40 maps that will help you make sense of the world. Fascinating.

[A HERETIC I AM]

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/maps-that-will-help-you-make-sense-of-the-world/


Like this one;



And this one;




Most of the images at the link above have a hyperlink at the bottom which will take you to the original site. Some are much larger and offer a lot more information. Some have a magnifier too.

Pretty interesting.

[gopiscrap]

1. Wow that's really interesting

[NYC_SKP]

2. K/R, also recommending Sankey Diagrams and worldmapper.org as great visualization tools. OMG.

http://www.worldmapper.org/

ROFL and crying, here's the graphic for military expenditures:

[Curmudgeoness]

26. We appear to be quite obese.

I didn't go any further than your image, so I don't have all the details, but apparently, we could use to lose a little weight, huh?

And it looks like we can take sub-Saharan Africa without breaking a sweat. Well, if that skinny little thing IS Africa.

[treestar]

3. Really interesting.

Thanks!

There's also a link to perfectly timed photos - number 9 is hilarious.

[Lobo27]

4. 22 countries that Britain has not invaded...

When did they invade Mexico?

[happyslug]

12. Britain went into Mexico along with the French and Spanish in 1862

YOu do not hear of it much, for the French stayed after the British and Spanish pulled out.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. The size of Africa...

[ThoughtCriminal]

7. What fits into Russia?

From a classic SCTV spoof:

[A HERETIC I AM]

16. LOL! I really miss SCTV. They had some really funny bits. n/t

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Anti-metric backward countries

[Dawson Leery]

9. k/r

[BlueStreak]

10. This explains a lot

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Yes, it does. It has been featured by numerous posts in GD over the last months. n/t

[BlueStreak]

24. It isn't the Governor. Not the chief health official. Not the

head scientist at the state's environmental agency. It isn't the main economist, transportation official, or the person in charge of economic development / job creation.

It is the damn football coach.

[hootinholler]

11. WOW, that's distracting!

Damn, sucked me right in. Great thread.

[obxhead]

13. Metric

Wow

If that's not the definition of stubborn, I don't know what is.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. You got that right!

It's funny that one of our compatriot hangers-on is Liberia!

[Blanks]

42. We tried.

There were several years where highway department plans were done in metric. There isn't a lot of difference between a yard and a meter, but there's a lot of difference between a cubic yard and a cubic meter. Contractors didn't really have a frame of reference, so if you bid the cost to move a cubic meter of dirt at the same price as a cubic yard, you'll lose your ass.

It probably would have worked if they phased it in (put quantities in both units for a while), after all we all know what a liter is because our beverages come in 2 liter bottles. If you undertake any type of mechanical endevour on a vehicle you have to have both metric and SAE wrenches and sockets.

We will get there, but its gonna take time. Watts are a metric unit.

[A HERETIC I AM]

44. I visited England several times in the 90's....

and found it interesting that the Brits have melded the metric system and pounds, miles, gallons etc. in curious ways.

The outdoor farmers market, for instance. Still sold vegetables by the pound (for a pound!). It was fun to hear the seller of tomatoes to say something like "Two pound the pound".

If memory serves, the motorways were still marked with speed limits in MPH, but the fuels were sold by the Liter.

I agree we'll get there.

Funny (sort of) side note;

I watched the most recent Star Trek movie a few days ago and it is clear that scenes of certain interior portions of the ship were filmed at a brewery. There is a short shot, but held plenty long enough to clearly see, of an overhead I-Beam hoist track that is marked "Capacity 10,000 Pounds"

I found that humorous, being that it is set in the 25th (?) century!

[JDPriestly]

14. Thanks!

[Iwillnevergiveup]

15. Fascinatin', just fascinatin'!

Wine vs. beer - LOL!

K&R

[silverweb]

17. Absolutely fascinating.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Great find!

[Laf.La.Dem.]

20. WOW

Thanks for posting

[Liberal_in_LA]

21. fascinating.

[Sheldon Cooper]

22. I've gone on record as saying I don't care for tattoos, but this is pretty cool:

World Map Tattoo with Countries Visited Coloured

[ErikJ]

23. I'd like to see him pointing out countries

Shouldve put it on the chest

[morningfog]

32. If he ever goes to Russia, it's gonna hurt.

[oregonjen]

38. If it's countries visited, did he forget Alaska is part of the US?

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. K&R I enjoyed that, thanks.

