The World Monitor blog
Guides and explainers on following world events: live maps, police scanner audio, OSINT basics and the open-source signals people watch in a crisis.
How police scanner maps work, from radio call to map pin
What a police scanner map actually is, how public dispatch audio becomes an incident pin, why some cities are missing, and what the law says about listening.
How to follow a war on a live map, without doomscrolling
A calm way to track a war live: which war maps are worth opening, which slower expert sources to pair them with, and how to avoid rumors and doomscrolling.
The pizza index, DEFCON guesses and other open-source crisis signals
Why people watch pizza places near the Pentagon, what unofficial DEFCON trackers measure, which public signals carry real information, and how to read them.
OSINT for beginners: following world events with free, public tools
Open-source intelligence, minus the jargon: the free maps, flight trackers, satellite data and verification tools hobbyists use to follow world events.
Which World Monitor? One name, many different apps
At least eight apps and sites use the name World Monitor. Here is how to tell them apart, and which one this blog belongs to. Checked November 2026.