local crime gets reported in
the press, but it is likely to have been
logged by the police, which makes
Police.uk an invaluable resource for
concerned residents of England,
Wales and Northern Ireland. Click
the Find Your Neighbourhood
button on the homepage, enter your
postcode and click Search to see a
map of recent incidents near your
home. You can filter these by month
and crime type – from anti-social
behaviour and burglary through to
shoplifting and violence; expand the
selected area to a mile radius or
draw it free-hand; and view detailed
statistics about crime levels, case
timelines and outcomes.DON’T
MISS!