40 maps that explain the world

[Daradon]

Fascinating maps GS! Thanks!

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

We're neck and neck with Australia in almost every map. We have more personal freedoms and better equality, but their weather certainly trumps ours. Add in that their wildlife is so much more lethal to humans than ours and I give Canada the edge

Australia is the one place I've visited where I was instantly comfortable and got on best with the locals. Lots of similarities. Ironically they're not too worked up about their poisonous creatures but think we're nuts camping with bears.
They do have better weather, and coffee too.

[Coach]

One thing I'm not sure about is the Emotional Map. In my opinion being emotional as a group is not necessarily a good thing as I think the world would be much better off if everyone was more even keel. I don't view Canada as really over emotional about anything. Maybe hockey.

There is also a lot of mysteriously countries missing data when it comes to opinions of America (their northern neighbor included). Seems odd.

[terminator]

Wheres the map rating countries based on number of lake communities?

Useless ........ comparison without the above mentioned stats.

[CarlW]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Guess it depends how you define religion. Most of the Chinese are Taoists (like me!). Is that considered a religion like Buddhism or more Confucius teaching so therefore not a religion? So if a bazillion Taoists are atheists (like me!) and yeah, China leads the way!

There is religious and non-religious Taoism/Daoism. So you can't say all Daoists are atheists, and I don't think you can even label the non-religious Daoists atheists either as they aren't mutually exclusive. And I believe most Chinese would traditionally be labelled under General Chinese Religion which would be a mixture of Daoism, Mahayana Buddhism, & Ancestor Worship with a background of Confucian teachings.

It's hard to say what the religiousness of Mainland China is. I spent a year there and it's not a big part of their lives in the people I've met (communism) but there are historical temples, and there are monks and daoist priests. When people visit the temples they do pray, or give respect, etc. While on the flipside Taiwan seemed much more religious (tons of temples everywhere) nearly all temples are Daoist & Buddhist mixtures with Daoism playing a larger role it seemed in most, interestingly enough nearly all the aboriginals are Catholic.

[Arsenal14]

Originally Posted by Bagor

I don't get #9.

Canada and most of Africa is more ethnically diverse than Europe?

If you follow the link from the part about that map it explains some of the method used to determine that. Basically it's a measure of how likely it is that when you randomly select two people from the country that they self-identify as the same ethnicity. So, if you take two people in Germany and ask them there is probably a good chance that they'll both claim to be ethnically German, whereas in Canada (or other immigrant-heavy countries) you'll get a wider variety of answers. On a census question asking for my ethnicity I'd probably call myself Ukrainian despite my ancestors having come to Canada 100 years ago.

In most African countries the locals self-identify as members of their tribe rather than a common identity across the country (which usually was defined along convenient geographical rather than ethnic lines by the colonizing nations).

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Itse

High ethnic diversity is the "natural" situation.

Ethnically homogenous countries tend to be ones which have in some point had a strong nationalistic ("right wing") central government that had an active policy of eradicating ethnic minority identities and languages. (And in a well-known extreme case, also the minority people.) The most important tools here were general conscription and public schools.

.

I'm not sure that I agree with that. What makes nationalistic movements less "natural" than other siutations? A lot of places have high diversity because they were continuously invaded, occupied and colonized by intolerant foreigners. Is that really any moe or less natural?

For example, a place like Bosnia doesn't have relatively high diversity because of a lack of nationalism (quite the opposite), just like a place like Iceland doesn't have low diversity because of nationalist movements. It's all about resources and how accessible those resources are for others. Sometimes these resources are accessible by choice (like diversity through immigration), by quite often it is by force.

I think for every homogenous country that had nationalist movements, I could point out a homogenous country that is like that due to historical circumstance, or non-homogenous countries that are full of nationalism.

Basically, the higher traffic during nomadic periods and constant warring for resources are what have caused diversity in a lot of areas. Both are natural results of human nature.

[Vulcan]

It's interesting in Itse's map that the French Canadiens and the Maritimes mostly self identify as Canadians while the rest of us hang on to our foreign roots for our identity. It will probably be good when most of us identify as just Canadians, which I think is happening as these foreign countries don't give a frack about us anyways, except as somewhere to exploit.

[Devils'Advocate]

Most of Quebec consider themselves "Canadian"? Interesting.

[worth]

Behold: The HISTOMAP

Spoiler!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault..._a_single.html

[Devils'Advocate]

France currently has 3x the power of China?

[worth]

Not sure if srus... the map is from 1931.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by worth

Not sure if srus... the map is from 1931.

It is an interesting look at their interpretation of history, but it seems pretty arbitrary about which powers it includes. Some of the time periods are also a little off.

For example, the medievel Kingdom of Croatia was actually a legitimate power in continental Europe (until 1102 when a succession crisis unified their crown with that of Hungary) and defeated Bulgaria with an army of 160,000 men (which was huge for the time period). I noticed that it includes Bulgaria from 750 to 950 and not Croatia, who wiped them from the map in 927 (they subsequently became Byzantine vassals after the defeat).

The map also doesn't include Hungary until 1250, yet they were arguably the one of the most powerful nations in Europe for hundreds of years before then. The relative power of Hungary is not being fairly illustrated IMO.

[Devils'Advocate]

Originally Posted by worth

Not sure if srus... the map is from 1931.

Didn't see that. That would definitely explain it. I think China would be MUCH larger today.

[GirlySports]

40 more maps!

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/map...-of-the-world/

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by worth

Not sure if srus... the map is from 1931.

What's srus? The map doesn't include the Mayans, Aztecs and Incans but I guess at that time, they weren't respected.

[Bunk]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

40 more maps!

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/map...-of-the-world/

My favourite is the area codes Ludacris claims to have hoes.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

40 more maps!

http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/map...-of-the-world/

Spoiler!

It says there are no McDonald's in Iceland, yet it has a price for a Big Mac in Iceland.

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Originally Posted by getbak

Spoiler!

It says there are no McDonald's in Iceland, yet it has a price for a Big Mac in Iceland.

Pssh Iceland also isn't made of ice. So that's pretty much par for the course.

[kl83]

pretty interesting read