Category Archives: August

National Lighthouse Day (219/365)

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Trying something different today and deliberately making the map using a two step process. I want to make a map of the lighthouses around the British Isles to celebrate National Lighthouse Day, and I could leave the entire workflow to an LLM via a prompt. But I don’t really want to check the result for accuracy for any great length of time, and I’ve generally found if you have, or can acquire, datasets ahead of the main map-making task then the result tends to have fewer basic errors relating to the efficacy of the data itself.

So, we’ll start by asking Copilot to create the dataset of all the lighthouses around the British Isles, and once that is built we’ll then feed it into ChatGPT to make the map. Additionally I’m going to ask for the map to be created in one of the styles Ian has built – a clean, newsroom style. And here’s the result:

Lighthouses light

But what if I want a version on a dark basemap to emphasise the illuminated lights? I just asked ChatGPT to make the change. Voila!

Lighthouses dark

Sure, I could iterate further and tweak the description, and maybe go down the route of adding more lighthouses, and have the map show the actual illuminated reach but I’m the cartographer in this workflow and I decided that was enough for today. Plus, the kettle, that I switched on at the start of this map-making endeavour, has now boiled so I’m going to make a cup of tea.

Original Prompt (Copilot)

Can you find, or build a dataset of all the lighthouses around the British Isles, and create a csv file that has columns for name, latitude, and longitude.

Response “I built a CSV file with 54 lighthouse records covering major lighthouses across Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and surrounding island groups. The coordinates were assembled primarily from Northern Lighthouse Board lighthouse listings and well-known lighthouse reference sources.”, plus the required csv file. There was a warning that there are mote, smaller, lesser harbour lights and other illuminations but the dataset provided were the major lighthouses.

Original Prompt (ChatGPT)

I’d like you to create a map of Lighthouses of the British Isles. I’m uploading a csv file of the actual locations including latitude and longitude of the 54 major lighthouses that exist. I would also like you to create the map using a visual style contained in a second ‘newspaper infographic’ style specified in markdown. The lighthouses themselves should be symbolised with a glowing dot, and a buffered zone indicating the illuminated area around the lighthouse, that fades away the further away from the lighthouse.

This is great, but could you modify the style to make the background a dark map, so the lighthouses and coastline near them glow.

India Pale Ale Day (218/365)

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Nice drink (until you give up alcohol then it’s not as good any more). Long history. Hoppy beer. Created in the UK. Exported to India (hops helped preserve it for the journey). Declined in popularity. Renaissance in late 20th Century and underpinned the craft beer movement, particularly in the US.

Unfortunately I have zero time to think much about today’s map as for me it’s ‘Root Canal Surgery Day’ so it’s a vague prompt, and probably an error strewn map.

IPAOriginal Prompt (Nano Banana 2)

Could you create a map to celebrate India Pale Ale Day and include facts about the drink, its origins and geographic distribution.

National Underwear Day – The Daily Briefs (217/365)

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Ken already made a map for No Pants Day. It was epic! I decided to have a go at National Underwear Day.

I loath rainbow choropleth schemes. But in a week where I have been trying to leave my comfort zone, I’ve decided to go all out and embrace a rainbow-esque color scheme for a noble cause… nostalgia.

It’s not ROYGBIV; it may even be more heinous. And the default view is certifiably not color-blind friendly. (Though in the top header there is a button you can click to change it to a color-blind friendly version.)

Cartographic innovation is about breaking rules. In this case, I was trying to relive those incredibly saturated weather maps on the back page of the front section of the USA Today print newspaper which could be found every morning outside one’s door in nearly every US hotel chain throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

1980s newspaper colors were BRIGHT!

They were anything but nuanced. In hindsight, I fondly recall them as an analog precursor those dreadful 1990s “web-safe” color palettes. Using them breaks every contemporary cartographic rule there is, which is what made this map fun to create.

So the map’s color scheme and block-like design is nothing to envy, but it’s spot on for what I asked for. I used the 1980s color newspaper schema I created and shared in the Map Design Lab on promptcartography.com.

I asked it to design the map like a section of one of those 1980s newspapers – boxy, gaudy, and with 1980s print colors. And then I gave it a dataset that fit the theme perfectly – a county-by-county underwear drying index for August 5 (National Underwear Day) across the US.

