Pattern recognition. v- samp - a computer program for estimating surface area from contour maps

Fortran computer program for computing linear approximation of surface area for any given portion of digitized contour ma

Mapping under the Third Reich: Nazi Restrictions on Map Content and Distribution

Based on a presentation at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Philadelphia, March 2004.A 99-page 1947 State Department report discovered in the NOAA Central Library summarized sixty map-related regulations issued by the German government between July 1934 and June 1944. Although the Third Reich pursued cartographic unification and uniformity more vigorously than earlier central governments, regional diversity and the distractions of a multi-front war hindered attempts to standardize map series and develop a national base map at 1:5,000. Pragmatism trumped propaganda when Nazi rule-makers decided to retain Latin lettering for maps, rather than require the more ornate German script used in official government publications and strongly promoted for books and newspapers. Official mapmaking had numerous niches in diverse government departments. In restricting distribution of detailed maps to the public, Nazi cartographic policy recognized the importance of scale by drawing a sharp line at 1:300,000. Covering both large- and small-scale products, a 1937 law gave the Ministry of the Interior authority over private mapmakers, who now had to conform to official policy on geographic names as well as the colors used on political maps

Motives for Patenting a Map Projection: Did Fame Trump Fortune?

John Parr Snyder claimed that patenting a map projection was largely pointless because essentially similar transformations are readily available in the public domain. Map projection patents are rare, many patentees did not attempt to develop their patents, and none who did seems to have made much money. An explanation for their decision to patent lies in recognition that the patent system and peer-reviewed scientific journals are parallel literatures, either of which can satisfy an innovator’s need for attention, as suggested by achievement motivation theory. Moreover, no single factor can account for the invention of a map projection that was patented: not mathematical expertise; not work experience as a draftsman, map publisher, or professional geographer; and not prior experience with the patents system. But for all but one of the seventeen inventors for whom microdata research tools yielded basic details about their lives, at least one of these factors was present

Statistical Physics in Meteorology

Various aspects of modern statistical physics and meteorology can be tied together. The historical importance of the University of Wroclaw in the field of meteorology is first pointed out. Next, some basic difference about time and space scales between meteorology and climatology is outlined. The nature and role of clouds both from a geometric and thermal point of view are recalled. Recent studies of scaling laws for atmospheric variables are mentioned, like studies on cirrus ice content, brightness temperature, liquid water path fluctuations, cloud base height fluctuations, .... Technical time series analysis approaches based on modern statistical physics considerations are outlined.Comment: Short version of an invited paper at the XXIth Max Born symposium,Ladek Zdroj, Poland; Sept. 200

Developing a Graphical Route Information Panel (GRIP) for use on the UK motorway network. The first steps

This paper describes the initial stages of research to develop design guidelines and draft designs for Graphical Route Information Panels to be used on the UK motorway network to display traffic congestion information. The studies utilised a funnelling approach to initially capture the broad design principles involving all stakeholders and then narrow down the design options using a range of validation and evaluation activities to achieve the desired design guidelines. Guidance for graphical road based display design is presented along with a methodological approach for the implementation of new designs

A Directory of Cartographic Inventors: Clever People who were Awarded a US Patent for a Map-related Device or Method

As its title and subtitle imply, this book is a collection of short biographies of people awarded United States patents for inventions intended to improve map use or map making. We say “intended” because, as with most patented innovations, their clever ideas seldom made it to store shelves, magazine ads, or mail order catalogs—a fate shared with most improvements proposed in cartography’s scientific-technical journals. This collection is a spinoff of a project focused on inventions rather than inventors. The project’s principal product was Monmonier\u27s book Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History, published in 2017 by Palgrave Macmillan. As its chapter titles confirm, the emphasis was on genres of innovation like route-following devices and map folding, rather than on their inventors, whose diverse life stories could too readily distract from a narrative focused on technological trends, clever ideas, and wider impacts

Divide and Conquer: The impact of “Political” maps on international relations

For researchers and students of International Relations (IR), one date looms larger than all others: 1648. The end of the Thirty Years War, formalized by the signing of the Treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, led to a period known as the “Peace of Westphalia.” Westphalia represented a fundamental change in the power balance of European politics: instead of the Holy Roman Empire holding supreme authority, power would now rest with states themselves, manifested in terms of sovereignty, territory and equality. One of the chief ways in which these “Westphalian” states would cement this authority was through the use of maps. Before 1648, there was little on a European map to indicate where one country ended and another one began. But after 1648, this all changes: these new Westphalian states are represented with bright colors and clearly marked boundaries, defining borders and becoming an important part in creating the state and justifying its sovereignty. The role which maps have played in the spread of the Westphalian state is only just beginning to be researched. Yet the limited efforts to date have all focussed on Europe. This is unfortunate, as today, while Europe has, according to some observers, moved into a stage in which Westphalia is no longer a useful model with which to understand the state and the ways in which it relates to sovereignty, government, power and the individual, the old Westphalian model of the state has more recently been exported all around the world. This paper presents the first part of a project which aims to look at this expansion. The European angle will be presented in this paper; future research will be carried out in China, Japan and Taiwan