[A HERETIC I AM]

27. Glad you liked it. n/t

[Curmudgeoness]

28. Well, there went my evening.

The map that shows the economic center of gravity explains a lot about our economic situation, both pre-1960's and after.

[ffr]

29. There needs to be a discussion about lowing our population to 1950s levels

We know we're the root of all the World's ills. If there were less of us, there'd be enough resources to go around.

Instead in 12 years, we're going to add another 1 billion. That won't make the World a better place.

[A HERETIC I AM]

31. There are plenty of resources to go around.

It's just that the distribution is inequitable and inefficient.

As shown by the map in my OP, the entire population of the planet can fit into the state of Texas with the same density as New York City.

It isn't that there are too many people.

There are too few who give enough of a fuck to make things right.

[ffr]

33. Well then, my suggestion about reducing the population would

be a viable option then. There will never be 100% consensus. I just think a lot of problems would be resolved with one simple solution.

With 4 billion less humans, we wouldn't need to save the planet, the whales or owls. We wouldn't be nearly as concerned about ocean acidification or where our next drop of oil was coming from, because there would be a lot less harmful pollutants being belched into the air and the oil reserves lifespan would now be doubled, production cut at least in half. We could stop fracking. Fresh water tables might stabilize. Global warming would slow way down to where we could do something about it. We wouldn't need more coal or nuclear powered energy plants, we could take a lot of them offline. The list is seemingly endless and positive.

It all starts with less of us on a worldwide scale.

[A HERETIC I AM]

34. Don't sweat it. Nature has a way of doing that exact thing.

She is cruel and has no mercy.

When the humans on this planet get to the point that mother nature has had enough, she'll sort us out.

Don't think for a second she won't.

[The2ndWheel]

37. Now take into account all non-human life in addition to people

[dreamnightwind]

39. Well, not so clear

First, interesting point about everyone could live in Texas with NYC density, I noticed that in the graphs myself, fascinating.

Those people would all be living in Texas but still requiring enormous resources pulled from elsewhere on the planet. Humans on the planet are putting an enormous drain on resources of all kinds.

You can attack it in two ways, or various degrees and combinations of those two ways, getting humans to live more efficiently and making less humans.

edited to add: K & R to this wonderful OP, I love stuff like this

[A HERETIC I AM]

40. I did the math on that probably 3 years ago....

using a figure of 5 billion people, if I remember correctly, vs. the land area of Texas. It worked out to something like 1400 square feet per person.

Imagine if that was actually doable. With proper agricultural practices with virtually zero waste, (we waste an enormous amount of food in the field, much less further down the chain), land area roughly the size of the rest of the country could feed those people.

Then you have the entire rest of the planet as a national (world?) park.

Pure speculation, of course. But I don't buy into the idea that the planet is overpopulated. Is there a point that it will be? Certainly, but we aren't there yet.

[dreamnightwind]

41. Sure, I have the opposite view however

which is that we are way overpopulated. Acceptable population levels would change if we live differently, using less resources. That's a big if. Certainly something to work on. But until then, way too many people. I get what you're saying though, there are scenarios where this planet could support this many people, though they are not reality at this point in time for much of the population.

No need to pick which approach we take, we can work on it from both ends until we have shrunk our resource requirements and planetary impact down to the level of being good citizens and stewards of the planet rather than a ravenous horde of human locusts stripping the planet of everything in our sight.

[indepat]

30. Fascinating and illuminating

[Uncle Joe]

35. Fascinating maps.

Thanks for the thread, A HERETIC I AM.

[A HERETIC I AM]

36. Glad you liked it. n/t

[SalviaBlue]

43. K & R

[arikara]

45. I especially like the map of Europe with the Chinese name translation

eg
Germany = Moral Land
Italy = Meaning Big Profit
Spain = West Class Tooth
Bulgaria = Insurance + Profit - Ya
Hungary = Huns Tooth Profit

[FSogol]

46. Interesting. Thanks for posting. K & R. n/t