Lab 1 - Super Tuesday

Here is my map of the Super Tuesday primaries. I picked the democratic party because it is most similar with my political views. I stuck with the "normal" deomocratic party colors of blue because my style is to go with what works with just a few changes. I stumbled across the background shading in flash and thought that was a unique touch. I also wanted to make a point to display which states had been won by who, shading Clinton and Obama differently. I highlighted which states held primaries without the delagates counting towards the total needed to win the canidancy. So by glancing at this map you know that Clinton has won 4 states with only 2 for Obama, but you also know that 2 of Clinton's states don't really count.

Setting up my first blog

I just logged in and I am blogging for the first time. Lets see how all this works.

The class blog: GEOG 590 Advanced Map Design

The GMU Dept. of Geography Home Page

The ESRI Mapping Center is a great site to get all kinds of information about maps. There are 6 different sections, including "Ask a Cartographer" where you can submit your own map for critiquing. There is also a blog section which goes over questions that are the most commonly asked.

If you are working on a project in Virginia and need background information, you could use the Virginia Gazetteer found through the UVA website. This site has Land Cover, Aerial Photos, Terrain Models, Topographic Maps, and Sattelite Imagery for every Virginia USGS Quadrangle.

Locally, Fairfax County has a website with PDF maps you can download for an individual county tile. There's a link to the Grid Map on this page if you don't know the tile you need. Once you know the tile number you can download a contour map, zoning map, property map, and even a Chesapeake Bay map. If you're more interested in an interactive map of Fairfax, use the Address Locator site to look up property owners, sales, and values.

The Political Map I chose displays each state of the USA as they relate to the Gross Domestic Product of the country named on the map. In other words, Canada has a similar GDP to Texas. I stumbled across this and thought it was worth adding.