Game of Thrones Map Puzzle: Set Down Our Deeds

Replicate the opening credits of HBO’s Game of Thrones with this multilayered puzzle map of Westeros. Aside from the flat map of the war-torn continent, the kit also includes tiny replicas of cities and castles, plus a few other figurines. Make sure to hum the opening theme while you’re putting it together.

game of thrones 4d puzzle map by 4d cityscapemagnify

The map was made by 4D Cityscape, a company known for two things: building puzzle maps of cities and misunderstanding the concept of the 4th dimension. This definitively 3-dimensional continent puzzle is made of 1,200 pieces. Then there’s a smaller 200-piece puzzle that sits on top of the continent puzzle that outlines the “current landscape” of Westeros. I assume that refers to the layout of the land based on the TV series so far. The final layer consists of the aforementioned figurines of cities and castles. There are also “over 45 flags to mark famous landmarks, 10 sigils to mark the Houses, and 5 battle markers to learn the locations of five major battles.”

You can pre-order the puzzle map from ThinkGeek for $60 (USD), and you’ll have it in plenty of time as a gift for that Game of Thrones fan on your holiday shopping list.

[via This is Why I’m Broke]

The Altered States of America: A Map of American Sci-Fi History

American history is among the richest in the world. I’m not just talking about what went down in the real world, but also everything that transpired in the realm of science fiction, horror, and fantasy.

In an attempt to map the most notable of these fictional events, Chop Shop has launched a Kickstarter project called the “Altered States of America.”

SciFi Map

It’s essentially a print project, where backers can make pledges to receive buttons and posters featuring the parts of the map or the completed map itself.

Putting the map together will require a lot of work. In fact, the Chop Shop team is already on it, but they’re inviting anyone who wants to contribute to send in their suggestions of which events to include on various parts of the map – especially those states with a shortage of otherworldly occurrences.

A minimum pledge of $5(USD) will get you two one-inch buttons featuring the state (and its corresponding artwork) of your choice.  Contributions between $30 to $40 will score you an individual state print, while $70 will get you the full 36″ x 24″ silkscreened print.

The project wraps funding on September 23, so you’ll want to head over to Kickstarter now if you want to get in on the action.

[via io9]

‘Here to There’ is a Map of Manhattan – As Described by Strangers

Most people mean well when they give you directions. However, they often give pretty confusing directions that might get you lost when you try to follow them.

Turning these hand-scrawled directions into an art project, though, is New York conceptual artist Nobutaka Aozaki.

Handwritten Map

His piece is called Here to There and his goal is to make a map of Manhattan using handwritten directions and maps that he asked for from strangers.

here to there 2

Aozaki walks around the streets dressed in a souvenir baseball cap while toting a Century 21 shopping bag around, posing as a tourist. He then approaches random people to ask about directions on the part of the map he’s working on.

Handwritten Map2

Aozaki’s goal isn’t to create an accurate map (those already exist and his method doesn’t really lead to this end), but rather, he wants to keep track of his daily routine and create a mapped diary of sorts for that.

So if you happen to live around that area, take a closer look at the people around you. Who knows? You might actually run into Aozaki himself.

[via Spoon & Tamago via Colossal]

Journey Through Time and Space with This Doctor Who Interactive Subway Map

This subway map was created by Crispian Jago and it will take you on a journey through time and space as if you were traveling with the Doctor yourself. It’s all kinds of awesome with bits of amazing and fantastic thrown in too.

doctor who map 1The colored transit lines each represent a different Doctor. All 11 of ‘em. Those stops along the way are the characters and aliens that that Doctor has met. Obviously, the Daleks show up quite a bit. This map is interactive so you can hover over the Doctors and learn about their specific timelines. You can also click on any of the species they’ve encountered in their travels to learn more about them. I have spent far too much time playing with this map today and it is super fun – even though it only takes us through the 2011 series.

doctor who map 2

Check out the full interactive map here. Set some time aside, it’s too much fun to walk away from.

[via io9 via Geek Art Gallery]

The Entire Distribution of Ethnicity in the US, Person-By-Person

The Entire Distribution of Ethnicity in the US, Person-By-Person

This map is covered in dots. In fact, there are 308,745,538 of the little things—each one representing a single individual living in the US, and its color indicating ethnicity.

Read more…


    

Where Hipsters Eat, Visualized

Where Hipsters Eat, Visualized

You probably turn to Yelp to look for single, stand-out restaurants and businesses. But there’s a lot of data inside all those reviews, which can make for fascinating analysis—letting you spot trends across geographic locations.

Read more…

    

A Map of the World As Plotted By Airports

A Map of the World As Plotted By Airports

Instead of using your typical cartography methods of mapping the world, James Davenport created a world map using just airports, runways and helicopter pads. That way you can see which countries are dotted and outlined with airports (hint: it’s the rich ones) and which countries just disappear into the vapor (hint: it’s the poor ones).

Read more…

    

UK Town Turned into a Level from Zelda

The UK town of Ipswich has an odd name, but that’s not what concerns us here. The town hosts an annual music and arts festival known as Switch Fringe, and this year there is a special addition to the program book. An 8-bit map of the town – from Zelda!

switch fringe zelda 1

Sound crazy? It is. The Decibel Kid designed it. He turned the entire town of Ipswich into a Zelda level. Pretty novel idea for this years event. But there is more than just this image. If you want, you can view a digital version of the map and zoom around to see all the fun details. If you look closely, you’ll even find Link wandering around the festival.

switch fringe map 1

Too bad the level isn’t playable.

switch fringe zoomed

Cities are awesome when they look like games. Ipswich is my new favorite UK town.

[via Slashdot via Kotaku via Nerd Approved]

YouTube Trends Map Displays Most Popular Videos Based On Region, Gender, Age

YouTube Trends Map Displays Most Popular Videos Based On Region, Gender, Age

If you’re a regular YouTube viewer, you’ll know how difficult it is to stumble onto the next big viral video as there are just way too many videos to comb through on a regular basis. That’s why YouTube is taking the initiative to help make it easier for its users to know what is currently trending in their neck of the woods through its new Trends Map.

YouTube’s Trends Map uses regional metrics in order to populate the map of the U.S., which is the first map the service will roll out for now. The Trends Map can be tweaked in order to view what specific genders and age groups are enjoying these days on YouTube, although as of now, it looks like the trailer for the sixth season of HBO’s True Blood is dominating the charts in terms of of the most shares, while the most views is currently going to a video of a water polo player who ends up being a sore loser. The new Trends Map is certainly a fun little tool that we could see using on a regular basis to see what has been deemed to be a viral hit in the U.S.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Watch What Happens During A DDoS Attack, Netflix Ditching Microsoft Sliverlight For HTML5,

    

The World According to Tetris

Some of us are such video game addicts that we sometimes imagine the world as a sort of video game, IRL. That’s exactly what it looks like the artist behind this poster was thinking when he created this Tetris world map.

tetris world map

In this world map by artist Stephen Gowland of KIACO, continents and islands have been replaced with precisely interlocked Tetris bricks. What I love about this design is that they really are the proper shapes and colors from an actual game of Tetris.

tetris world map 2

I wonder how much work it took to figure out exactly which shapes to use for each part of the geography. I can’t imagine it was an easy task.

tetris map 3

The A3-size (~16″ x 12″) print of the Tetris world map sells for £10 (~$15 USD), while the A2-size (~23″ x 16″) version sells for £14 (~$22 USD). The artist says he can also print it in A1-size (~33″ x 24″), but you’ll want to check with him for pricing.

Only one problem I can see with this design… Shouldn’t the countries start vanishing as complete lines of bricks are stacked up to form them?