september 2001 archives

Friday, September 21, 2001

The Web site "INFOGRAPHICS : Visual insights into the brutal terrorist acts against the United States" gives a lot of links to graphics related to the "Current Situation", not just maps. An interesting resourse. Hopefully I'll be able to access my Web site soon to be able to give some cartographic insight into the Web maps covering the news about the "Current Situation".   permanent link for this entry

Friday, September 14, 2001

Well, still stranded in Mexico City. My flight has been rescheduled for saturday morning via New York (!!!!) so hopefully I'll arrive at London Stansted at 9am on Sunday. Yesterday I spent most of the time finding out if Continental Airlines would offer me a direct flight from Mexico via Cancun to Europe. I know Iberia Airlines uses this route. After all this, I was quite hyped. Really did not feel in the mood for anything so I went outside of the building where Lilia is working. There's a shopping hall closeby so I decided to head there. On entering it suddenly came into my mind! Let's go for a film. First I checked whether the film was dubbed or had subtitles. Fortuantely it was the latter, so I bought a ticket to see "Pecado Original", i.e. "Original Sin", starring Antonio Banderas and... Angelina Jolie. Was a really exciting film. A must see, I would say (or is it the circumstances that made it such an interesting film?). Today I have had a good look on the Web for new maps about the terrorist attacks (no one as claimed respondability yet, so how can we actually tell it is "terrorist" attacks?) in the US. At last I see some interesting maps. The first day it were mostly static maps, but now there are some great animations, e.g. on the Volkskrant Web site. CNN takes it even further and has an interactive, animated map. At the moment I think the NY Times is really leading. Some great maps they do. At the moment I uploaded them to one of the Multimap servers. Could not easily access the server where my Web site is running from. Also here in Lilia's office FTP and TelNet are not supported somehow, so you'll have to wait a bit before you'll be able to access the aforementioned maps.  permanent link for this entry

Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Before heading to Mexico City airport this morning, Lilia and I first drove into the Cadastre Office, where Lilia works. On our way in, the radio blurted something about two planes and New York. Since my Spanish is not quite up to speed and Lilia was paying attention to the heavy traffic (rush hour in Mexico City, imagine!), it was only until Lilia's mum ran us on the mobile, that the news fully struck us. Still we did not quite understand the ful magnitude so we started to pay more attention to the radio broadcast. Only after I logged on to the Web in Lilia's office and read news at the various online newspapers I now start to grasp what is going on exactly. Air traffic to and from the US and the UK is suspended, so my flights today have been cancelled. Been re-scheduled for tomorrow, Deo volente. Been reading various Weblogs and Web sites. It the main news. I started thinking back of my time at Trouw. The rush of news. Let's map the whole thing! Infographics! As this Web site is about maps on the Internet, I'll start compiling some examples of online maps that cover this event. Information content, journalistic credibility and use of Internet characteristics will be the main criteria for my selection as I was taught at Trouw. Here's an interesting map of the World Trade Center in New York from the New York Times. The BBC has come up with a crude map of Washington. That will do for the moment, but I will see if I can get better than that.  permanent link for this entry

Thursday, September 06, 2001

I just arrived in Palenque (it's 9.27 pm here). Left San Cristobal this afternoon. Really did not want to stay there too long. Gee, it's sooo cold up there, even when sharing a room with two Swiss guys. One of them is moving to London in October, so we exchanged e-mail addresses. He's going to work for some Swiss insurance company. Always good to know some people working in the City! Here, it's really humid and hot. It's a jungle climate. The Internet cafe is airconditioned! Also my hotel room has a fan. It's just for one night. I am going to visit the Palenque ruins tomorrow and then I am off to Cordoba. That's going to be a long trip. Not looking forward to it at all. On the bus it suddenly dawned upon me, that at the same time next week I'll be back in my room in Clapham: that's just so surreal! It is a great holiday. A bit too much internet maybe... Lots of travelling to do the coming days. Have arranged to meet with Lilia in Mexico City again over the weekend and that is almost 18 hours travelling away from here. Aaarrgghhh!!!!!!!  permanent link for this entry

Tuesday, September 04, 2001

Haven't been around for a while. I was far away from civilisation. Spent a few very relaxing days is Mazunte. There was just no other thing to do than drink from a coconut while lying in a hammock, bit of swimming and eating mangos! On Monday morning I took the bus to San Cristobal was two Swiss guys, Chris and Pascal. It was a very long, but amazingly spectacular trip: from sea level to 2300 meters. It was very cold last night and this morning here in San Cristobal. Really unbelievable. Great place, though. It has a bit of the same structure as OAxaca, but there is much more colour and it has a more Indian atmosphere. There are a lot of military running around with life rounds in their machine guns. Really scary. Even since Egypt where all police were carrying guns, I am still very afraid of all the military here. Tomorrow afternoon I am leaving for the jungle: Palenque. Some people are taking Lariam pills for malaria! Can't believe it. Just a shame to spoil your holiday for the small likelihood you may get stung by a malaria infected muscito. We'll see when I get back to the UK... Pray for my!  permanent link for this entry