Talk:The map

Interactive Map

Welcome to the instructions for the Interactive Map. The map is coded with JavaScript using the Google Maps API (v2), with custom code supporting rendering from XML. Please feel free to poke around the map, as we work to discover the meaning of the strings and pins. --Orne 15:24, 13 November 2006 (EST)

Adding Content

If/when new pushpins are revealed in the show, please communicate the new information here, and I will incorporate them into the XML file as soon as possible.

Data Format: Please include the following detail items if/when you request new content to add to the map

Marker: 'Marker Name' as text, 'Latitude' as numeric, 'Longitude' as numeric, 'Color' as text, optional 'HeroesWiki page' as text
Line: 'Start Marker' as text, 'End Marker' as text, 'Color' as text

The Line will be drawn from the Start Marker to End Marker in a West to East direction

Finding Lat/Long Numerics: Left click on the map at the desired location at the map, and the API will create a new marker on the map. Left click the marker and copy the Lat/Long from the information pop-up window.

Request to Add Content

Enter data to this section; items will be removed if/when they are added to the map.

Overlappng pictures

If I were better at formatting, I would take care of this myself ... The picture of the map and the gallery are running into each other on my browser ... Can someone fix this? Thanks! Ryangibsonstewart 00:13, 29 November 2006 (EST)

Done. For future reference, you can fix this by sticking <br clear="all"> before the opening <gallery> tag. --Hardvice (talk) 00:17, 29 November 2006 (EST)
- Yeah, that one rocks! Thanks - you're so helpful! Ryangibsonstewart 00:31, 29 November 2006 (EST)

Official Interactive Map

NBC has added an interactive map to the official site. It has a lot of information that seems to go beyond what has thus far developed in the show, including more names of evolved humans, and some abbreviations or acronyms that I can't figure out. Has anyone looked at it carefully yet? Any idea about those abbreviations? It's here: http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/games/map.shtml .--E rowe 11:28, 22 January 2007 (EST)

I haven't updated my map in months, since the map itself hasn't really been appearing on the show. At some point I'll update it once I get a good high-res shot. --Orne 11:40, 22 January 2007 (EST)

Actually, I think the letters are probably genetic codes. It looks like they are always permutations of A, C, G, and U. If I remember right those are the components of DNA, in which case they probably reveal nothing, but I don't remember my biology well enough to say for sure. --E rowe 11:31, 22 January 2007 (EST)

Very close, it's RNA. Uracil (U) is an RNA base pair. (Admin 11:36, 22 January 2007 (EST))

On the map, there are Red, Green, Blue, White, Yellow and (possibly) Black markers. DNA is composed of 4 markers, ATGC: Adenine "A" pairs with Thymine "T", Guanine "G" pairs with Cytosine "C". --Orne 11:40, 22 January 2007 (EST)

The post-it notes on the interactive map are misplaced. The North American sites are shown in Asia and vice versa. Possibly significant to the 'Heroes 360' online game? Disney42 21:12, 24 January 2007 (EST)

Just found something, if you follow the link to the Flash file itself, using IE6 and put the window in anything other than a 4:3 aspect ratio (not Maximized, basically)... the "map" that scrolls in the background shows outside of the "misty" edges of the screen. It's a very poorly coded Flash file, and if anyone has an editor, maybe we could extract the image that is scrolling in much higher quality. I can actually read (blurry) that Isaac Mendez is a postie in NYC, D.L. Hawkins is a postie in Las Vegas, and Matthew P... is in Los Angeles. --Orne 16:11, 29 January 2007 (EST)
- Neat. (Works in Firefox, too). There's also one for Theodore Sprague near Matthew P.--Hardvice (talk) 16:21, 29 January 2007 (EST)
- Okay, I extracted the background from the SWF file. It's not much more detailed than the composite, but the misty edges are gone at least.--Hardvice (talk) 16:35, 29 January 2007 (EST)

Trivia

Just a heads up, that's what I added, since I forgot the summary.--Riddler 19:55, 26 January 2007 (EST)

Why the Strings?

Why have strings linking the push pins? On one of the maps a single string connects two locations. Why? are these specific people related in some way?

