Slashgeo

Declan Butler allows us to view Reporters Without Borders's data on press freedom in Google Earth. From the Reporters Without Borders blog: "“Unfortunately nothing has changed in the countries that are the worst predators of press freedom,” the organisation said, “and journalists in North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Cuba, Burma and China are still risking their life or imprisonment for trying to keep us informed. [...]" Update: 10/30 20:28 GMT by S : Story promoted to main page.

The Catholicgauze blog has a nice analysis of the Index of Economic Freedom map. The Index is published by The Heritage Foundation. From the blog: "The top seven all have been strongly culturally influenced by England and the English ideals of personal and economic freedoms. [...] A secondary break down has Hong Kong and Singapore as Asian tigers. [...] The bottom fifteen countries include Venezuela, Iran, Zimbabwe, Libya, Cuba, and North Korea. The bottom part of the list coincides with Thomas Barnett's Gap. These countries are either African, Islamic, Communist/Thug Communist, or a combination of the variables."

I just stumbled onto this world map of the Corruption Perceptions Index 2006. From the Transparency International website: "Transparency International commissioned Prof. Dr J. Graf Lambsdorff of the University of Passau to produce the CPI table. For information on data and methodology, please consult the frequently asked questions and the CPI methodology or www.icgg.org." From the site, less corruption perceived in Finland, Iceland, New Zealand, Denmark and Singapore, while at the other end of the spectrum, Haiti, Myanmar, Iraq, Guinea, Sudan and Congo.

Featured both on AGISRS and the EiS, the biggest atlas ever named Earth: "It is being billed as the ultimate book about the world and it is something of a landmark in its own right. "Earth" -- the biggest atlas ever to be published -- promises to be a luxurious benchmark in cartography. Created by Millennium House, "Earth" -- complete with a clam shell case -- measures 610 x 469 millimeters and weighs in at over 30 kilos.The price is pretty hefty too. The leather bound, gilt-edged book will set you back around $3500." For other recent Atlas coverage, see these two entries on The Map Room.

Another Earth Atlas was featured on the geonews recently, the one using the Thematic Mapping Engine. From the announcement earlier this month: "Earth Atlas is a prototype web application showing how KML files can be visualised directly in the web browser. The Google Earth API and the Ext JS library are used to create a responsive user interface. Earth Atlas contains KML files from the Thematic Mapping Engine, a few KML SuperOverlays as alternate background maps, and KML files from external sources." See also related stories below.