The Underwear Drying Index (trademark pending… 😉 is real. It is a concoction of real weather data, created using my favorite Web Mapper Suite – Spatial Data Maker GPT (full conversation and datasets available here). You can view the dataset provenance here.

Happy National Underwear Day! For those outside the US… I know you are missing out. Feel free to refashion this index to suit your national underwear or clothes-drying days. It’s gratis! 😉 Please just CC – BY NY (and maybe B.O.?) – Map Design Commission of the ICA, 2026.

1980s Color-Newspaper Design Aesthetic (Original Intent)

Colorblind-friendly screen grab of the Briefs Forecast.

Colorblind-friendly toggle in the header.

View Map Here

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

Hi. I need to come up with some tasteful map ideas for Underwear Day on August 5th. Can you help me brainstorm up to 4 different map ideas – from data-oriented to absurd and artistic image maps?

US National Coast Guard Day (216/365)

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I’ve had several cartography students who were in the US Coast Guard. And my daughter’s friend from HOSA joined the Coast Guard this summer.

Since the alternative map theme available today was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, and since this week began with propaganda maps and has already included a US nuclear submarine map, I figured why not pay homage to the US Coast Guard. So…

Happy US National Coast Guard Day!

P.S. This map is not endorsed, promoted, or recognized by the US National Coast Guard and no trademarked symbology was used in its creation. It is for education purposes only to celebrate US Coast Guard Day. That being said, the color scheme and mobile-friendly D3 globe is pretty awesome in my opinion. 😉

View Map Here

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

Hi, please create a map to celebrate August 4, US National Coast Guard Day. If possible, please use an interactive globe projection – orthographic but spinnable and pannable – centered on the coterminous United States with both the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards easily visible, as well as the Gulf of Mexico.

Differentiate the different types of points in the dataset. Allow users to click a point to have an information window (fixed location in corner of window) appear with information about the Coast Guard base or incident, please. Minimize the reliability score, but have it available in the lower area of the info window for each feature.

Style the map using similar color schemes and typefaces as to those found on official US Coast Guard website(s), with attribution and not copying exactly. Do not copy exactly or imply that this map is endorsed by the US Coast Guard, because it is not.

DO NOT show a blue rectangle around selected locations, etc. Alsok please add “Creator: (Ian Muehlenhaus)[https://www.muehlenhaus.com] to the about modal. Also please include a thank you in the about, from Ian, to all those who have served in the US Coast Guard, because I like the Coast Guard. Thanks.

Emphasize the datasets in the visual hieararchy. I have a Mapbox API key if it is needed and makes sense to use a Mapbox globe. However, an ArcScene is acceptable if it works as well. Whatever gets us a panscalar, good looking global basemap interface.

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IMPORTANT: on mobile, have the info window panel come up from the bottom, fit within the width of the browser window, and be easily minimizable/maximizable by clicking anywhere on the header bar of it.

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I’ve attached two datasets that are exactly the same, just different formats. Use the one that is easiest for you to use.

Thank you!

USS Nautilus (215/365)

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On this day in 1958, the USS Nautilus – the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world – reach the North Pole on a top-secret mission.

Millions of Americans who still believed in Santa Claus would later learn the truth – Santa does not really live at the North Pole. (Though absence of proof does not constitute proof of absence in science, fortunately; so there is still a chance for true Santa Claus believers out there.)

I normally don’t do historical event anniversaries, but August 3rd turns out to be the first day I have come across that has fewer than four or five commemorative things pegged to it. I was very tempted to create a “Grab some nuts” day map, but my family thankfully talked me out of it after I shared my ideas formed from watching oodles of baseball games since the World Cup ended. I was desperate for something… and then I found it… the USS Nautilus. The North Pole. What’s not to love. Boring historical map done. While stopping to get some guess on a road trip, I verbally asked Spatial Data Maker GPT on my phone to find or create a dataset of the journey. When we arrived that was done. While waiting in line at the hotel, I asked Web Mapper GPT to create a map with a stereographic projection and using a 1990s World War II map design style to map the route and to also try to include images at each “milestone” of the voyage.

By the time I checked into the room, it was ready. Uploaded to the server.

