Some LDS KML files

For years, in my spare time I have collected various data about LDS geography. I'm happy that as we prepare the Atlas of LDS History, I'll finally be able to put some of it to good use. In the mean time, people have requested some of it, which I'm happy to provide. Here are a couple, converted to KML files:

• Stakes (as of November 2008). The color represents the locational accuracy. Black is at the stake center, dark blue is within a couple miles, and lighter blues are decreasingly certain.
• Districts (as of November 2008). Since these are so transient, I haven't put as much effort into them, but it's a shot.
  

I welcome your comments and corrections. No, on second thought, don't send me corrections (unless they're really major); I don't have time to deal with them. Down the road, I have a research project for building a wiki-like website for group editing of GIS data. Then you can fix it yourself :-).

Below are the stakes in Google Maps. For some reason, it doesn't like the icons (exported from ArcGIS), and shifts everything up several pixels. Don't worry, it gets better (and more stakes appear) as you zoom in.

View Larger Map

Wrapping up

Well, they did have to go to press before we could get the maps done. It's not really our fault, just waiting until the results came in. Prop 8 is still only 50% in and way too close to call. Looks like the Universe will run our maps on Thursday--look for it then.

Time for bed . . .

Getting Close

We are getting close, with several maps looking good, but now I can't get hold of the editor to send the maps :-( I wonder if he abandoned us and went to bed.

12:33 a.m. and Pablo's hair is looking even better

As time drags on, Pablo's hair seems to improve. The pizza tastes better, and the maps are looking pretty dang good. Complaints arise slowly from some members of the group(Tyler) about being too tired. Personally I think that he should be reprimanded for his behavior.

Will says he thinks he needs to go home to his wife. But the pizza has given him indigestion and I think that it is better this way. By the way, Levi has taken over the blog for tonight. You may have noticed the change in writing styles.

will isn't in these pictures! somehow he didn't make it in these.

Pizza finally arrived at 11. But then, so did final election results. Short break and back to work.

Working hard

Pablo and Kelson study Prop 8 results while Will observes and philosophizes.

More mappers

David Biesinger, Charity Holliday, and Levi Mecham have joined us. I put Levi in charge of pizza, David joined the state legislature team, and Charity joined the national county team.

Ken did some research, and found that CNN and other sites that are showing live national county results are getting them from an AP feed, which we obviously aren't paying for. So we go back to the grunt student method: typing in 3,000 county values. I think later tonight the entire crew will be entering counties . . .

Tasks assigned

Okay, we're here, and have decided on some maps and made some assignments. Where are the others who said they would come tonight?

President by state (the easy one): Daniel Faulk & Dantley Frehner
U.S. House: Cory Grant & Scot Gotfredson
U.S. Senate: Tyler Atkins
California Prop 8: Pablo Lopez & Kelson Mosier
U.S. House in Utah by County: Matt Westover & Will Schmidt
Utah Legislature in Utah County by precinct: Seth Lloyd
Utah Legislature: David Biesinger
President by county (if even possible tonight): Ken Matthews

Good luck guys!

Keep Score!

Here's a fun file for keeping score of the election yourself on a Cartogram:

www.uwm.edu/~dgs/cartogram_brewer-modified.xls

You just put a D or R in the gray boxes, and the "map" colors itself. First time I've ever seen a real raster GIS in a spreadsheet. Interesting idea!

Get Ready for Mapping!

It's Election Day 2008, and I am going out on a limb. My Cart class is meeting tonight, and we're going to stay up late making election maps for the Daily Universe! Follow us on this blog!