Tag: maps

  • What Your Favourite Map Says About You…

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Do you have a favourite map? Because just like how we can determine your true character from your beards, attire, drink preferences, &c. we now can see who you are based on your map preference, courtesy XKCD:

  • Hispanic Growth in the Plains

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    There is a scene in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica where with the human population almost extinct, one character comments on the romances of two others by saying “they better start having babies”. The demographics of the United States are changing. Not that they were not changing prior to recent years; Native American populations were reduced…

  • 7 Billion Is a Big Number

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    We have seven billion living on the planet today. Or at least we think we do. Really, who knows? But for the sake of this blog post and many others like it along with news stories and water cooler conversations, let’s just say we’re at seven billion, okay? So where do you fit into the…

  • Riding the Rail to London?

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Long time readers know by now that I advocate high-speed rail and similar transport infrastructure investment. The following screenshot was taken from a BBC News video about the Russian proposal to build an underground passenger/freight tunnel beneath the Bering Strait to connect eastern Siberia to Alaska. The video is not an infographic, strictly speaking, but…

  • The Northeast Passage

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    The Northeast Passage was supposed to be a shortcut to Asia from Europe through an open waterway in North America. Many tried to find the route. They failed. Because we have a mountain range running from the northernmost part of North America to the Isthmus of Darien where, perhaps desperate for the route, we dug the Panama…

  • Glaciers Aren’t So Slow After All…

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Antarctica is a continent way down at the southern end of the world. It is covered almost entirely by glaciers. But glaciers move, and NASA and the University of California unveiled a map looking at the speed of the glaciers’ movements. Along with it, an interesting little video showing the tributaries to the glacial flow.…

  • Back in the USSR

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    So, those of you a little bit older than me—not to date myself—probably remember the evil Reds of Soviet Russia. Some my age do as well. Younger than me, it’s probably all ancient history. And so for those of you who forget, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was, if I am to simplify, a…

  • Tracking This Hurricane Season

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    Living in Chicago, hurricane season means rather little. Perhaps at worst the city would see a major rain system moving up from Texas or the Gulf Coast. But, from all my time living on the East Coast makes hurricane season a bit more meaningful if now just as an outside observer. The Weather Channel has…

  • The West Bank Archipelago

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    This post is about an older work from Le Monde, the link to which I now forget. However, given all the talk these days about Israel and Palestine and 1967 borders, I figured it may well be advantageous to remind all that the borders likely will not be those of 1967, for the sheer fact…

  • Everybody Wants to Rule the (Top of the) World

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    Brendan Barry
    in

    To the victors go the spoils of war. Often unheralded of course is the spoil of drawing the new map. But, in and among the Himalayas, the territory of Jammu and Kashmir is yet to be won decisively by any side. Look at 1947, 1965, and 1999, we still have the territory contested and different…