David Ramos
@imagineterrain.bsky.social
Designer/design educator in Washington, D.C. Making maps/systems to help us imagine landscapes past + future. Lost streams,🚲🛶🌊 On the web — imaginaryterrain.com
Pinned
David Ramos
@imagineterrain.bsky.social
· Sep 24
A pinned collection of map projects, starting with "Lost Streams of Washington, DC," and "From Bay to Mountains," the Chesapeake Bay region's railroads, past and present.
Reposted by David Ramos
If any media outlets want to talk about the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I'm currently writing the official history of public meeting for the CPB and Current, and I'm available.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Shut Down After 58 Years Due to Trump Eliminating Funding
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting's board voted to close the organization after 58 years after the Trump Administration ended funding.
variety.com
January 5, 2026 at 7:38 PM
If any media outlets want to talk about the closure of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, I'm currently writing the official history of public meeting for the CPB and Current, and I'm available.
I was lucky to be aware of the fireworks, and also their rhythm is distinctive, but we live in a timeline where "attack by Danish special operations forces" is a possibility and I can understand the widespread alarm.
I see that I'm not the only one baffled by the Jan. 5th fireworks display (although I did happen to see a note about it earlier).
January 6, 2026 at 1:45 AM
I was lucky to be aware of the fireworks, and also their rhythm is distinctive, but we live in a timeline where "attack by Danish special operations forces" is a possibility and I can understand the widespread alarm.
I see that I'm not the only one baffled by the Jan. 5th fireworks display (although I did happen to see a note about it earlier).
January 6, 2026 at 1:03 AM
I see that I'm not the only one baffled by the Jan. 5th fireworks display (although I did happen to see a note about it earlier).
A wash of color in a bleak midwinter.
January 4, 2026 at 10:56 PM
A wash of color in a bleak midwinter.
Reposted by David Ramos
Ok. So. They anonymised the sheep.
January 4, 2026 at 1:10 PM
Ok. So. They anonymised the sheep.
"Typology": in architectural criticism, a synonym for "type"; a word that gains its cachet from being so fancy that no one, including the writer, actually knows what it means.
January 3, 2026 at 3:16 AM
"Typology": in architectural criticism, a synonym for "type"; a word that gains its cachet from being so fancy that no one, including the writer, actually knows what it means.
Eighteenth Street in Adams Morgan now that the streateries are gone. This is sooo dumb.
January 2, 2026 at 9:02 PM
Eighteenth Street in Adams Morgan now that the streateries are gone. This is sooo dumb.
Ringo: "Is that what I think it is?"
Jules: "Uh-huh."
Ringo: "It's beautiful."
Jules: "Uh-huh."
Ringo: "It's beautiful."
January 2, 2026 at 2:47 PM
Ringo: "Is that what I think it is?"
Jules: "Uh-huh."
Ringo: "It's beautiful."
Jules: "Uh-huh."
Ringo: "It's beautiful."
I've turned off wireless emergency alerts, but I do use the FEMA app so that I get particular types of warnings. (No more being woken up at 2 am for a flash flood warning when I'm 100 ft. above my local stream's armageddon flood elevation.)
Early-morning alerts create their own risks: wake up 300K people at 4:30 am, and you'll have a lot of sleep-deprived drivers the next morning with slower reflexes and worse decisionmaking. But no one's going to blame the agency for extra crashes.
January 1, 2026 at 10:02 PM
I've turned off wireless emergency alerts, but I do use the FEMA app so that I get particular types of warnings. (No more being woken up at 2 am for a flash flood warning when I'm 100 ft. above my local stream's armageddon flood elevation.)
Poster for ITC Garamond, Jack Summerford, 1979.
December 31, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Poster for ITC Garamond, Jack Summerford, 1979.
Related: the image of controlling nature is critical to life out west. Los Angeles gets less appealing, the more you understand how much nature wants to kill you.
It’s kinda interesting that Mt Baldy in CA seems to kill fewer people than Mt Washington in NH does, considering that Baldy is also very close to a massive metro area and is also much higher in altitude.
I wonder why
I wonder why
December 30, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Related: the image of controlling nature is critical to life out west. Los Angeles gets less appealing, the more you understand how much nature wants to kill you.
Winds in Baltimore are strong enough that one of the MARAD Reserve Fleet ships has broken free of her moorings.
December 29, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Winds in Baltimore are strong enough that one of the MARAD Reserve Fleet ships has broken free of her moorings.
Reposted by David Ramos
Sorry to the man who came into my store looking for a Peters Projection world map. I stand by my words but you didn't deserve the tone of voice I used to say "absolutely not because I'm not a hack."
December 27, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Sorry to the man who came into my store looking for a Peters Projection world map. I stand by my words but you didn't deserve the tone of voice I used to say "absolutely not because I'm not a hack."