Now, I’m watching an episode of “To Catch a Smuggler” – an episode I’ve seen before, but it never gets old watching canines sniffing mail – and writing this. Given how easy it is to make a map at this point, it’s neat to reflect on just how far ChatGPT has come since January 1st…

But not too long. I have to figure out what to map for August 4. I suppose that’s something I can worry about tomorrow night while in line at the grocery store.

View Map Here

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

Hi there. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the USS Nautilus submarine going under the North Pole or something like that. Could you please create a map commemorating this feat?

Ideally it should be a stereographic or gnomonic projection centered on the North Pole. If possible, please find or use vector bathymetry. Land area can have country boundaries lightly marked, but the land should be ground, bathymetry of the oceans next up in the visual hierarchy, and the route and milestones dominant. Graticules would be okay, but these should be very light and easily overlooked. Label the meridians outside of the circle neatline of the map.

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National Coloring Book Day (214/365)

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Happy National Coloring Book Day!

Remember the adult coloring-book fad? Regardless, coloring-book publishers don’t want us to forget it.

I have nothing against coloring books, aside from the fact that millions of trees were slaughtered for a fad about 10 years ago. I was never particularly proficient at them, though. I have a tendency to not enjoy staying inside the lines – or lanes or silos or… – but I do have fond memories of a Return of the Jedi coloring book from 1983.

But the adult-coloring craze has started dying off, I believe. I think there may be some coloring special issues of German-language Flow Magazines lying around our house. But that’s about it. And when I go to thrift stores looking for CDs, I see bookshelves filled with coloring books that have one or two images filled.

So what to map for coloring book day? I suppose I could try to find data of color book sales by state (since the day is officially national), but let’s be honest… that’s boring.

I could easily have Web Mapper GPT spit out a coloring book of maps. But honestly, I would be surprised if there aren’t 200 or so LLM-produced map coloring books on Amazon already? I was listening to BBC Radio about six months ago and they had a program in which they interviewed an American romance-novel author who was producing 25 novels a year using GPT 4.0 and selling 50-100,000 copies total. Now that’s a living, I told my better half and kids. I asked them if they thought I might try it. It was unanimous: stick with my day job.

And so here I am, on a Saturday evening, writing a blog for no money to provide a free map coloring book to the masses… when I could be directing ChatGPT 5.6 to author my 17th romance novel since January, including a new addition to The 50 Shades of ColorBrewer or Cartographic Projections series.

Alas, Gordon Lightfoot summed up my situation well when he crooned… “Sometimes I think it’s a shame, when I feel like I’m winning and I’m losing again…”

But alas… at least I get to make coloring books for free while watching Detroit Tigers’ top prospect Max Clark make his first-ever major league start in scenic Sacramento while my daughter tests today’s m-app.

But not just another coloring book! Oh no… I couldn’t stomach that. Let’s gamify our coloring book!

I recalled that you can fill in a world map with four colors. So I decided to allow people to pick areas of the Earth, or the entire world, and try to color it in with a preselected amount of colors.

Adjacent countries and/or provinces may not have the same color. It’s a challenge, and as my daughter was finding out, it’s not always as easy as it looks.

If you get stuck, you can click a button and have the coloring book fill itself in. Take a sneak peak, and try again.

Since this game is about coloring and not language, I also decided to try and make this more universal than most maps and apps I create. I think one of the greatest benefits of LLMs is that they speak many natural languages – not just English. So this app can be viewed in 12 or more languages – including Esperanto, because why not?

I have no idea if the translations make sense, but my daughter vouched for the German and French… passively. Most importantly, I added a British English version, so I don’t catch too much flack for “coloring book” versus “colouring book”. (You’re welcome, Ken. 😉

I also experimented with adding WeChat and Telegram sharing options, because why let US tech company’s dominate the echo chamber.

And that’s a wrap… Enjoy National Coloring Book Day in whatever language you prefer. Good luck and happy coloring.

View ChromaCarto App Here

Web Mapper GPT

Hi. Sunday is National Coloring Book Day.

I would like to make a digital coloring book game to celebrate.

