Platial News and Neogeography

Release of 911 Tapes + Where you were on 9/11 Map

As you might have heard, the city of New York was "Forced to Release 911 tapes from September 11th" today.

Here is an excerpt from the WNYC article:

NEW YORK, NY March 31, 2006 —Some of the family members have heard them. The September 11th commission has heard them. Today, the public will get its first chance to hear tapes from the 911 emergency dispatch center on the day of the World Trade Center Attacks. WNYC's Fred Mogul has more.

The City has fought the release of the recordings, but several families, together with the New York Times, have won the legal battle to make them public. Earlier this week, several family members received the tapes. Some have said they do no want to listen to them.

Tangentially, Platial member edshepp just posted his "where I was" story yesterday, and created an open map for anyone to add their own story as well. It's called Where I was When 9/11 Happened. This same kind of map could be created for so many things, as the big catastrophic events tend to seer a Place memory into our hearts.

Transverse Direction Crossings within Paiges Grey Matter

Abe Lincoln+Black Sharpies+Abandoned Buildings
These are a few of my favorite things!

Astroblems   
Zine Scene Pdx
Out of Context Art Object Map
Exploring Abandoned Places
Pentacular Matrix of Power
Hopeless Little Romances   
Memories of Sylvia and Lanny

Urbanist's Atlas

Understanding, admiring, memorializing, and generally taking note of the architecture of the world has been one of the many interesting mapping trends on Platial.

Ten Platial members so far have collaborated by adding their favorites to this map of Great Buildings.

Tinzeroes is in the process of memorializing Portland, Oregon's lost structures on his map, Demolished Buildings of PDX.

Four different people so far have contributed to San Francisco Stairways. I love this map and I can't wait to see some pictures showing the views from these Places. If I lived in San Francisco I'd spend half my life gazing off into the distance!

Panairjdde joined Platial to make a map of all of the Churches of Rome. Click on satellite view to get a better look at Rome when you check this map out.

Here are some more very interesting architecture and urbanism maps:
Lost Winnepeg
RM Schindler Buildings
Fab Modernism
Unique Homes
Green Buildings
PDX's Historic Trolley Lines
Exploring Abandoned Places
Big Box reuse
The Londonist's Stalking series:
Stalking Colonel Richard Seifert
Stalking Erno Goldfinger
Stalking Enzo Plazzotta
Stalking Jacob Epstein
Stalking Eduardo Paolozzi

White Noise

This is a map for which I developed an immediate and lasting fondness. I was talking about it today at the office,
wondering why it doesn't get added to more often.

Jason pointed out that it is a difficult map to add to because white noise by nature is something that you don't
quite notice, and it's complicated to map things unnoticed.

That observation made me love the map all the more.

Crafter's Atlas

Here are our most admired Crafters on Platial. Just click on the links below to view each map:

Crafty Vixens Thrift Stores
Crafty Vixens Members
CRaFty+PdX
Knitta Bombs!
Knitting Madness Portland
PADA
Pins & Needles Around Boston 
Cincinnati Yarn
(Knit Bomb)

Eater's Atlas

Here are a few of the restaurants, food and food memories found on Platial.

Competitive Eating!  
Chefs and Farms
Public Fruit Trees LA
Breakfast in Sacramento
Ethiopian Restaurants
Food Memories
Late Night Eats
Liverpool Veggie Restaurants
Minneapolis Gourmet Food Sources
My Cooking Trail
Natural Food Stores Toronto
New Jersey Hot Dog Stands
NY Street Food
NY Hot Chocolate
Oakland Taco Truck Crawl
Restaurant Tip Sheet (Portland)
Portland Food Directory
Restaurants According to Jax2006
Restaurants in Paris Recommended by Mindshare2000
San Diego Burrito Places
So Cal Farmers
St. Louis Eats
Taco Joints in Atlanta
Taxi Food
Tout de Sweet
Vegan Eats in Portland
SF Vegan & Veggie
Where To Buy Food in Atlanta
Kosher NYC (New map)

The Activist Atlas

Now Updated!  The compilation of maps found on Platial related to Environmental issues, Sustainability, Fair trade, Protests, Activism, and Action. Most if not all of these maps are "Open" maps that everyone can contribute Places, stories, images and comments too, some are brand spanking new, and all of them need your contributions!

Activist Atlas Map List: Updated as of 5/01/06

Bio-Diesel/ Alternative Fuels:

Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Stations

Public Biodiesel Stations

Hydrogen Fuel

Ethanol Fueling Stations

Liquid Natural Gas Fueling Stations

Liquid Propane Gas Refueling Stations

Health Care/ Community Development and Low Income Services:

Area Health Care Providers

Adult literacy & GED in Chicago

Adult ESL & GED in Philadelphia

Adult ESL & GED in Pennsylvania

DHS Homeless Outreach Team

CHANGE Community Development Plan

CHANGE Member Institutions

DPW's Career Bridges

Community Gardens:

Dallas Community Gardens

New York City Community Gardens

Portland Community Gardens

Boston Area Community Gardens

Building Re-use and Re-development:

Big Box Reuse

Green Buildings

Demolished Buildings of PDX

Sustainable Business, Slow Food, Cruelty Free, and Farmers Markets:

