Mapping Hacks

97

Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

Mapping Your World

Hack 22–34

A map of the world that does not include

Utopia is not worth even glancing at,

for it leaves out the one country at which

Humanity is always landing.

—Oscar Wilde

Maps help us to find ourselves in the world. Ever wonder where you’d be if

you dug a hole through the center of Earth? Aside from the practical prob-

lems of having your component atoms rendered into mush by the heat and

pressure, you’d probably end up somewhere unexpected! Once you’ve dug

yourself out of that mess, take a look at what happens when you couple an

obsession for maps with a vision and a bit of cash

[Hack #23]. If you haven’t yet

tired of the world of maps, then check out NASA’s free World Wind soft-

ware

[Hack #24] to view the planet from top to bottom.

If you want to move further into the world of maps, you can learn what dif-

ferent cartographic projections

[Hack #28] do for your view of the world and

then use Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion projection

[Hack #31] to explore a

radical alternative to the “North is Up” school of cartography. There are

more hacks to show you how to calculate distances, convert coordinates

from one form to another, and even show you how to take a random tourist

map and use it as a base map to tell your own stories.

And finally, if Earth isn’t what comes to mind when you read “Mapping

Your World,” or if one world is not enough, you can revel in “Map ...