Lab 1

I found the map above from mappingcenter.esri.com. It maps out an ethnicity study done in southern LA county. The ellipses map where there is prominence of a certain ethnicity and say how many of the ethnicity is in that area. Red ellipses map the White population, beige ellipses map the Hispanic popualtion, green ellipses map the Asian population, and purple ellipses map the Black population. Where the ellipses overlap tells me that the area there is more diverse. It is interesting to me how the ellipses were mapped to show where the ethnicities overlap to show the particular areas that are more diverse in LA and the areas that are more dominant of a particular ethnicity, like how a large area of East LA appears to have a dominant Hispanic population.

I got the map above from the blog "Helen's Maps." A lot of her posts are of different types of maps, with the one above being an example of a propaganda map. In this case the propaganda map is from a London newspaper dated back to 1914 in response to the first World War in Europe. As you can see, the geography of the map illustrates the role of involvement of the different countries in the war. It appears obvious that there is conflict between western Europe and eastern Europe with the illustrations, but note the altered geography in the map. I find it pretty interesting how the cartoonist drew Italy a little different to look more like a kicking boot, as well as what appears to be Norway and Soviet countries look like attacking animals. I like that it makes the map look more playful.

I got the map above from another blog called "my maps." It is a continuously variable proportional circle map displaying the number of people who voted for Obama or McCain (in the 2008 presidential election) in each county in proportion to the size of the circle. Blue circles indicate votes for Obama as red circles indicate votes for McCain. This map can be considered as a thematic map. I'd like to note that most of the larger circles are blue as most of the smaller circles are red. I find the map interesting in the way that I can see the amount of people who voted for either candidate better than the typical map indicating which states are blue and which states are red. I also find it interesting that it shows which candidate was more dominant depending on particular regions, like how McCain captured virtually all of the "Bible Belt" and Obama captured most of the West Coast, Midwest, and Northeast.