Bit by Bit, Internet Sleuths Map North Korea

Gulags, Nukes and a Water Slide: Citizen Spies Lift North Korea's Veil
By Evan Ramsted, 2009.05.25 Mon

Led by Curtis Melvin, a Ph. D. student in economics at George Mason University, a loose internet group of North Korea enthusiasts is working to peel back layers of Soviet-style secrecy and create the most extensive map of North Korea open to outsiders. Using Google Earth, eyewitness accounts from defectors, and even pictures from government news and propaganda, they have weaved together disparate iotas of information to plot the locations of prison camps, power plants, markets, wealthy estates and more. His file is called North Korea Uncovered, and it can be downloaded as a file opened by Google Earth.

Curtis Melvin runs a blog called the North Korean Economy Watch. From this blog post it appears that this map has been available online for a while, at least since 2007, and it was just picked up by a Wall Street Journal reporter.

The US National Electric Grid: A Visual Guide

NPR has a very cool interactive map of national grid, including where the power comes from, future plans for wind and solar, and what kinds of sources states get their power from. Check it out.