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Hotlinks For 2003 By Date

• Hotlink for 5 to 12 January, 2003
  The Perry-Castaneda Map Collection
  This is the great online map collection; not only can you find regional, country, and city maps easily, but maps are usually available in more than one size so that you can select the best one for your particular connection speed. The top page always begins with "Online Maps of Current Interest" -- recently featuring maps of Afghanistan and Iraq, of Venezuela, and of the Galicia oil spill. If you use maps at all, you need to bookmark this page.
  
• Hotlink for 12 to 19 January, 2003
  Ancient Maps
  Henry Davis Consulting, in California, maintains this fascinating page as a service to the educational and cartographic community; it is a stunning collection of ancient maps, divided into eras: there are 94 maps from pre-400 AD, 195 maps from 400 to 1300, 264 maps from the late Medieval period, and much, much more. A site to explore and dig into and enjoy.
  
• Hotlink for 19 to 26 January, 2003
  Animation Projects
  Ed Stephan, at the University of Washington, does a lot of playing around with WWW possibilities; this is his "animations" page. I suggest you begin with "Formation of the Contiguous United States", which is a breath-taking use of animated maps; another map that shows US development well is "United States Counties". But there's also a lot of just-plain fun here -- playing around with Mona Lisa, with relativity, and with Galileo, among others. There are also links to other animation sites, including the remarkable "How To Tie Knots" page
  
• Hotlink for 26 January to 2 February, 2003
  Color Landform Atlas of the United States
  The Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University maintains this very useful and user-friendly page. For each of the 50 states, and for the US as a whole, there are several maps to choose from: a shaded relief map, a county map, a black and white map, a satellite image, a map from 1895 in a large file (around 2MB), and a state map in PostScript format. Follow The Backlink to the Lab's main page, to see what else they are doing with imagery, tracking, altimetry, and more.
  
• Hotlink for 2 to 9 February, 2003
  The W.H. Pugsley Collection of Early Canadian Maps
  This site, at McGill University, is an archive of 50 maps from the 16th and 17th century, detailing early exploration and settlement, across the Maritimes and Eastern Canada, and most of the known part of Northern North America. A fascinating record.
  
• Hotlink for 9 top 16 February, 2003
  GeoServ -- Geological Survey of Canada Interactive Maps
  Developed by the Terrain Sciences Division of the Geological Survey of Canada, GeoServ provides access to key geoscience data in the form of dynamic maps and associated databases, which can be explored over the Web. (There is a warning that says the site will not work with Netscape, but I found that it does work with Netscape 7.0). Included are a collection of photos, a section of achaeological and paleobiological sites, the National Databases on Permafrost, Sediment Transport, Peatland, and Diatoms, plus Urban Geoology, Disasters, and more.
  
• Hotlink for 16 to 23 February, 2003
  Teaching and Learning About Canada
  Created and Maintained by Nova Scotia teacher M.D. Bennett, this site describes itself as "Information and links dealing with Canadian Geography, History, Politics, Wildlife, Time Zones, Graphs and Tables, Maps and much more." It's a very comprehensive site, with information on every imaginable aspect of Canadian geography, and includes blank maps, interactive maps, games, activities, and more.
  
• Hotlink for 23 February to 2 March, 2003
  Canadian Council for Geographic Education
  The CCGE is a joint initiative of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society and the National Geographic Society in Washington. The website has a host of interesting resources and links, including teaching resources, "geography on the job", and a listing of CCGE programs. There is also a very powerful GIS application called "CCGE MapMaker" that lets you build and revise Canada maps of your choice.
  
• Hotlink for 2 to 9 March, 2003
  Earthnet Canada -- Virtual Resource Center for Earth Science Teachers
  Natural Resources Canada sponsors this interesting and detailed Earth Science site. The site contains earth science resource information and contacts for teachers, home educators and students of all levels - elementary, junior and senior high school. You can find information on earthquakes, dinosaurs, fossils, evolution, volcanoes, landslides, rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, mountains, canyons, caves, rivers, waterfalls, conservation, the greenhouse effect, global change, oil and gas, energy, mining, ice ages and glaciers, faults, erosion, geological time, planets and space, geoscience careers.
  
• Hotlink for 9 to 16 March, 2003
  Geoscape from Natural Resources Canada
  A fascinating collection of pages about various aspects of Canadian geology. Their description of the site: "We are developing large information posters and companion websites that describe local geoscience issues for 15 communities across Canada. Most of the chosen communities are metropolitan areas (Vancouver, Victoria, Nanaimo, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Whitehorse), though two are river basins (Fraser River and Grand River basins), and two are large areas (Southern Saskatchewan, Nunavut)." Worth a visit for any teacher.
  
