NEWSLETTER NO. 3 OF 2010
AXIS OF EVIL MAPPING NEWSLETTER #
3 April, 2010
AXIS OF EVIL - MAPPING
NEWSLETTER #3 (APRIL 2010)
INTRODUCTION
This newsletter has great news to pass on, but no new titles to announce. For
months now, Lan has been telling anyone who would listen that she’s about to
become a grandmother. You’d think no one else was involved! Well, daughter
Phuong and her husband Linh are pleased to announce the arrival of the world’s
latest and greatest cartographer, weighing in at seven pounds something (and
apparently sleeping a lot at the moment and pooping the rest of the time). As
soon as we learned that the birth was imminent, Lan booked a space on the next
flight to Toronto, and it’s just as well that she did, because the new parents
don’t have the foggiest idea what to do with this new creature. I’ll get to see
little Johnny in mid-April, by which time Lan should have him walking, talking,
and scribing maps. He’s all in favour of universal health care, by the way.
2010 VANCOUVER/WHISTLER OLYMPIC AND
PARALYMPIC GAMES: A FINAL SUMMING UP
The Paralympics Games have been completed and, if anything, the athletes and the
sporting activities have caught the imagination of the crowds of spectators as
never before. Lan and I were at the opening ceremonies in mid-March, along with
60,000 other spectators who cheered and yelled encouragement for three hours as
the athletes entered the grand venue at BC Place. Unfortunately, Paralympic
sports have sadly not received the same credibility as ‘mainline’ activities.
However, that all changed in Vancouver: these Games transfixed the city and, I
hope that they received increased coverage in the home countries of the
athletes. The next stage is to integrate these sports completely into the
mainstream of Olympic sports. More than 230,000 tickets were sold for Paralympic
events and every single event was enthusiastically cheered. What a party!
Hosting the Games had an incredible impact on Vancouver. Prior to the Games,
there were lots of nay-sayers – the types one always finds making negative
comments about any proposed project, saying that the money could have been
better spent on (fill in your favourite hobby-horse). People in Vancouver love
to complain and be negative. My theory: I think the constant rain erodes their
brains (being from Toronto, I can say things like that…it’s probably why I have
so few friends here!). Regardless, the Games were a great success. Vancouverites
partied as they’ve never partied before and Canadians shucked off the quiet and
retiring stereotype that we have in the world to scream and yell and sing our
anthem anywhere, everywhere, to the faint disgust of anyone from another country
who couldn’t figure out what everyone was so excited about. We did it because we
wanted to, because we were - and are - proud of our country, its athletes, its
accomplishments and its heritage. Perhaps none of us could articulate the
up-swell of prideful recognition in pulling off the greatest sporting
extravaganza in Canadian history, but February and March 2010 saw us grow in
stature as a country…and we aren’t going back.
LONDON BOOK FAIR
As noted above, Lan is busy in Toronto, gently shepherding our daughter through
the first month of motherhood (and there is no way a young mother can prepare
for this on her own), so I’ll be at LBF by myself. Please come by Stand F740 in
the Travel section of Earl’s Court and have a peek at our most recent titles.
ITMB is sharing space with Global Mapping this year. We’re not in the Directory,
as we booked too late to get into the Programme, but I’ll be there Monday and
Tuesday notwithstanding and looking forward to meeting as many attendees as
possible.
INTERESTING FACTS
Immigration to Canada increased in 2009, with traffic from the Philippines
taking first place. The five countries with the highest refugee status for
immigration are, in order, Burma, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and Afghanistan. No
surprises there.
Bombardier announced the sale of 40 CS300 airplanes to an American company, and
Boeing announced the sale of another 25 787 Dreamliners, the long distance
airplane destined to replace the 747 Jumbo jets. The plane hasn’t entered
service yet, but 876 have been sold to date. This is an excellent sign of a
recovering travel market!
The US government has announced that it will charge all arriving international
visitors who do not require a visa a $10 fee (Canada and Mexico excluded) upon
arriving.
Travel to the USA by overseas visitors has been dropping steadily ever since
2000 and is now down to pre-1995 levels. Please tell me how this tax is going to
encourage overseas individuals to reverse this downward trend. The bill has been
signed into law and targets 35 European and Asian countries. Expect travel to
the States to drop to pre-WW2 levels.
CHANGES IN THE MAPPING INDUSTRY ACCELERATE
RAPIDLY
I can’t believe how fast the paper map industry is changing! Just last week, I
received a notice from IMTA that the Langenscheidt Group (the parent company of
AMC and ADC, as well as the North American distributor for Insight guides and
maps, Michelin and others, including ITMB) has fired their North American
president and are bringing in a new ‘hard-nosed’ president from Europe to
(hopefully) turn things around. For anyone who has to deal with any of the many
branches of the Group, it’s about time! I like the people I’ve dealt with over
the years at AMC and ADC, and their product sells when one can get it, but there
is no question in my mind that change is necessary in that company, and I wish
them well. (Reform can start with them paying their vendors.)
