I've dug maps ever since I first became the designated navigator on family car holidays. It made me feel crucial to our mission, as the only one in the car who truly knew where we were at all times. Ever since then I've enjoyed studying maps, Google Earth being sort of the ultimate for map explorers.
 
Anyhow, this page caught my attention and I thought I'd share it. It's a collection of maps, showing things like the most common surname instead of country names (most popular name in Greece: Papadopoulis; imagine the confusion) and the highest-paid public employees by state (most are football coaches, natch).
 
I'd always thought that Americans drank more coffee than anyone, but a map of coffee consumption shows Canadians to be much more wired than we, and all of North America lags Scandinavia. The largest coffee-producing countries hardly contribute a blip to the data.
 
Want to avoid pirates? There's a map for that. Where to avoid crowds in Australia? (Hint: it's just about anywhere). Interesting fact: the entire world's population, if packed as densely as New York City, would fit inside the state of Texas. Good to know.

bitflipper
I've dug maps ever since I first became the designated navigator on family car holidays. It made me feel crucial to our mission, as the only one in the car who truly knew where we were at all times. Ever since then I've enjoyed studying maps, Google Earth being sort of the ultimate for map explorers.
 
Anyhow, this page caught my attention and I thought I'd share it. It's a collection of maps, showing things like the most common surname instead of country names (most popular name in Greece: Papadopoulis; imagine the confusion) and the highest-paid public employees by state (most are football coaches, natch).
 
I'd always thought that Americans drank more coffee than anyone, but a map of coffee consumption shows Canadians to be much more wired than we, and all of North America lags Scandinavia. The largest coffee-producing countries hardly contribute a blip to the data.
 
Want to avoid pirates? There's a map for that. Where to avoid crowds in Australia? (Hint: it's just about anywhere). Interesting fact: the entire world's population, if packed as densely as New York City, would fit inside the state of Texas. Good to know.

Amazing that so few countries know on which side of the road / car to drive.

 
Chad is looking better and better.

Awesome maps, thanks for sharing.

Wow... THANK YOU !! I realy love maps too. I am mesmerized by maps. I have a map of the USA on my old bedroom wall at my parents house. It is right by my bed... I can't count the hours I've sat, stood, and stared at that map. It is from about 1960 and is absolutely amazing. I also have the official Atlas of the Civil War that was complied by the US government after the war, it is cool too. I like globes too, it is always interesting to look at an old map or globe and note all the countries that are no longer there... but I ove my old US map best. You've sparked an old interest... I need to get a big wall map for here.
Thanks again... a shared interest, cool! I have the link open and am going there shortly, it will be added to my favorites I am sure.
 
Julien
 

And jbow, I'll bet can find the USA on a globe, too - unlike 30% of high school seniors.
 
But I guess nobody needs maps anymore, now that everyone's got a GPS in their pocket. Anyone can tell you exactly where they are. They just may not know where "here" is.

Nice find Bit.

Hey Bit... I found this while looking at the rivers that feed the Mississippi map... http://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/

That was a fun read. Thanks!

Those were pretty cool.
 
But it reminded me that I used to have a stash of a bunch of cool maps that came inside of National Geographic magazines from when I was a kid. So now I'm wondering what happened to them and if I actually have them buried around here somewhere.