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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Isn’t the world of dogs about more than (British) bulldogs and (French) poodles?
This is the first-ever database of Europe’s 3,318 remaining synagogues.
Here’s why Latin American cities are the deadliest in the world.
If your BMI is higher than 30, you’re technically obese. These maps show how many people per European country (and U.S. state) suffer from that medical condition.
Every country is unique—but only America is extraordinary
The first rule of Vulture Club: stay out of Portugal.
Half of Holland does not wash hands after going to the bathroom. The Bosnians are the cleanest Europeans.
Should police officers be able to get away with having sex with detainees?
Mapping your daily long john needs since 2011 (Canada only)
If the zouave of the Alma bridge gets his feet wet, Paris knows to start worrying
Musk is about more than Teslas and rockets.
Once you start seceding, who’s to say where it will stop?
Street names can cause diplomatic offence – and sometimes, that’s exactly why they’re there.
Even underground, there would still be a helicopter hovering overhead
Did you know the U.S. is actually almost half empty?
Also, where are you going to find a ram’s horn at this time of year?
How bloody was Australia’s colonial history? Two mapping projects reveal the horrible truth
Possibly the biggest Christmas tree in the history of ever
A Middle-Eastern copy of the famous ‘serio-comic’ map of Europe, with the female figures more modestly dressed
The highest concentration in Europe of places named after saints? Galicia, in Spain.
By 2020, Bitcoin mining will consume more energy than the world currently produces
The Caucasus is dry, the Far East very wet
How the U.S. teaches foreign languages to its diplomats.
Despite accusations of racial stereotyping, most Dutch cities and towns keep the traditional blackface version of ‘Zwarte Piet’.
A gratuity is expected in some countries, but taken as an insult in others
What the region’s train network would look like if all plans and proposals were realised
Do you know you Hangzhous from your Changzhous?
The U.S. divided into Pacific, Atlantic, Interior and Confederate States
A phonetic map to help Warsaw Pact soldiers find their way around the Home Counties
An eye-catching ‘scaly-dragon’ map of Berlin’s public transport system in 1927