A few days ago, I was at a conference in the US, where one of the speakers noted
that Rand McNally is discontinuing quite a few of their paper maps as,
presumably, inventory depleted. Apparently, Anaheim is no longer available,
among other titles, but the speaker stated that this down-sizing will reduce
Rand’s range by a figure in excess of 50%. Prior to the conference, I received
this same information, less dramatically, from two other reputable sources, so
if it isn’t true I’d be surprised. I’ve also heard that Rand is increasing
minimum quantity levels for ordering. I can’t verify this, but their Canadian
distributor, on whom I rely to keep my store stocked, is not carrying as many
Rand titles as they used to do, and I’m talking about State level, not cities.
Here’s another shocker from the other side of the Atlantic. Ordnance Survey, the
vast majority of whose operating revenue comes from providing mapping
information to Britain’s local authorities, has apparently been ordered by the
UK government to provide such information for free from now on. OrdSurv gets no
budgetary allocation from the Treasury (which has no money these days anyway),
so how is OrdSurv going to be able to carry on without any money coming in?
Well, that’s the $64,000 question, as we’d say on this side of the Pond. I’ve
heard that certain ranges of OS titles have already been discontinued, that OS
is moving into smaller digs, that their printing presses are for sale, that pink
slips are fluttering like confetti – I’m telling you, the rumours are flying
fast and furious, and I’m half a world away from the epicentre! What does the
future hold for venerable Ordnance Survey? I don’t envy those charged with
deciding what to do. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place!
It may not be widely known yet, but apparently Mapsco, a Texas-based street
atlas publisher with a chain of retail specialty map stores in different cities
in the state and in Colorado has recently changed ownership. Mapsco was
particularly hard-hit by the recession, and has been struggling for months, but
they put out a good product, and have a good reputation, especially in the west.
The new owner, Capa, is an investment firm, and is apparently keeping the
experienced hands in place at Mapsco, while providing financial security for the
firm to enable the company to continue making maps. I’m pleased about this,
because we’re facing a crisis of confidence in the mapping trade, and this
expression of confidence is really helpful to boost confidence. Mapping has a
great future, but we’re being bullied into a mindset that maps are useless and
that irritates me.
However, there times when sales drop beyond a certain point, or when economic
difficulties emerge, that force tough decisions to be made. It is an accepted
truth that governmental agencies have been shedding paper map publishing for
years. Just look at the USGS and the Canada Map Office. The latest casualty is
the US governmental agency that has published aeronautical maps for about a
century. As of April 1, ONC (1:500,000), TPC (1:1,000,000) and JOG (1:250,000)
maps will no longer be issued, updated or sold to retailers or the general
public. This is unfortunate, but not surprising. ITMB used these maps
extensively two decades ago to make our own maps, but we haven’t even referred
to them for the past decade. Omni Resources and Map Link will, I’m sure, stock
up before the deadline, and will scan and retain the artwork on file for years
to come, but the series is defunct, regardless.
Finally, Mapart Publishing in Canada discontinued folded paper maps sometime
within the last couple of months. This came to my attention from a customer who
wanted a particular title that I didn’t have in my retail store. I advised him
to contact Mapart directly, via their website. He did, and reported back that
all the paper maps except street atlases had been removed from the site. Mapart
was the dominant player in the map trade in Canada. Rand McNally sold their
Canadian subsidiary to a principal player in Mapart’s marketing arm a couple of
years ago, and the new firm has consolidated publishing and marketing under the
name Canadian Cartographics. As inventory depleted, the Mapart artwork was
retired and replaced by CCC-modified Rand McNally Canada artwork; thus, the
Mapart line shrank in size steadily. Mapart book atlases continue to be updated
and marketed, and Mapart sales reps continue to market CCC maps, as well as the
former Rand products.
A BIT OF HUMOUR
What better way to entertain than with new baby stories? Our daughter couldn’t
get Johnny to eat, so she phoned the doctor’s office for advice. Lan wandered
in, not knowing there was a crisis, picked up the baby, and started feeding him.
After a couple of minutes, she realized what our daughter was talking about and
showed her the little shaver happily slurping up whatever was on the menu.
That’s why God gave new mothers Grandmothers!!!
I READ IT IN THE PAPER
I read this in the local rag in Eugene, OR. A local man was recently arrested,
handcuffed, cited for a court appearance, threatened with jail, and committed to
trial. His crime: preventing a bylaw-enforcement officer from giving parking
tickets by dropping a dime in each meter in advance of her route. This Good
Samaritan was acquitted by the judge, who couldn’t understand why the City of
Eugene was so keen to prosecute someone for donating ten cents of his own money
to a parking meter. To me, that’s an incredible story. There is something
seriously wrong with officialdom in that city!
