Random cool maps

Oct 24, 2025 22:29:43

Found a couple more. I hope none are duplicates

Oct 25, 2025 03:30:54

Great maps, Mike!

It turns out the breakfast restaurant map is my favorite - I live in Perkins territory but I’m a Waffle House boy. :)

Oct 25, 2025 10:23:27

Christopher Weeks wrote:Great maps, Mike!

The one I found interesting was the male/female ratio map.

Things I noticed:
1. The highest female countries are still only high by a matter of give or take 4%.

2. The highest male countries were high by 15 to 25% and were all on the edge of the Persian Gulf - maybe men move there for the jobs, and women are likely not appreciated?

3. Some of those countries, I suspect, are feeling the interaction of 1-child policies and culture.

4. I have read that traditionally, statistically, slightly more boys are born than girls, but that more boys died before adulthood. I say traditionally, because the data is 40 years old at least. No idea what current numbers would look like. People know much more about how they can subtly shift those odds if they've got enough motivation to do so - and sometimes not so subtly.

5. I'm not sure what the cutoff was between "almost equal" and "more females", but considering the "highest percentages" quoted, it's likely only a few percentage points in most countries. Considering that the "average" lifespan of women is still higher than the "average" lifespan of males in most countries, that alone could account for the "more females" bit. My mom out-lived my dad by over 20 years, but my in-laws were only about 2 years age difference, so there's a lot of room for statistics to show a "gap" that isn't going to mean much for young people looking for partners.

Nov 14, 2025 06:05:57

Here's another batch!

Nov 14, 2025 06:17:26

You and your 'sconnie kangaroos!

Nov 14, 2025 06:23:06

It's not your fault, but for the record, I will never recognize the word sconnie. I suspect a marketing team was trying to come up with a way to save ink on sweatshirts or something.

My uncle had a kangaroo.

(just kidding about the second part)

Nov 14, 2025 06:50:19

I learned sconnie from a friend who lives in Milwaukee. I never hear it over here, so I was assuming it was really a Chicago-Milwaukee thing, but I like finding occasions to whip it out.

Your uncle probably needed to fight off the local hodag with a security kangaroo.

Nov 14, 2025 15:02:22

Lived in the Chicago 'burbs 38yrs - most of my life, and never heard "sconnie", until just now. I had to go look it up.

Nov 29, 2025 08:35:41

Christopher Weeks wrote:I learned sconnie from a friend who lives in Milwaukee. I never hear it over here, so I was assuming it was really a Chicago-Milwaukee thing, but I like finding occasions to whip it out.

Your uncle probably needed to fight off the local hodag with a security kangaroo.

I know a couple from Rhinelander, so I've actually heard of hoedag before. Perhaps that should have shown up on the most dangerous animal map.... I don't know about the present status, but he has been a state legislator, so a few of us refer to him as "the guv'nor". They run a supper club, which was also a new thing for me.

Nov 29, 2025 10:53:43

Yeah, Minnesota’s the only place I’ve lived with supper-clubs.

Nov 29, 2025 20:44:57

And another batch!!

Nov 30, 2025 14:00:35

I think it's random and cool.

Dec 17, 2025 16:28:01

Here's the next batch I have. Not sure I like the name of my new state :(

Dec 17, 2025 17:44:05

A little explanation of the last 4 maps please? Gap, Pass, Saddle, Notch don't compute with me.

Dec 17, 2025 17:46:03

Mike Haasl wrote:Here's the next batch I have. Not sure I like the name of my new state :(

I'm quite sure that Alaska and Hawai'i wouldn't be too keen on being joined to each other, let alone a chunk of the California coast! The needs and political issues seem far too divergent.

Dec 17, 2025 17:48:26

Jay Angler wrote:A little explanation of the last 4 maps please? Gap, Pass, Saddle, Notch don't compute with me.

My guess is what the ways through mountains are called.

Dec 17, 2025 20:58:56

Yep, it's every place name in the country that uses gap, pass, saddle or notch. I presume for passages through mountains as Les said.

Jan 08, 2026 13:49:56

Is this one for real? Are there really not that many species of trees out west?

Jan 08, 2026 14:02:24

Matt McSpadden wrote:Is this one for real? Are there really not that many species of trees out west?

Quite possibly it is, at least in Canada, west of the mountains. Many things haven't crossed the mountains, and what used to be there, was killed by the last period of glaciation.

The problem with these maps is context. It says, "The richness of the 641 species with range maps." Which 641 species? Is that the number of tree species estimated to be in the Continental USA? Naturally, or naturalized, or human supported?

A quick search found two sites claiming, "The new checklist identified 881 tree species that are native to some part of the contiguous US."

