Well, a lot of things, including catching burglars. Apparently Chris Rowland from Indianapolis was so sick of the burglar who seemed to like his shop too much that he decided to plant some GPS devices in his merchandises. So when the thief broke into his store for the 6th time, he was able to track the merchandise, and the burglar, around town. You can read the original story here. Wish I could do that with the SIM cards of my lost mobile phones, all 4 of them!

If you think you have seen just about every kind of map design out there, think again.

Kevin Van Aelst has come out with a brand new…apple map. I wonder how long did he take to complete the project. And also, will there be a follow up on oranges

With the war entering the 5th year and another mega spending bill, this current pet project of the neo-cons will become the most expensive war in US history. The price in human tolls is also substantial.

Iraqbodycount.org has kept a record of the civilian deaths all along. However, the numbers are never having as much impact as when being put on a nicely designed map. This one is commissioned by the Newsweek and seems to be the best of the bunch.

BBC is running a story on China’s $5bn natural resources deal with DR Congo that just sounds like sour grapes to me. But the point of this post is not to complain about sloppy journalism, but its terrible map that manages to leave out the African nation’s capital, Kinshasa. It’s close to Matadi, in case you are wondering.

Then I look around for a map that shows the distribution of natural resources, to get some idea of what people are fighting over for, literally. The concession to China is in the south, which has loads of copper and cobalt. The only map that pops up was made in the ’50s, by the Belgians. Oh well…