• Hotlink for 16 to 23 March, 2003
  RubiStar
  Not for everybody, but definitely worth a look. RubiStar is a tool to help the teacher who wants (or is required) to develop rubrics but who does not have the time to develop them from scratch. RubiStar provides templates and assistance in creating the rubrics you need for your particular assignments, in any subject. And if you choose to use the rubric online, you can enter student data into RubiStar and it will help you analyze the items for difficulty, so you can reteach, revise, or provide more practice on the items the whole class had trouble with.
  
• Hotlink for 23 to 30 March, 2003
  Tennessee Bob's Famous French Links
  An unlikely title for a very useful and well-organized site. The site links to over 10,000 Francophone and French-education sites, under headings such as "how to find new Francophone sites", "Books and Literature", "Art, Music, Film, and General Culture", "History...", "Virtual Francophone Tourism" (which includes several Francophone map sites), "Press, Radio, TV", "The French Language", "Education...", "French across the Curriculum and in Everyday Life", and more.
  
• Hotlink for 30 March to 6 April, 2003
  National Atlas of the United States -- GIS Gateway
  A very powerful on-line GIS application. Here, you can choose from nearly 200 variables and make USA maps from (A) agricultural cotton production to (Z) zebra mussel distribution. The USGS is working in cooperation with tribal, state, and local governments on The National Map. This is the 21st Century version of the paper topographic maps we created in the 20th Century. Select a state or region, select a dataset, click on the map and the dataset appears.
  
• Hotlink for 6 to 13 April, 2003
  Childrens Discovery Museum of San Jose
  Provides engaging on-line and off-line interactive activities, focusing on the areas of science, mathematics and literacy for preschool and elementary-aged children. Teachers can search for activities by grade level and can also register for an online newsletter that contains creative activities for children.
  
• Hotlink for 13 to 20 April, 2003
  New York Times Learning Network
  Created for students and teachers in grades 3 through 12, The Learning Network is a free news service that provides news summaries, quizzes, and even daily lesson plans.
  
• Hotlink for 20 to 27 April, 2003
  Ibiblio
  Ibiblio is the web's public library and archive. Just about everything you could possibly want to know is stored here somewhere -- so much, in fact, that it can even be hard to find exactly what you are looking for. Broadest categories include books and other resources related to Arts & Recreation, Geography Biography & History, Language, Literature, Natural Science & Math, Philosophy and Psychology, Reference, Religion & Theology, Social Sciences, Technology & Applied Sciences, plus full texts of ebooks, journals, and much, much more.
  
• Hotlink for 27 April to 4 May, 2003
  Lesson Planning Center at Education World
  Need a quick and proven lesson on a topic? Check here. This archive of lesson plans contains helpful teacher-made plans on everything from the Arts to PE, at levels from K to High School. All kinds of activities as well, including a special section of scavenger hunts, and all sorts of lesson-planning resources.
  
• Hotlink for 4 tp 11 May, 2003
  Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education
  One of many state Geographic Alliances, Minnesota offers an interesting collection of links, activities, resources, and more. Check it out, and if you're interested in seeing what the other state Alliances do, you can link to their websites through mapping.com's list of Canadian Sites and US Geographic Alliance sites.
  
• Hotlink for 11 to 18 May, 2003
  The Startspot Network
  A Collection of well-designed pages for quickly finding the information you're looking for on the Web. Not a search engine; the people who run this collecton of sites try to give it a human feel by pointing the way to other useful sites. The pages are divided into 10 "spots" -- books, cinema, employment, genealogy, government, headlines, homework, libraries, museums, and travel. For example, if you select Library Spot, you get a page of convenient links to popular online Almanacs, Calculators, Dictionaries, Directories, Encyclopedias, Historic Documents, Quotations, Statistics, and Thesauruses.
  
• Hotlink for 18 to 25 May, 2003
  Bahgdad City size comparisons
  From the creator of the page: "If you are like me, you've seen a map of Baghdad on television a lot in the last few days. The scale of the map may be hard to grasp, so I've created these city size comparison pages." I wish there were more pages like this, comparing more populated places.
  
• Hotlink for 25 May to 1 June, 2003
  Japanese Historical Maps
  For half a century, a rare and extensive collection of historical Japanese maps spanning hundreds of years have been stored in the East Asian Library at the University of California, revealing their secrets only to those few who had received permission to handle them. Now, through state-of-the-art imaging technology, anyone can view these fragile maps online.
  
