Strange Maps
A special series by Frank Jacobs.
Frank has been writing about strange maps since 2006, published a book on the subject in 2009 and joined Big Think in 2010. Readers send in new material daily, and he keeps bumping in to cartography that is delightfully obscure, amazingly beautiful, shockingly partisan, and more. "Each map tells a story, but the stories told by your standard atlas for school or reference are limited and literal: they show only the most practical side of the world, its geography and its political divisions. Strange Maps aims to collect and comment on maps that do everything but that - maps that show the world from a different angle."
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Three scientists have produced a map of the world which accurately reflects the size of all the continents. They’re calling the Equal Earth Projection.
America’s fear of an Anglo-Japanese alliance led Canada to worry about a U.S. attack—and in the end, devise a scheme for a ‘pre-emptive invasion’ of its southern neighbor.
By the late 18th century, up to 70% of the soldiers manning the ships of the Dutch East India Company came from outside the Netherlands
Faith is in retreat, atheism is on the march. But only in China does a majority positively state they don’t believe in God.
No international borders, no international order—and yet, most land borders are not very old: more than half were drawn after 1900.
These maps offer a glimpse of what’s been lost – or rather, destroyed – by previous generations.
Englishman Andy Pardy is traveling 18,000 miles (30,000 km) across Europe this summer to make a continent-sized political statement
Just ten rivers are responsible for up to 95% of all river-borne plastic trash that ends up in the sea. Silver lining: cleaning them up would have a huge positive impact.
America’s corn syrup fields are big enough to cover all its airports and railroads, and other surprising lessons from a ‘tidied-up’ map of America’s land use zones
More than 20,000 people have signed a petition for Batman, one of Turkey’s 81 provinces, to be re-shaped so its borders resemble the Bat-Signal.
Mind-boggling as it is, some of the world’s roundest countries are also some of the most rectangular ones.
Hungary’s Two-Tailed Dog Party campaigns on an ‘anti-anti-immigration platform, with slogans such as: “Sorry about our Prime Minister”, and “Feel free to come to Hungary, we already work in England anyway!”
Simple diagrams reflect straightforward grids that make navigation easy. Complex diagrams equal ‘messy’ street grids, making it harder to find your way.
The current U.S. Administration seems happier to pursue fleeting photo ops with strongmen than to cultivate long-standing alliances. Where does that leave American influence in Asia?
The fans supporting their teams at the World Cup in Russia are overwhelmingly white. Their teams? Not so much.
Virtually all young Danes have left the parental home by the time they’re 34. Yet in Slovakia, almost 57% of young adults still reside in the Hotel of Mum and Dad.
The heatwave scorching Britain is revealing the outline of ancient buildings – some previously unknown to archaeologists
There’s a reason why all the world seems to be hiding within the borders of Maine.
America is the world’s #2 exporter – and that makes trade wars everything but “good and easy to win”
Three years after the Charleston massacre, the ‘Lost Cause’ is still honoured throughout the South – and beyond
Name one French coastline. Great. Now name another. Can’t? Here are all 36.
Are you a ‘Big-Endian’ or a ‘Little-Endian’? Swift’s satirical take on religious wars gave us the jargon to describe our different date and address formats.
All big cities have rats, but Paris seems to have a more serious rodent problem than most.
Soccer is not a matter of life and death. It’s much more important than that. And the FIFA World Cup even more so.
The world’s newest land, created by Hawaii’s volcanic outburst, already has an owner.
This is what the world will look like, 250 million years from now
In most countries around the world, some jobs are by law reserved for men only and forbidden for women.
Each year, lightning kills 24,000 people around the world. These maps show which regions get hit more than others.
Could social graphing be a way to find the ‘Holy Grail’ of successful movie writing?
West Virginia and Mississippi are at the bottom of the educational attainment table and Massachusetts is the state with the highest share of Bachelor’s degree holders – beaten only by the District of Columbia