Global Ski Slope Orientations / / No Comments OpenSkiStats has analyzed ski trail maps to determine the direction of travel for ski trails worldwide. In Which Way do You Ski OpenSkiStats has used ski trail maps to determine the direction of travel of all ski trails in ski resorts around the globe. By gathering the coordinates of all trail segments, connecting these points, and treating each segment as a vector scaled by its Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: global, Orientations, Slope
Next CodeBreak – Let’s AI! / / No Comments Hey folks! One of the things I promised to do better with the Code Break show was scheduling. With that being said, I’m here to announce the next event and I’ve got about 4 already on the calendar after that. Hopefully this year I can get a bit more consistent with schedule. That being said, we’ll see. Life is crazy at times. 😉 Ok, with that out of the way, my next session is Tuesday, January 21, at 12PM CST. I’ll be talking about AI, specifically Generative AI, with a focus on Google Gemini, but also client-side stuff as well (with Chrome’s built-in support and Transformers.js). I imagine this topic will cover two or more sessions. We’ll see how much I... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: CodeBreak, Lets, Next
Simple Blog Example in Flask / / No Comments As part of my efforts to improve my Python knowledge, I’ve been looking at the Flask framework for a way to build Python-backed web apps. I’ve only been looking at it for a short time, but I’m really impressed with how simple it is. In some ways, it reminds me a lot of when I first saw Express. Before that, I wasn’t sure I was going to like Node.js as it felt like a lot of work to build a simple app, but Express handled a lot of the boring parts. The same applies to Flask. To get an idea of how easy it is, here’s the basic "hello world" from the quickstart: from flask import Flaskapp = Flask(__name__)@app.route("/")def hello_world(): return... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: blog, example, Flask, simple
The Big Foot Sightings Map / / No Comments In October 2004, Rodney Frank Williams’s daughters reported hearing what they described as “a combination of a whale and a dinosaur” coming from the state forestland near their home in Joyce, Washington. Upon further investigation, Williams discovered a footprint “much like a large wide human print dressed in a moccasin.” Additional incidents, including a mysteriously moved pumpkin, led Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: foot, Sightings
Links For You (1/11/25) / / No Comments Welcome to the first Links For You of 2025. I’m currently writing this from, I kid you not, the Danube in Austria. My wife and I are a bit over halfway through a European vacation (one we planned before Adobe decided to give me an early Christmas gift of a layoff). So far, it’s been absolutely glorious, and I plan on writing about the experience later this month. On with the links! CSS Light and Dark Themes Made Easy First up is the wonderfully named, "Come to the light-dark() Side", by Sara Joy. This looks at how native CSS can make light and dark themes incredibly easy to implement. I had no clue it was so easy to implement in CSS, but as I’ve said before, CSS has... more → Posted in: JavaScript Tagged with: 1/11/25, links
Los Angeles Wildfire Maps / / No Comments Five wildfires are currently burning in Los Angeles. At the time of writing, three of the fires remain uncontained. So far, the fires have claimed at least five lives, and 137,000 people have been evacuated. Over 1,000 structures, including many homes, have also been lost. The Los Angeles Time’s California Widlfires Map uses data from CalFire, the National Interagency Fire Center, and the Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Angeles, maps, wildfire
SPOT: the Natural Language Geolocation Map / / No Comments SPOT, is an AI-powered tool designed to simplify and enhance the geolocation process for journalists and the OSINT community. Searching for the locations in media content can be challenging, especially for those unfamiliar with OSINT tools for identifying locations which are unknown. SPOT is designed to bridge this gap by providing a user-friendly way to locate places in images and videos using Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: Geolocation, Language, Natural, SPOT
More 2024 Maps of the Year / / No Comments On New Year’s Day, I posted the Maps Mania round-up of the 2024 Year in Maps. I am not the only one who has spent time exploring the best maps of 2024. The Global Investigative Journalism Network’s Top 10 Data Journalism Projects of 2024 included maps from Hungary’s Atlo, Japan’s Nikkei, and Germany’s netzpolitik. Danube Warming Up Atló’s Danube Warming Up uses a Mapbox story-map Maps Mania… more → Posted in: Interactive Maps Tagged with: 2024, maps, More, year