Maps elsewhere

Thanks to colleagues for passing these links along:

  At cbc.ca: a Google Map of locations where severed feet (real ones) have been found along the B.C. coast.

The CBC's uses of the API include their Afghan casualty map, which shows where in Afghanistan the actual deaths occurred (as distinct from ours, which shows where the soldiers came from).

My only comment is that I'm not sure what the placemarks mean to someone who isn't already familiar with the Kandahar area, but it's an interesting approach. They use numbered icons for incidents with multiple casualties, which is one solution to a problem we have with displaying multiple points on the same place. Our homicide map is due for a rethink, and that's probably a feature we should adopt.

Election violence in Zimbabwe, by category of apparent perpetrator. This map has some design features in common with the crime map at The Tennessean, which is very thorough (there's a lot of mapping potential in U.S. jurisdictions which are open about crime data) but the choice of colours is strangely festive - the week's holdups in Nashville appear as cheerful pink balloons.