• Hotlink for 1 to 8 June, 2003
  Growth of A Nation
  A very well-constructed and thoughtful geographic and historical animation, showing the growth of the United States from 1790 to 1959. A simultaneous narration explains what is going on at the same time that states and territories are highlighted, shown in various colors, added to the US, etc. The entire presentation lasts about 10 minutes, but loads very quickly considering the size of the document. On the Top Page, there are links to further videos, as well as to timelines and other useful websites.
  
• Hotlink for 8 to 15 June, 2003
  Charting the Virtual World
  (From the page:) During Renaissance times, if you wanted a map of the New World, you couldn't just walk into a Barnes & Noble and pick up a little something from Rand McNally. You had to sail across the Atlantic and draw the map yourself. Today, the same do-it-yourself spirit is required of anyone who wants to map cyberspace. Enterprising cybergeographers have created maps that aim to help us navigate our overcrowded e-mail inboxes, chart the back-and-forth banter in chat rooms, sail through seas of Internet network performance dataÑin short, to help us understand the virtual world at a glance.
  
• Hotlink for 15 to 22 June, 2003
  Milestones in the History of Thematic Cartography
  An illustrated chronology of representational innovations, presented by Michael Friendly and Daniel J. Denis. The site presents a graphic portrayal of the display of quantitative information, from pre-1600 to the present, selectable by century, including related links, references. The entire documentis also available as a single .pdf document, with active links.
  
• Hotlink for 22 to 29 June, 2003
  Mappa Mundi's "Map of the Month" Archives
  Mappa Mundi, the remarkable monthly magazine, has a 4-year archive of their "Map of the Month" selection. Some of these are breathtakingly wonderful, others are simply interesting, but all are worthwhile. Give yourself enough time to browse.
  
• Hotlink for 29 June to 6 July, 2003
  Map History Gateway
  Whether you are an academic, family historian, collector, teacher or parent, worthwhile information about early maps can be found here, or can be found on pages linked here. The 135 'pages' of this carefully organised site offer comment and guidance, and many, many links - selected for relevance and quality. Main topics include such areas as: Conferences & Talks, Discussion lists, Exhibitions, Fellowships & Prizes, Globes, Image sites, Links & Gateways, Map collecting, Map collections, Map societies, Marketplace, News (sources), Researchers, Thefts, and Web projects
  
• Hotlink for 6 to 13 July, 2003
  Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
  On February 2000, the SRTM radar system flew onboard Space Shuttle Endeavour and gathered topographic data over approximately 80% of the land surfaces of the Earth, creating the first-ever near-global data set of land elevations. These elevations have been turned into a near-global high-resolution database of maps and other presentations of the Earth's topography. From the top of this page, you can also select other NASA mission photography.
  
• Hotlink for 13 to 20 July, 2003
  Clickable Map of Astronaut Photography
  This archive of shuttle photography has a remarkable clickable map feature that makes navigating simple, and makes it a breeze to find a particular image from space. Be sure to check the thumbnail box when you get to the listings of your area of interest. When you see one of interest, you can get a better image by clicking on the frame number. Try it! You can see at least 90 images for each of the cells on the map for most areas of the world.
  
• Hotlink for 20 to 27 July, 2003
  FishBase
  Developed at the WorldFish Center in collaboration with the FAO, FishBase is a database which provides biological information, pictures, and all kinds of other information about all the fish of the world. FishBase contains thousands of reports, maps, and pictures. It includes information useful to non-scientists, including anglers and recreational divers, as well as to students learning about fish species. Also fun from a "world-minded" perspective: the 130 thousand fish listed are indexed by their common names in 200 languages.
  
• Hotlink for 27 July to 3 August, 2003
  AskEric Lesson Plans
  A massive, annotated archive of lesson plans in topics ranging from arts to physical and vocational education. The archive contains more than 2000 unique lesson plans which have been written and submitted to AskERIC by teachers from all over the world.
  
• Hotlink for 3 to 10 August, 2003
  Web Version of MICA
  Astronomical data, including celestial coordinates, sidereal time, lunar and planetary configurations and aspects, and rise/set times. The computations are performed by MICA, the Multiyear Interactive Computer Almanac. The basis of the calculations is the same as for the Astronomical Almanac. The forms and output may seem complex, but if you don't have a background in astronomy you can learn a lot just by playing.
  