The same paper reported that Arizona has just cancelled health care coverage for
poor kids in the state. Excuse me…kids, as in little children? This isn’t funny.
This is one sicko state!
The same paper did have one sort of funny story. A man in Jarret, VA, was tried
and found not guilty of murdering somebody. This person then wrote a letter to
the prosecutor, not only admitting his guilt but bragging about how he did it
and how much he enjoyed it, believing that he couldn’t be tried twice for the
same crime. Wrong! He was tried again by the irate prosecutor, convicted of
pre-meditated murder and executed last week. The moral of this story is if ever
you get away with something, don’t say anything.
Finally - this paper was obviously a fascinating read for me! - there was the
teacher in Central Falls, RI, who hanged an effigy of President Obama in his
secondary school classroom as part of a ‘lesson plan’. What lesson, one might
ask – how to tie a noose knot…or perhaps also that it is appropriate to hang the
President of the United States (and presumably anyone else that you disagree
with)? This is a TEACHER! To me, this is appallingly unacceptable behaviour.
Guess what? The teacher received a reprimand from the school board. That’s it.
This maniac is still in front of a classroom, instructing young minds.
---
ITMB TITLES CURRENTLY OUT OF STOCK
Bahamas (delayed indefinitely as we need to prepare a digital map)
Rio de Janeiro (out of stock and being updated)
South East Asia (out of stock and being updated)
Togo/Benin (currently being updated)
US Virgin Islands (delayed indefinitely)
Mozambique, as a separate title, is discontinued for now; it is currently
available as Malawi and Mozambique.
NEW ITMB ARTWORK CLOSE TO COMPLETION or AT
PRESS
Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon recently ran out of copies. An update is currently
underway in Vietnam. We don’t have an expected release date yet, but the Saigon
section will show a lot of road changes.
Jasper National Park (Alberta, Canada) is now out of copies. It will be
re-worked into a new double-sided map for release later this year.
Rio de Janeiro ran out of copies this month, and updating is already well
underway to create a new, double-sided map.
A brand new West Coast Trail map is being developed, for release in May.
NEW TITLES: COMING IN APRIL 2010
Bahrain Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 – not at press yet
Central Asia Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 – not at press yet
Forbidden Plateau/Campbell River(BC) travel topographic/recreation map 1st Ed.
2010, currently at press
Japan Travel Reference Map, newly updated, currently at press
New Guinea, including Papua, with new map of West Irian Province added,
currently at press
TITLES THAT ARRIVED RECENTLY
Alberta travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 1:1,00,000 ISBN 9781553418122
Algeria Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 1:2,000,000 ISBN 9781553411062
Beijing and the Great Wall of China 3rd Ed. 2010 1:23,000/1:280,000 ISNB
9781553416012
Botswana, including Zimbabwe, Travel Reference Map 5th Ed. 2010 1:1,500,000 ISBN
9781553411475
Chile & Argentina ITM Travel Atlas 1st Ed. 2010 scale varies 114 pages ISBN
9781553410768
China ITM Travel Atlas 1st Ed. 124 pages 2010 ISBN 9781553410751
Earth Ball Inflatable Globe 16”/30cm marketed product ISBN 081539736264
Europe Railways Travel Reference Map 3rd Ed. 2010 1:3,350,000 ISBN 978155341
Georgia Travel Reference Map 4th Ed. 2010 1:610,000 ISBN 9781553412182
Germany Travel Reference Map 2nd Ed. 2010 1:650,000 ISBN 9781553412205
Israel and Palestine Travel Reference Map 2nd Ed. 2010 1:225,000 ISBN
9781553412601
Jakarta Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 1:21,000/1:75,000 ISBN 9781553416517
Lima and Central Peru Travel Reference Map 2nd Ed. 2010 1:13,000/1:1,500,000
ISBN 9781553416562
Lower Mainland Region (BC) Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 1:250,000 ISBN
9781553418276
Manila ITM City Map 1st Ed. 2010 1:20,000 ISBN 9781553416739
Mexico Baja California Travel Reference Map 7th Ed. 2010 1:650,000 ISBN
9781553415435
Sao Paulo/Southern Brasil Travel Reference Map 2nd Ed. 2010 1:12,500/1:2,200,000
ISBN 9781553416876
Sumatra Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 1:110,000 ISBN 9781553415442
Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010
1:1,350,000 ISBN 9781553412854
Uzbekistan Travel Reference Map 1st Ed. 2010 1:1,580,000 ISBN 9781553414551
QUOTE DU JOUR
"God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of
living well."
- Voltaire, French Philosopher (1694-1778)