Jessica Svendsen's lecture series posters show why it's more useful to think about "prominence" in type systems than about "importance" in type hierarchies. The second-most visible word in these compositions is the day—but that's the only information you could remove.
December 27, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Jessica Svendsen's lecture series posters show why it's more useful to think about "prominence" in type systems than about "importance" in type hierarchies. The second-most visible word in these compositions is the day—but that's the only information you could remove.
Here's a more complete version of the Little Patuxent River meanders map. imaginaryterrain.com/archive/midl...
December 26, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Here's a more complete version of the Little Patuxent River meanders map. imaginaryterrain.com/archive/midl...
Skaters at the National Zoo, c. 1905. This is a frozen-over waterfowl pond next to Rock Creek, around where the Petting Zoo is today. That's the new wing of the Ontario up the hillside.
December 24, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Skaters at the National Zoo, c. 1905. This is a frozen-over waterfowl pond next to Rock Creek, around where the Petting Zoo is today. That's the new wing of the Ontario up the hillside.
Reposted by David Ramos
Wishing everyone all things merry and bright!
December 24, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Wishing everyone all things merry and bright!
Comparing elevation data, expressed as heights relative to the river, with what aerial imagery tells us. This is the Little Patuxent River, flowing through the Patuxent Research Refuge and under the Amtrak Northeast Corridor.
December 23, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Comparing elevation data, expressed as heights relative to the river, with what aerial imagery tells us. This is the Little Patuxent River, flowing through the Patuxent Research Refuge and under the Amtrak Northeast Corridor.
A relative elevation map of the Little Patuxent River as it winds through the Patuxent Research Refuge, showing old meanders under the forest canopy. The larger linear feature is the trackbed of the Northeast Corridor; the abandoned W&BA tracks are to the southeast.
December 22, 2025 at 11:53 PM
A relative elevation map of the Little Patuxent River as it winds through the Patuxent Research Refuge, showing old meanders under the forest canopy. The larger linear feature is the trackbed of the Northeast Corridor; the abandoned W&BA tracks are to the southeast.
A DC National Guard UH–72 jinks to the right, possibly to avoid Marine HMX–1 helicopters doing practice approaches to the Naval Observatory. Came within about 500 meters horizontally, best as I can tell.
December 22, 2025 at 11:46 PM
A DC National Guard UH–72 jinks to the right, possibly to avoid Marine HMX–1 helicopters doing practice approaches to the Naval Observatory. Came within about 500 meters horizontally, best as I can tell.
This porous flexible pavement is not even a week old, but a utility marking crew's come through, suggesting the sidewalk's about to be dug up. (Orange here means a telecom duct.)
December 22, 2025 at 7:53 PM
This porous flexible pavement is not even a week old, but a utility marking crew's come through, suggesting the sidewalk's about to be dug up. (Orange here means a telecom duct.)
We're coming up on a year from this tragedy. Excellent data reporting from the Post.
For our new visual investigation into how night vision and city lights may have played a part in the DCA crash we flew a drone along the helicopters route, filmed incoming planes through night vision goggles, and analyzed it all within a 3D model of Washington, D.C.
Watch here wapo.st/4atdTBI
Watch here wapo.st/4atdTBI
In deadly D.C. plane crash, city lights may have played a role. See how.
The Post examined the bright skyline around Reagan National Airport and whether it may have been a factor in the January accident, which killed 67 people.
wapo.st
December 22, 2025 at 6:20 PM
We're coming up on a year from this tragedy. Excellent data reporting from the Post.
I'm not sure I want to know why my feed is full of historians and researchers posting about how most archival material hasn't been digitized.
December 22, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I'm not sure I want to know why my feed is full of historians and researchers posting about how most archival material hasn't been digitized.
It's difficult to express how vacuous and contemptible the proposed changes to the American University curriculum are, but the Eagle's editorial board tries. (It's supposed to happen in 90 days! Presumably so no one can revolt or do the math.) www.theeagleonline.com/article/2025...
Staff Editorial: AU’s rushed core overhaul threatens liberal arts identity - The Eagle
90-day timeline and lack of student input raise questions about University priorities
www.theeagleonline.com
December 20, 2025 at 6:34 PM
It's difficult to express how vacuous and contemptible the proposed changes to the American University curriculum are, but the Eagle's editorial board tries. (It's supposed to happen in 90 days! Presumably so no one can revolt or do the math.) www.theeagleonline.com/article/2025...
I really like this. It's the moment when a crew, installing new carpet in my coop, had pulled away the old baseboards and revealed the 1950 terrazzo baseboards, but I like it because it could be something much bigger.
December 19, 2025 at 11:51 PM
I really like this. It's the moment when a crew, installing new carpet in my coop, had pulled away the old baseboards and revealed the 1950 terrazzo baseboards, but I like it because it could be something much bigger.