Topic: maps

1664. There's something about the 75-degree angle on the building's wings that just ... well, wrong, somehow. It disturbs. It's like the R'yleh Hilton. It has an impressive profile from orbit. If it had been completed when originally planned, it would have been the tallest hotel on the planet. It was begun in the '80s, left unfinished in 1992, and is finally being advanced after a span of 16 years....

Today I recorded a strange bird that lives at this four-way stop in McMinnville. It's a fairly busy intersection and the bird hears cars stop and take off all day, every day. Its standard chirp is already loud and screechy, but it has another chirp that sounds exactly like a car with a loose fan belt taking off from a stop. Check it out: [embedded MP3 at site] That whine is the bird. The...

View Larger Map Another map for you. Wendy over at Red Cross Chat is making some very interesting maps lately. This one is of the many multi-family fires that have happened across the U.S. recently. Though I don't have the data, it sure seems like there have been more home fires than usual lately. One blog reader even emailed us asking if it was normal that we've been posting so many fire...

View Larger Map The other night I found myself waiting for the traffic signal at NW 11th and Lovejoy in Portlandia's Pearl District. Without a doubt, that is one of the fakest intersections in the world. It's like a bad theme park mockup of Manhattan. Vera Katz's "vision." Eddie Bauers and Starbuckses and condo bunkers. And sucking the economic life out of the city's real downtown. It would...

1653. A few days back I posted a map of Salem Rural Routes around the year 1956, and commented about it. It just occurred to me that what might be crazy useful is what some of those roads are called today. Peforce, the following map, with modern street names in red FHWA-style type: For those needing exterior references, the modern east boundary to Salem is about a mile to left of that area....

I leave Corvallis in 3 weeks. I'm lucky to have friends going with me. Here's our proposed Google Map: View Larger.

Here's an interactive map of the 600 locations which are closing. Looks like Portland only loses one. Location. View Larger Map The Seattle Times has the story....