Local Food

Monterey Bay Farmers Markets

Northern Nevada Farmers Markets

So Cal Farmers Markets

Vancouver,BC Farmers' Markets

Atlantic Canadian Organic

Fair Trade Nationwide

Vegan Eats in Portland

Worker_Cooperatives

Veggie and Vegan Liverpool England

Federation of Co-op Businesses

Micro loans/ Neighborhood/ Community Development

Veggie Boston

Toronto Bike share Hubs

Slow Food Conviviums Around the World

Environmental/ Action Related:

Death Penalty Art Show Entries

Ottawa Top Polluters

Permaculture Possibilities

SLO EnvironmentalTour

EPA Superfund Sites

City Repair Project

Important Protests

Community Gardens NYC

Durango Colorado Free Fruit Map

Kindness Project

Privacy of Personal Information

Michigan Energy Fair

Neighborhood Concerns

Political Cartoon Controversy

Rescue Alaska

Free Wifi and Power:

Free Wifi in Madison Wisconsin

Internet Hotspots Santa Rosa California

CleveWiki WiFi (Cleveland WiFi)

PDX Free WiFi

Wifi Playgrounds (Boston)

DIY TV (Public Access Television)

Power Piracy Free Outlets

Now Updated!  The compilation of maps found on Platial related to Environmental issues, Sustainability, Fair trade, Protests, Activism, and Action. Most if not all of these maps are "Open" maps that everyone can contribute Places, stories, images and comments too, some are brand spanking new, and all of them need your contributions!

Activist Atlas Map List: Updated as of 5/01/06

Bio-Diesel/ Alternative Fuels:

Compressed Natural Gas Fueling Stations

Public Biodiesel Stations

Hydrogen Fuel

Ethanol Fueling Stations

Liquid Natural Gas Fueling Stations

Liquid Propane Gas Refueling Stations

Health Care/ Community Development and Low Income Services:

Area Health Care Providers

Adult literacy & GED in Chicago

Adult ESL & GED in Philadelphia

Adult ESL & GED in Pennsylvania

DHS Homeless Outreach Team

CHANGE Community Development Plan

CHANGE Member Institutions

DPW's Career Bridges

Community Gardens:

Dallas Community Gardens

New York City Community Gardens

Portland Community Gardens

Boston Area Community Gardens

Building Re-use and Re-development:

Big Box Reuse

Green Buildings

Demolished Buildings of PDX

Sustainable Business, Slow Food, Cruelty Free, and Farmers Markets:

Local Food

Monterey Bay Farmers Markets

Northern Nevada Farmers Markets

So Cal Farmers Markets

Vancouver,BC Farmers' Markets

Atlantic Canadian Organic

Fair Trade Nationwide

Vegan Eats in Portland

Worker_Cooperatives

Veggie and Vegan Liverpool England

Federation of Co-op Businesses

Micro loans/ Neighborhood/ Community Development

Veggie Boston

Toronto Bike share Hubs

Slow Food Conviviums Around the World

Environmental/ Action Related:

Death Penalty Art Show Entries

Ottawa Top Polluters

Permaculture Possibilities

SLO EnvironmentalTour

EPA Superfund Sites

City Repair Project

Important Protests

Community Gardens NYC

Durango Colorado Free Fruit Map

Kindness Project

Privacy of Personal Information

Michigan Energy Fair

Neighborhood Concerns

Political Cartoon Controversy

Rescue Alaska

Free Wifi and Power:

Free Wifi in Madison Wisconsin

Internet Hotspots Santa Rosa California

CleveWiki WiFi (Cleveland WiFi)

PDX Free WiFi

Wifi Playgrounds (Boston)

DIY TV (Public Access Television)

Power Piracy Free Outlets

Abandoned Haunted Map

Pretend curses are funny, especially when they become real curses from the energy put into them by the 'victims'. Once I gave a friend a totally blank, brand new VHS tape with a label that said, "Cursed Video, Do Not Watch!" (she was doing some video work with metaphysics at the time). She shelved it. After about a year, she said the curiosity got to her, she popped it in, and it killed her VCR dead.

I Dare you to add Places to this empty, haunted map of haunted Places.

There is no such thing as a mashup

DJ P said “there is no such thing as a mashup” first about DJ’ng, and with the ever-so-popular Grey Album by Dangermouse, the word was tagged, and started being used in the technology realm.

DJ’s first called the blending of two songs ‘mixes’, or ‘a mix.’ It’s a very basic part of DJ’ing that, to some, was not deserving of a new title to make it more than it was.

Is walking a ‘mashup’ of legs and concrete? Do we call a computer a ‘mashup’ of a processor, memory, and a hard drive?

These are simply tools. These tools can be used to create new systems and products we’re still dreaming of.

Specifically, Google Maps is a tool to display geographic information on a map. It’s a nice service which also allows us to navigate that map. We are appreciative of Google for providing a nice API. Other APIs allow us to extract and interact with data (Flickr, Yahoo everything, EVDB, Amazon, ESRI, etc), allowing for a deeper interaction with humanity.

We are people using tools to help us interact with and shape our world. To call it a mashup makes it a passing fad.

–jake

Birding

I'm not personally a bird watcher, but when I first began to think about which groups of people would have a natural use for Platial, birders was one of the first which came to mind.

Over the past couple weeks a new user Kclama has been building five very impressive maps. What beautiful photographs. Have a look and enjoy some vicarious bird watching.