Usually, if you are just marking locations you would just use the pins. What is the corrorilation between the people that would necessitate the use of the strings?--ASEO 12:21, 1 February 2007 (EST)

I think the string clearly indicates some type of connection. I don't think it's necessarily a familial connection (IIRC, Nathan and Peter weren't connected by a string). Perhaps it's a shared ability? For example, Claire has regeneration. Perhaps a string connection, say, Joe in Warsaw, Poland (not a real example, mind you) means he also has the same power. Or even further down the rabbit hole, maybe they just have a similarity in their genetic markers - related powers, or the potential for developing powers? Flight could be considered similar to superspeed, for example; therefore, a string between a flight possessor and a speed possessor. --ZyberGoat 13:25, 1 February 2007 (EST)
- The only pattern I noticed with the strings is that there is very often another pin where two strings cross. I think of them like "ley lines": mystical lines that cross the earth, and where lines cross there is an increase in magical/metaphysical events (hauntings, monuments, etc). In this case, they have not made it clear in the show why any two people are linked - in an outbreak tracker, you would link them by how they "spread" a disease, and the lines would trace back to a patient zero. Since we are dealing with genetics, at the moment there is only inheritance to transfer powers... unless Chandra found that there was some way that people are "given" powers, and he's tracking them with the map. --Orne 14:40, 1 February 2007 (EST)
  - Yeah, Not so much. There does seem to be several instances of two pins connected by distinct color string. I still have a hard time believing that there is an equasion that actually pinpoints specific individuals. Maybe something like there may be someone in this part of the country based on population, but "Bill LaPatch can cause Idiocy in those around him, and he lives in Oklahoma City at...". I find that the lamest part of the show.--ASEO 09:50, 2 February 2007 (EST)
    - I take the strings to mean exactly the opposite of a correlation. What Chandra was demonstrating was that there were similar genetic mutations occurring in regards to two or more people on opposing sides of the globe. He was using the strings to demonstrate that there was no geologic correlation between genetic similarities. People living in vastly different parts of the globe were demonstrating remarkably similar abilities, but that they developed totally separate from one another. So it wasn't like drinking water from a certain region would grant you certain mutations. Or perhaps he was using the string to look for these sorts of patterns and the result was cacophany, so he concluded there were no useful correlations, and then was simply too lazy to take down the strings. Also, multi-colored strings on maps just look cool on television. -- ZachsMind 18:06, 11 February 2007 (EST)

Nathan on Sylar's Map

Somebody on a 9th Wonder's board has transcribed the text of the newspaper clipping about Nathan on Sylar's map here. I can't find a good enough picture of the clipping to verify what he wrote. However, if that really is a transcription of the article on the map, then it was plagiarized from this form letter to the editor. Could anybody upload a good picture of as much of that news clipping as can be recovered so we can verify it? I think that would be a pretty interesting bit of trivia. --E rowe 15:10, 11 February 2007 (EST)

"Plagiarized" is a little strong for a prop that was probably never intended to be read by anyone or shown in enough detail to be legible.--Hardvice (talk) 15:55, 11 February 2007 (EST)
- Given that this is only a discussion page I don't see why it matters if a strong word is used, particularly since it's accurate. I am not passing judgment about it. But it would be nice to see the article.--E rowe 16:08, 11 February 2007 (EST)
  - I didn't mean to sound like I was arguing with your word choice. I merely meant that if it's copied, it's probably just because they grabbed some vaguely political text and pasted it in, expecting that no one would ever really be able to read it. I doubt too much thought went into it. I mean, look at Mr. Bennet's business card ... they're not too subtle with text they actually expect us to read. Still, it would be neat to see where it came from.--Hardvice (talk) 16:36, 11 February 2007 (EST)
    - Yeah, that's pretty much the same way I picture it happening. I wouldn't actually expect someone to have composed a fake article just to put on a show prop that nobody's supposed to read. But I still think it's kind of funny where they got it and that they got caught. Actually, they might have even used a real news clipping from a paper that actually printed that letter to the editor, not knowing that the text was online and could be googled.--E rowe 17:09, 11 February 2007 (EST)

Episode screenshots

If we're able to get high-res screenshots of Mr. Bennett's license then we should be able to get lots of shots of the various maps including larger photos and names. Bkdelong 12:55, 13 February 2007 (EST)

OK. Placeholder for all the NBC pictures of The Map. From "Better Halves" and "One Giant Leap". The map in Sylar's appt has quite a lot of items on it. Probably all props but I wouldn't take anything for granted.