Maps

At the urging of my mother, I'm current taking a course called Maps and Mapping. I said "why not" considering it was a social science credit I could get out of the way. When I went to the Chesapeake Watershed Forum, my mom eagerly shoved me towards classes who's man topic was maps. I attended two classes on websites with maps that included information on certain areas of land and searching features. I also attended two about community participatory mapping applications.
All that aside, lately I've noticed I've been using maps more. On the way home from the forum it was my job to navigate us home. During hurricane Sandy, I was watching an online map that showed how many people in different zip codes in Southern Maryland didn't have power. It refreshed the map every 15 minutes and I would fervently refresh the page in the hope of predicting when I would lose power (I never did).
Right now I'm staring at an online electoral map. This one refreshes every 30 seconds, making it ideal for getting the latest results. At the moment, Romney is ahead 163 to 158. Polls in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, and California haven't close yet. Polls in Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada have yet to report the results. This could be a nail biter.