• Hotlink for 10 to 17 August, 2003
  Official US Goverment Time of Day Site
  A joint service of the Naval Observatory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, this site gives you an animated clock that gives you time of day in each of the North American time zones, plus a light/dark world map, showing where it is night and where it is day. Very useful, user-friendly, and interesting.
  
• Hotlink for 17 to 24 August, 2003
  Paul Anderson's Map Projection Gallery
  An amazing collection of map projections -- 317 in mid-July. All are outline maps, letter-paper size, and printable. Be sure to read the "about" page and the other explanatory material.
  
• Hotlink for 24 to 31 August, 2003
  Electronic Map Library at CSUN
  The Electronic Map Library includes a series of atlases created by Dr. William Bowen. These volumes are evolving in response to the changing instructional needs of the Department of Geography at California State University, Northridge. Questions and comments should be directed to Dr. Bowen. Individual maps are most commonly stored in GIF and JPEG formats. In some cases, PDF, EPS, and TIFF images are also archived. Those wishing to download and otherwise manipulate individual files should honor copyright restrictions and the wishes of the author.
  
• Hotlink for 31 August to 7 September, 2003
  Population Reference Bureau
  For more than 70 years, the Population Reference Bureau has been informing people about the population dimensions of important social, economic, and political issues. Their mission is to provide timely and objective information on U.S. and international population trends and their implications. In addition to a huge amount of basic information, they also maintain other useful websites, including http://www.popnet.org, a directory of population-related wesites, and http://www.ameristat.org, which gives you summaries of the demographic characteristics of the U.S. population.
  
• Hotlink for 7 to 14 September, 2003
  Geography Network
  Managed and maintained by ESRI, the Geography Network is a website designed to provide a network for geographic information users and providers. It provides the infrastructure needed to support the sharing of geographic information among data providers, service providers, and users around the world. Through the Geography Network, you can access many types of geographic content including dynamic maps, downloadable data, and more advanced Web services.
  
• Hotlink for 14 to 21 September, 2003
  The Spamdemic Map
  A couple of years ago, a Californian named Bob West became fascinated with the SPAM epidemic, and started watching his unsolicited email very closely. He realized that a lot of companies and individuals responsible for spam exchange information with each other. Thus was born The Spamdemic Map, showing the links between spammers -- as Bob West puts it, "You always knew spammers are in incestuous bunch, but just how incestuous is about to become a bit clearer." Be sure to visit the other pages of this remarkable site to learn how to block spam, to read the latest spam news, and even to visit the Spamdemic Store for anti-spam posters and t-shirts.
  
• Hotlink for 21 to 28 September, 2003
  The Geosphere Project
  Artist Tom Van Sant was way ahead of the curve in the 1980's when he began collecting satellite data to produce a "cloud-free" image of the Earth. The result was the famous Geosphere Image, which was the first such map. At the project website, you can read about the map, see the directions the project is taking, and purchase wall maps for your own use.
  
• Hotlink for 28 September to 5 October, 2003
  The XPLANE Mapping Blog
  Founded in 1994, XPLANE is a company that helps other companies integrate knowledge in effective ways, simplifying the most complex problems. Along the way, they've developed some interesting blogs -- archives of web resources built around a single topic. This is their "mapping" blog, and it is an incredibly rich archive, including on-the-fly maps, time zones, global conflicts, and much more.
  
• Hotlink for 5 to 12 October, 2003
  Online Map Creation
  An on-the-fly map creation website located in Germany. Initial input requires that you enter latitude and longitude boundaries for your map, but once the map is created you can recenter and zoom endlessly, so you don't really have to know exactly the boundaries you want. Data sets are fairly limited, but you are offered 6 different projections, and the ability to plot user-defined locations, and the final map is attractive and useful. A good location for learning about GIS.
  
• Hotlink for 12 to 19 October, 2003
  The Hall of Geography
  At the Texas Educational Network, this "hall" is one of several "Halls of Academia" (follow the back link on the page to see the other "halls"). It is an archive of web resources about geography, including sections on the continents plus "general resources" and "tours around the world". Even though it's not updated rigorously, it is worth a visit.
  
• Hotlink for 19 to 26 October, 2003
  SEDS -- Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
  SEDS is an independent, student-based organization which pursues its mission by educating people about space and space-related projects. There are some amazing sections of this large website -- check in particular the "nine planets solar system tour" for closeups of all nine planets and their moons, plus history and mythology, and the section called "astro maps" which give you clickable maps of the night sky.
  
