Lab #1 Geog 7

This map serves a very specific purpose, which is to illustrate how worldwide Internet traffic is nonexistent in particular countries, creating "black holes".  A map like this is very useful in portraying a message that is evident at first glance of the map.  Countries with repressive governments have eliminated freedom within cyberspace in order to seize control of communication and information pathways.  It was taken from another blog called "aggregated intelligence" (http://blog.aggregatedintelligence.com/2008/02/interesting-maps-Internet-censorship.html)

This is a thematic map of the United States showing the amount of beer breweries per capita in each state.  This map uses categories (shown by shade of brown) to show how many beer breweries there are in relation to human population.  It shows Oregon, Montana, Maine, and Vermont as having the most( over  21) and the "Bourbon country" of the southern states having the least amount of breweries.  I don't like the per capita element of this map.  I think it doesn't represent the data properly.  Nevertheless it is an interesting map in that it does show where in the U.S. beer is being produced.   It also shows how the beer industry and culture is distributed spatially.  This map was taken from google images (coolinfographics.com)

This is a Thematic map of the world representing human immigration trends. It was taken from google images (willisms.com) I find it interesting because by distorting the nations sizes to symbolize the growth or loss of immigration makes for a new and insightful visual representation. This map must have been difficult to produce.  Notice how it is the "core" wealthy countries that are receiving the most immigration.  It is a very straight forward thematic map, that is easy to read.