So I'm going to suggest that although there may well be less variability west of the mountains, that the map is likely focused on eastern tree species, and without knowing the context, it can't be interpreted accurately.

Jan 08, 2026 14:33:23

That scale is hard to read so the blue color out west might be 3 or 8 on the scale, not 1.

Jan 09, 2026 07:58:42

I'm with Mike...the scale and colour differentiation makes it a challenge at best. I'd also need a reference of the species counted...there are some that could create arguments over whether they are small trees or large shrubs as an example. If I recall, we came across 4 species of evergreens at Wheaton Labs (Paul wasn't that excited we'd seen a juniper).

Jan 09, 2026 08:12:09

Man...I was looking for data on this tree species count stuff, and ran across this really neat resource: https://www.fs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/users/user3914/FHP-files/FHTET-15-01-National-Individual-Tree-Species-Atlas.pdf

It doesn't really address species per area, but it's pretty and pretty cool!

Jan 09, 2026 08:15:20

This one is a little easier to parse (click through for a clearer blowup).

(I'm in the <=60 area.)

Jan 09, 2026 09:40:43

Derek Thille wrote: If I recall, we came across 4 species of evergreens at Wheaton Labs (Paul wasn't that excited we'd seen a juniper).

Some, possible all, Juniper's go up like a Roman Candle if there's a fire. That may account for Paul's lack of excitement! I recall reading that they will ignite from heat alone - don't need to be hit with a spark - sigh...

Jan 09, 2026 10:31:48

Thanks Christopher - counties closest to us (call it 60 miles) are in the less than or equal to 40 range, but as you move west of the Red River valley it gets to the 20 species range, which our acreage is probably closer to.

Jay - we found a lonely one up in the Caldera...I forget what Paul had said about them, other than I believe he thought there weren't any or they were all gone. Since Paul isn't very opinionated

it is easy enough to lose parts of conversations. Western larch is one of the species and I mistakenly set him off by asking if that was tamarack. He was happy that I got his amelanchier reference though (saskatoon / june / service / shad).

Jan 09, 2026 18:52:45

a seiche on lake eerie earlier this winter due to strong sw winds

Jan 09, 2026 19:01:18

an example of a ministry of forestry work plan in sudbury forest

Jan 09, 2026 19:06:00

sorry that last one didnt work... it was a pdf
here is a link to a fun geological map... zoom in and click on areas to learn about them
https://macrostrat.org/map/#x=16&y=23&z=2

Jan 09, 2026 19:14:07

fishing urban ontario's map of reported sightings of cougars in ontario
lots of people in the comments section reporting sightings to him in his series on cougars in ontario

Jan 10, 2026 10:16:10

abandoned mines information system in ontario

Jan 13, 2026 15:44:56

Here's another pile for your enjoyment!

Jan 13, 2026 16:00:24

I've got to hand it to the World In Maps crew for placing NZ in the South Australian Bight. That's a new one. Usually we just get left off world maps (along with the rest of the Pacific Islands).

The dark skies one is a bit sobering.

Feb 02, 2026 05:34:44

this is not maps per se (he calls them "data poems") but very interesting ways of looking at data.
Some are very smart (the air quality) while others are practically unintelligible (the UFO sightings one). but creative and worth checking out.
https://dr.eamer.dev/datavis/poems/

Feb 02, 2026 10:13:25

Tereza Okava wrote:this is not maps per se (he calls them "data poems") but very interesting ways of looking at data.
Some are very smart (the air quality) while others are practically unintelligible (the UFO sightings one). but creative and worth checking out.
https://dr.eamer.dev/datavis/poems/

The language one is cool. You really have to take the time to scroll over things to see the writing.

Feb 27, 2026 05:32:31

A small batch!

Mar 02, 2026 06:44:43

Ship movements off of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, visualised using AIS data

https://www.beautifulpublicdata.com/visualizing-ship-movements-with-ais-data/
from beautiful public data, which you will probably enjoy if you like random cool maps!!

Mar 03, 2026 07:08:57

It would appear that camels and pigs are mutually exclusive....

Mar 03, 2026 12:04:11

I thought there were camels in Australia as well...imported at some point.

Pork is not allowed in some religions, so it would make sense there are nations where pigs are few and far between.

Mar 03, 2026 13:02:16

Derek Thille wrote:I thought there were camels in Australia as well...imported at some point.

Pork is not allowed in some religions, so it would make sense there are nations where pigs are few and far between.

I'm sure there are some outliers, but the per capita value is very small (the text is really small, but i'm assuming it's like <.0001).

And then we have poor Iceland and poor Turkey, which get neither!!