Bill Morris

Map of Paris buildings by age

Nothing like a nice long flight for catching up on #30DayMapChallenge 🤪.

Here's Day 8 — urban — right on time. A map of Paris buildings by age of construction. A real beauty if I do say so myself. 😍

Are you the asshole? Of course not!—quantifying LLMs’ sycophancy problem In new research, AI models show a troubling tendency to agree with whatever the user says.

'[Researchers] looked at 2,000 posts where the most upvoted comment stated that “You are the asshole,” representing what the researchers called “a clear human consensus on user wrongdoing.”'

arstechnica.com/ai/2025/10/a...

Why "Science-as-a-Service" Doesn't Work for Earth Science There has been a lot of talk lately about whether commercial Earth observation (EO) companies could replace parts of NASA’s Earth science mission portfolio. With a new Administrator coming in, that de...

Major props to Aravind for this post. Science is a public good. newsletter.terrawatchspace.com/why-science-...

Map of international undergraduate students in the US

Happy #30DayMapChallenge to all those who celebrate!

Day 1 is points and mine is a love letter to all the international undergraduate students who choose the United States for their studies. Thanks for being here!

#30DayMapChallenge2025 #points

That's my mantra after mile 22 or so. "Pheidippides died. Pheidippides died. Pheidippides died." <chug gatorade>

And I'm torn because I love the vibes of NYC in particular during that race, but the commercial sponsorships, the increasing fees, the bragging requirements, it's all such a bummer.

1. Hard disagree about running shorter distances faster, solely because I prefer the opposite and it's worked out okay even into middle age.
2. But hard agree, hype-man-airhorn, etc about the commodification of the marathon; it's market intrusion where it doesn't belong.

@macwright.com I love the bomb you just dropped here: macwright.com/2025/11/02/f...

My latest piece for @puddingviz.bsky.social: In pursuit of democracy

pudding.cool/2025/11/demo...

Proposal 5: Create a Digital City Map Currently, each borough president is in charge of maintaining paper maps of each borough. The maps are the official record of street lines and street grades, and the locations of public parks and open space. A “yes” vote would require the city to consolidate and digitize the map under the Planning Commission. A “no” vote would keep the current map system in place. Unlike the three housing-related proposals, this one has seen little opposition.

Whoa, Prop5 is relevant to my interests, NYC . . . www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/n...

The shape of a dove in tumultuous cirrus clouds

A dove in the clouds, yesterday evening.

(Pay no mind to the "world's tallest filing cabinet" in the foreground)

We’re hiring a Cloud Engineer (EU/UK) 🌍

Help build open-source, cloud-native geospatial + AI tools with partners like ESA, NASA & ECMWF.

Remote-first from an ESA member state or join us in Lisbon.
grnh.se/9f2aodg43us

#hiring #jobs #geospatial #europe

Your (or your employer's) financial support for the PSF would be very much appreciated this year! (And every other year too) bsky.app/profile/pyth...

Definitely the right call 🙏

Life Story: Robert Resnik ‘Was a Loud Librarian’ For more than 50 years, the Burlington folk musician, award-winning DJ and librarian brought music to Vermonters’ lives.

We should all be so lucky to be memorialized like librarian Robert Resnik. May his memory be a blessing.

www.sevendaysvt.com/arts-culture...

The entire internet in one screenshot

Cincinnati in 50 Maps - Andy Woodruff, cartographer 50+ original maps of Cincinnati in a book edited by Nick Swartsell with cartography by Andy Woodruff

You'll hear me screaming much more about this book in a month or so, but for now I've made a little portfolio update to add a thing on the soon-to-be-published Cincinnati in 50 Maps, which you can and should pre-order now. andywoodruff.com/posts/2025/c...

The Jays have the chance to do the funniest thing Canada has done since 1814

10 years! Despite the drought and the bitching, this year looks to be mostly average here in BTV.

3D map on the wall in a library. Small white houses on brown cork board. There are bookshelves in the background.

25 different house styles, 3D printed, and positioned on a cork & foamcore basemap, with blinky lights! $365 total cost, including laser cutting at a maker space.

Oooooo, at least 25.

A joyous Indigenous Peoples day to you all! And if you're struggling to quit the OTHER mid October holiday cold turkey, may I interest you in an Italian who was a better mapmaker, better explorer, actually visited New England, and didn't (as far as anyone knows) murder anyone?
Giovanni da Verrazzano

Lake Champlain with the far shore shrouded in fog below a clear sky with a bright moon.

The water's got thirty degrees on the air this morning.

Ripe Concord grapes on the vine

Starting to collect the grape harvest

Vermont's extreme drought has given us a nearly-Californian climate here this summer and fall. While that's been a catastrophe for most agriculture, I can't remember a better grape harvest.

Richard, it's Wednesday. But I'm absolutely here for the bridleways content.

Democrats Must Embrace War Mindset We have exited a long period of peace and entered into a struggle not unlike war, in which all the old certainties have gone malleable and the future of the republic is at stake.

"You don't get to decide when you're in a fight. If someone punches you in the face, you're in one. We're in one."

www.liberalcurrents.com/democrats-mu...

Budget cuts come for us all. My contract with Amtrak is not being renewed and it's up tomorrow.

I'll have more time to work on the Map Center but until it's fully off the ground, I'm a GIS analyst with 12 years of experience in ESRI, open source, education and cartography.
#gigeconomy
#opentowork

Seems like not the greatest of prizes to be winning.

Bless you for the wonder and stability, ESA. Thanks for keeping the lights on.