If you like maps like I like maps, you'll like...

http://bigthink.com/blogs/strange-maps

and for those who prefer the heft and tactile pleasure of those old fashioned oversized blocks of bound paper called books, there's the print version...

(A Drifter approved Holiday gift idea.)

described in promo copy on Amazon as:

"An intriguing collection of more than one hundred out-of-the-ordinary maps, blending art, history, and pop culture for a unique atlas of humanity"

Had a blast at the site and checking out samples from the book.  Includes actual surviving historical artifacts as well as many inspired and imaginative cartographic interpretations of people, places, and ideas such as this (not exactly a map)  entitled:  The Road to Success.

And some of the stuff is actual historical cartography from earlier eras when mapping was often more speculative than scientific.

California may have been named after a fictional island in a 16th-century Spanish romantic novel. That – and the elongated peninsula of Baja California – helps explain why early cartographers showed it as detached from the North American mainland. Even though expedition after expedition reported the misconception, an insular California clung to maps for as late as the 18th century – a triumph of wishful thinking over reality. Which is not a bad description of California as it is today.

Note:  If you click on images, they will appear in separate window and hopefully enlarged.


This map is a metro-spotter’s wet dream. It shows all the cities in the world that have, or are planning, an urban rail system of some sort. Like the iconic London Underground map based on Harry Beck’s 1933 original, this one sacrifices geographic correctness for ease of use. Europe’s relatively dense network spills over into Asia; South America is reduced to a single loop. Of course, this is a map for daydreaming: wouldn’t it be great you could take the tube in London and get off, many stops later, in Pyongyang or Mexico City?


By the time Heinrich Bunting made this map – the end of the 16th century – the age of discoveries had destroyed the legitimacy of sacred geography that placed Jerusalem at the centre of a symmetrical, shamrock-shaped world. Bunting even includes America in this map, which apparently is conceived both as an amusement and as a tribute to Buntings hometown of Hanover, in the coat of arms of which the cloverleaf figures prominently.

This snapshot was taken just before the world economy took a turn for the worse in 2008, but since a falling tide lowers all boats, its main lesson still applies: the US economy is massive. So massive, that the GDP of each of its 50 states compares in size to other entire nations. California equals France. Ohio is Australia. And the economy of tiny Delaware amounts to that of Romania.


This map, made by Stephen Von Worley at Data Pointed in 2009, is probably, sadly, already out of date – at the time, there were more than 13,000 McDonald's restaurants in the US, or one for every 23,000 Americans. Within the thunder of dots, it also contains the McFarthest Place, tucked away in the wild uplands of South Dakota, 145 miles from the nearest McDonald's.

And I'm thinking of making this my new Screen Saver...

Z is for:

zelatrix	older nun in charge of disciplining younger nuns
zoanthropy	delusion that one is an animal
zelophobia	irrational or fear of jealousy
zoism	doctrine that life originates from a single vital principle
zythum	ancient Egyptian beer
zyzzyva	South American weevil
zwischenzug	chess move made to play for time