40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World

[Edward Campbell]

Well, that's a bloody useless map: Comparing countries to continent.

Try the same map, but put the US, Canada and Mexico into Africa, it's about equal in size, Whoops, we just compared two continents with one another, and funny enough, they come out about the same (N.A.= 25 millions Km2 to Africa 30 millions Km2). Woopdy do.

The point is that many people, partially because they think the familiar Mercator projection is an equal area map, don't understand how big Africa really is and, therefore, might not even begin to suspect how diverse it is, in every way.

My guess is that we will, before Prime Minister Trudeau is tossed out of office, be taking casualties in Africa ... maybe we should start thinking about it, just a wee, tiny bit, starting with the fact that it's bigger than the USA, China, India and most of Europe, combined.

Edited to add:

Somewhere here, a few years ago, I posted the factoid that one of the great big American football stadiums (Dallas, maybe?) uses more electricity on a game night than some African countries produce, but those same African countries could be immensely rich if they could only get organized and could exploit their mineral wealth for their own benefit.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Here are more maps, 18 this time, that help to explain what's happening in the South China Sea, in particular, and Asia in general.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Another map that may help to explain ...

... why parts of Africa and Asia remain stubbornly underdeveloped. "Development" is going (changing, evolving) faster than they can manage.

 

[Jarnhamar]

A very interesting map, again from Ian Bremmer, CEO of the Eurasia Group, who says it's the best map he's seen that shows just how big Africa really is:

That's really cool thank you for posting that.

 

[Edward Campbell]

An interesting new map that has just won a design award: http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/88138/more-accurate-world-map-wins-prestigious-japanese-design-award

 

[jmt18325]

I just realized that the McDonald's map shows no restaurants in Iceland, and displays the price of a McDonald's burger there..

 

[Scott]

I just realized that the McDonald's map shows no restaurants in Iceland, and displays the price of a McDonald's burger there..

They had one until a few years ago and, IIRC, the place that took over from them has some mimic items.

Can't go to Iceland and not have Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur! One of the cheapest food items, for sure, and great after a bunch of beer.

 

[Edward Campbell]

I just realized that the McDonald's map shows no restaurants in Iceland, and displays the price of a McDonald's burger there..

Two factoids about McDonald's:

1. Way back when, in a book entitled 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree,' "Thomas Friedman came up with his “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention”. No two countries that had McDonald’s restaurants would go to war. The idea suited the heady post-cold war 1990s when people thought humanity would turn to post-ideological goals, like ending hunger. It offered the prospect of ‘homo economicus’ replacing its appetite for war with a Big Mac and fries ..." and

2. To this day The Economist uses the price of a Big Mac as a (maybe not too surprisingly) fairly accurate currency comparison tool. That newspaper explains that "Burgernomics was never intended as a precise gauge of currency misalignment, merely a tool to make exchange-rate theory more digestible. Yet the Big Mac index has become a global standard, included in several economic textbooks and the subject of at least 20 academic studies."

 

[brihard]

Two factoids about McDonald's:

1. Way back when, in a book entitled 'The Lexus and the Olive Tree,' "Thomas Friedman came up with his “Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention”. No two countries that had McDonald’s restaurants would go to war. The idea suited the heady post-cold war 1990s when people thought humanity would turn to post-ideological goals, like ending hunger. It offered the prospect of ‘homo economicus’ replacing its appetite for war with a Big Mac and fries ..." an

An enjoyable and informative book, nonetheless.

 

[Edward Campbell]

Another interesting map (from Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group) based on UFI: