Tag: world maps
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Whose ships sank where?
Two centuries of shipwrecks in Europe’s seas, from Wikipedia’s lists: 106,550 wrecks placed on the map by the flag they sailed under. British ships dominate the record, but the Bay of Biscay, the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the world wars tell other stories.
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Far from home: where the Victoria Cross was won
Every Victoria Cross has two places: where the recipient was born and where the deed was done. I mapped both for 1,357 awards and measured the distance between them.
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I really love GeoGuessr: a globetrotting relief from lockdown
GeoGuessr is a geographic discovery game designed by Anton Wallén. Released on the 9th May 2013, I doubt Anton had in mind the powerful escapism the game offers those stuck in seemingly never ending lockdowns. The game has provided me a gamified gateway to the wider world that I have been very grateful for.
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How a cheesy joke from the 1830s became the most widely spoken word in the world.
OK is thought to be the most widely recognized word on the planet. We use it to communicate with each other, as well as our technology. But it actually started out as a language fad in the 1830’s of abbreviating words incorrectly. Young intellectuals in Boston came up with several of these abbreviations, including “KC”…
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China is erasing its border with Hong Kong
When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Chinese leaders agreed that Hong Kong would be able to keep its economic and political systems, including some of the civil freedoms denied to China’s citizens on the mainland, for the next 50 years. Although Hong Kong still has nearly 30 years of semi-autonomy left,…
