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United States
Travel Ban Upheld
The Supreme Court upheld President Trump’s travel ban on select countries in the Middle East, Venezuela, and North Korea. The justices voted 5-4 in favor of the ban. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that the ban “is squarely within the scope of Presidential authority” because the Immigration and Nationality Act “exudes deference to the president in every clause.” Conversely, Justice Sonia Sotomayor delivered her dissent and compared the Court ruling to the Korematsu case of 1944, which upheld the constitutionality of Japanese internment camps in World War II. This map depicts the countries listed on President Trump’s current travel ban. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: Politico
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North Korea
Nuclear Upgrades Continue
Despite committing to “complete denuclearisation,” recent satellite imagery shows that North Korea is continuing “rapid” upgrades to its nuclear reactor used to fuel its weapons program. At Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center, the cooling system for plutonium reactors has been modified and two new non-infrastructure buildings have been built. Construction has continued on nuclear infrastructure around the facility. Many are skeptical that Kim Jong-un will give up his nuclear arsenal. Analysts caution against viewing these improvements as a way by North Korea to undermine it’s ongoing negotiations with the U.S.. This map depicts upgrades at the Yongbyon reactor site. Click on the map to learn more.
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Graphic Source: 38 North
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United States
Primary Election
On Tuesday, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ousted 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th congressional district. This was the first time in 14 years that Crowley, who chairs the Queens County Democrats, had faced a primary challenger. Ocasio-Cortez won over 58% of voters in the minority-majority districts of Queens and the Bronx. Should Ocasio-Cortez win the congressional race against Republican Anthony Pappas in November, she may be the youngest member ever elected to Congress. This map depicts the geographic extent of New York’s 14th congressional district. Click on the map to learn more.
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Further Reading: Times, New York Post, MSNBC, Politico, BBC, CBS, NPR, The Independent, The Guardian, CNN, Fox News
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| This map, created by Penn State students to be the perfect bad example, shows us exactly what not to do when it comes to cartography. When creating a map, the most important things to consider are clarity and communication; this map fails in almost all aspects, making it a great learning tool for new cartographers.
For one, the title is written in two fonts; “Population Trend” is in a font that is difficult to read and “Bad Harmony Map” is written in yellow- neither of which is conducive to communication. Overly decorative fonts make your map look sloppy and unprofessional. Additionally, the title does not describe what the map data represents- is it about population change over a period of time per capita? Who can know! More so, the legend labels are rather unsightly. The cartographer did not change the field name “POP1999” to a title that would better communicate the data shown, such as “Population Change by State in 1999.” Before publishing a map, the legend should be clearly labeled, with appropriate value breaks at rounded numbers that are easier for the viewer to process, such as 100,000 – 200,000, rather than 112,341 – 221,350. The scale bar should also never be arbitrary as this one is, and the pink north arrow is distracting.
As far as data representation goes, this map struggles. When showing a range of data rather than specific categories, it’s easiest to understand the data with an appropriate color scheme or gradient representing size, amount or intensity. The projection for this map was also a bad decision. Notice how the United States looks flat and stretched out. This is because the cartographer is using a projection that best visualizes the entire world, rather than just the continental United States. One could spend all day finding problems with this map, but it is safe to say that this map does a great job of showing viewers how not to map. |
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Q: What pair of islands is governed by two different countries and have a time difference of 23 hours?
A: Diomede Islands
The island is located in the middle of the Bering Strait, between Alaska and Siberia. Big Diomede is owned by Russia and Little Diomede is owned by the United States; the former is 23 hours ahead of the latter.
Source
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Q: Where is the antipode of Mecca, where Muslim people can pray in any direction?
Stay tuned for the answer to today’s question in tomorrow’s DailyGeo.
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Write to ags@americangeo.org with any ideas!
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