Application and component SDK products : http://weblogs.java.net/blog/hansmuller/archive/2004/10/and_then_there.html : Thinkmap SDK , Inxight , JUNG ( the Java Universal Network/Graph Framework),

A very extensible api to visualize hyperbolic geometry, to handle graphs, and to layout hyperbolic trees (ala "TheBrain") : http://hypergraph.sourceforge.net/ The HyperGraph homepage.

Added QuixoteMap to http://www.1-900-870-6235.com/eLearning/TheGreatIdeas.htm

A panoramic map collection : http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/pmhtml/panhome.html Subject Index at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/pmmapsubjindex1.html

Map Resources : http://www.sou.edu/library/reference/mapres.html

Example of a "life"map (http://rescomp.stanford.edu/~jamey/images/map/map.html ) and http://www.themeparkbrochures.com/mainmaps.html from: http://linkmonger.net/clumps.php?action=view&id=31

" I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and find it hard to believe. The names, the shapes... the courses of the roads and rivers...are an inexhaustible fund of interest for any.. with eyes to see or twopenceworth of imagination to understand with." - Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island, 1883
"Make it easier for people to do the right thing and you will increase the probability that they will."- Jacob Nielsen
"... your desire to end desire, is still a desire." - Chuang Tzu
Philosophical Mapping Question: "YOU ARE HERE, but why?"

A PICTURE OF PEACE
"There once was a King who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The King looked at all the pictures, but there were only two he really liked and he had to choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror, for peaceful towering mountains were all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky from which rain fell and in which lightening played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all. But when the King looked, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest... perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize? The King chose the second picture. Do you know why? "Because," explained the King, "peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart." "That is the real meaning of peace." - Author Unknown