Going Map-Crazy

Wired has a couple of cartography stories up.  First, several planning maps from the past:

1941 Development of the Central Area West and East of the Capitol – Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. was masterfully designed by Pierre L’Enfant as a grand capital for the new nation. But as time passed and the needs of the city changed, the optimism of the original plan gave way to industrial slums and a growing federal government gobbling up free space within the city. The burgeoning capital required a new urban plan.
The 1941 redesign is notable because it strikes the balance between the City Beautiful movement, an effort to preserve monumental grandeur in cities like Washington D.C., with the needs of a growing federal government during and after World War II. Much of the plan for west side of the Capitol came to pass in some form, often using more modern designs. The east side of the Capitol, however, called for a second mall lined with government offices, schools, museums, and a vast sports complex. While such large scale urban renewal took place in cities across the nation after the war, including in other parts of Washington D.C., this vast plan for the east side was never carried out.

Then,  a profile of a "guerrilla cartographer" who made this map:

Some are mostly fun and informative, including a map of regional variations in dulce de leche across Latin America; “The American Beershed,” which maps U.S. malt, hops, and yeast production; and “Global Spaghetti,” a global map of pasta consumption paired with data on Google searches for the word spaghetti (Filipinos and Singaporeans are apparently very curious about this exotic food, consuming little of it themselves but searching for it often).

For a map nerd like me, this is catnip.