• Hotlink for 26 October to 2 November, 2003
  The Web Geological Time Machine
  From Hadean Era of 4500 Million Years Ago, right up to the Holocene (today), this website allows close scrutiny of the Earth's geology and within each Era and Epoch, it allows a closeup look at Stratigraphy, Ancient Life, Localities, and Tectonics. A very powerful and informative site.
  
• Hotlink for 2 to 9 November, 2003
  The EmTech Maps and Charts Page
  EmTech, an Alabama-based educational consultancy, maintains a vast archive of websites of interest to teachers, on everything from Brain-based Learning to Online Class Projects. This is their maps and charts page, and it is huge. The list is not annotated, so it requires considerable searching and patience to find something specific, but for general browsing and as a rich source of ideas and information, nothing is any better on the Web. You can see the master list of all their archives at their top page.
  
• Hotlink for 9 to 16 November, 2003
  Geosense Game
  A very interesting game, still very much in development. In each of 10 rounds, you are given a city and country, and you have to click on the location of the city. Your score depends on how close your click is to the actual location. Nice use of java. You can play alone, or against others who happen to be online at the same time. Note that the game is very fussy about what browsers it will run, and if it doesn't like the version of IE or Netscape that you are running, it will tell you so, and may tell you how to correct the problem. Definitely worth a visit.
  
• Hotlink for 16 to 23 November, 2003
  Geostationary Satellite Imagery Server
  Provided by NOAA's Satellites and Information Division, this site allows you to look at the latest satellite imagery from the world's geostationary satellites, and also to review an archive of 21 days worth of images. Want to follow a Pacific storm or water-vapor imagery in North America or Indian Ocean rain events? It's all here. Check especially the Interactive Archive, and the "Daily Significant Event Imagery", where the "image of the day" is always amazing.
  
• Hotlinks for 23 to 30 November, 2003
  
  • The Weather Channel
  • BBC Weather Page
  • Weather On The Web
  • NOAA Severe Storms Lab
  • Accuweather
  • Intellicast
  • Weather Underground
  
  Weather is available on the web from all kinds of sites, and delivered to you in all kinds of ways -- on demand or on your desktop, in maps, photos, or text, from local observers or from a national weather center. The links here are just a sampling of the variety of weather information available.
  
• Hotlink for 30 November to 7 December, 2003
  The Yale University Map Collection
  Something for everybody in this remarkable resource. Select "collections" for topographical maps of the world, for historical Fire Insurance maps, for Nautical Charts dating to 1650. Selct "online maps" for their collection of ancient maps and globes, historical city maps, and more. Inder "what's new" you can see samples from their latest exhibitions, at the moment including early road maps, western maps of Africa, and an exhibition called "Cartographical Curiosities" which is full of, well, curiosities. Great fun, amazing depth.
  
• Hotlink for 7 to 14 December, 2003
  Boundaries of the Contiguous 48 U.S. States
  A remarkable animation, for those who are interested in web animation, or U.S. History. Even better, click on the "animation" button under the moving map, and look at all the other animations created by Ed Stephan at Western Washington Univ., or linked from the page. I'm a particular fan of "How To Tie Knots", but there are dozens of choices here -- not all of them are geographic, but many are, and the rest are worth a visit.
  
• Hotlink for 14 to 21 December, 2003
  Earth From Above
  The Fujifilm.com archive of Yann Arthus-Bertrand's amazing photos of Earth from various points overhead. "Surface Navigator" lets you select one of the available photos from a moving globe; "Motion Graphics" lets you view "blue" -- rivers, lakes, and oceans; or "green" -- jungles, forests, and grasslands; or "rock", or "the mark of man". There's a good index, a page from which you can download your favorite images as desktop wallpaper, and more.
  
• Hotlink for 21 to 28 December, 2003
  Fourmilab's Earth Viewer
  A very powerful image generator. You can view either a map of the Earth showing the day and night regions at the moment, or view the Earth from the Sun, the Moon, the night side of the Earth, above any location on the planet specified by latitude, longitude and altitude, from a satellite in Earth orbit, or above various cities around the globe. You can also view the Moon from the Earth, the Sun, the night side, or named points, or even as a map showing day and night.
  
• Hotlink for 28 December, 2003 to 4 January, 2004
  Flytecomm
  A tool for all those who travel, and for those who want to keep track of their loved ones' travels. Enter an airline and flight number, and see a real-time display of take-off and landing time, route, and more. If the aircraft is en-route, you'll be served a map showing where the route and where the plane is at the moment. If the flight has not left yet, you'll get today's take-off and landing time as filed with the FAA, as well as yesterday's actual times. For pure information, it's miles ahead of the airline websites.

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