From the ridiculous to . . . well, you decide.

The Norwegian Cartozoologic Society is a group friends who look to discover and study “animals outlined paradigmatically by street layouts as they appear on maps, especially with reference to physical evidence of the animals’ presence in the corresponding terrain.” In other words, they look for shapes on street maps that correspond (roughly at times) to animal shapes. They host a number of examples on their site. The site is also in Norwegian.

By way of blog.kart.no.

If you think that finding non-spatial patterns in spatial data is merely an amusement to pass the time, consider this story in the Washington Post. Apparently someone has come up with an explanation for Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans and causing all that damage. Check out Steve Lefemine’s own site for his own ideas on the matter, including a badly put-together side by side image that “rests his case.” John Krygier has improved on his argument (if that’s possible) by resassembling the images and including them in his Geography class notes (scroll about half way down the page).

By way of John Krygier.

It’s amazing what you can come up with with a little spatial analysis.