The game will have a start up menu where the use chooses which part of the world they would like to map. Options will include (based on World Bank Region or SubRegion classifications, as suitable):

– The world: without small island countries
– North America: as belonging to North America, as well as US states, Canadian provinces, and Mexican states/districts and Latin America
– South America
– Europe: which will have all the countries of Europe including Russia but only up to the Urals. No states or provinces.
– Africa: just countries. No states or provinces.
– Asia: just countries
– Oceania / Australia

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International Childfree Day (213/365)

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An internationally recognized day to honor all of those that voluntarily choose not to have children. As a non-accidental parent of two, this one is very alien to me. Which is great, as I like leaving my comfort zone and exploring the other side of things. (That’s why I may attend NACIS this year.)

But first a question: who came up with this day? Essentially, what we’re celebrating today is International Anti-Birthday. Which seems kind of odd. Who is anti-birthdays? (Besides the Hungarians, perhaps, who instead celebrate name days.)

Certainly not national governments, which typically require children to keep their economies churning and fill their army ranks. Though, admittedly, both of these things are less required now than ever before given AI upending the white-collar labour force and drones rapidly diminishing the utility of ground troops.

I can also see burnt-out parents tipping their hats to adults that voluntarily choose not to have children. Several nights ago, when my teen daughter went AWOL for hours, I probably could have been enticed to donate to the Childless movement. But mostly that was due to the fear that I was about to lose my child to some unforeseen tragedy. Turns out she wasn’t huffing glue, vaping, or chewing edibles – everything I naturally presumed she’d be doing – but scooting all over town with another friend, raiding other out-of-town friends’ gardens for fresh produce. She lost track of time and… she came home with a bag full of fresh produce to two irate parents. But hard to stay mad at someone who brings you bell peppers…

In general, aside from mini-heart attacks due to assuming my kids are making horrible life decisions, I’m quite pro-kids. It’s almost always the adults in a room that I tend to avoid. So regardless of its origins, this day wasn’t made for me, even though I’m certainly not anti-people that are anti-having-kids for themselves. I don’t care what other people decide to do with their lives. I’m not pro-natalist; just not against having kids personally.

Regardless, again, I like to take myself out of my own comfort zone. So I thought it would be fun to put myself in the shoes of someone that truly is a Childless advocate. Someone who really, really, really doesn’t want to have kids. If I were such a person, what would I map to celebrate this day?

And I came up with this 1940s-themed, jingoist newspaper-style map showing many (though definitely not all) of the communities in the US where children residents are completely banned or restricted. Because the Childless need their Heimat too. (Bonus: my dad just started wintering in one such city in Arizona last year, and I thought… I don’t even know where he goes for nine months, so now I will.) So…

Fellow Childless people, we must remain steadfast!

[See, I really am trying to be in character here. It’s called method mapping…]

We must fight off the hegemonic scourge of child-rearing!

Though… wait… the odds of our cultural system surviving beyond one or two generations is slim-to-none. Has anyone thought this through?! Our cultural movement is doomed to extinction by design…

[Crap! I fell out of character… Sorry!!! Back on it…]

Long live our Childless Strongholds in Washington, New Jersey, Arizona, (and the one random place in) Maryland, and all others that the government hides from us due to their pro-birthday policies!

Give me freedom from children, or give me… give me…

Is that a box of vanilla-glazed, Kinnikinnick gluten-free donuts? Okay, please give me that. That’ll do…

(D’oh! Muddled it up again.)

All joking aside, happy International Childfree Day to all childfree people out there… and your parents.

Thank you, United Nations, for creating this wonderful day.

View map here

Web Mapper GPT Prompt

Please design a map of these locations that do not allow young people to live in them. This is a satirical map to celebrate Childfree Day on Saturday.

The map should be kind of campy, like 1940s News Real or WWII updates: a propaganda title and theme … e.g., The last islands of Childfree Sanctuary (but something wittier and better).

Emphasize these locations, the few there are, in different states across the US, perhaps with pop-out circle detail maps or other. Consider rotating the map orientation, etc., too. I’ve added a stylesheet that will hopefully help guide you. Datasets are also attached.

This map will alrgely be datalight. It’s okay. Its not about the data – it’s about the theme. Ignore including expository text in the title or legends, etc. Only include that stuff in an About/Sources modal. Please also mention: “Cartographer: [Ian Muehlenhaus](https://www.muehlenhaus.com)”.

Thanks! It doesn’t have to be overly interactive or really interactive at all… just make it fun! Thanks. Include a provenance file in the About/Sources modal too, please.