This Reddit map shows which U.S. presidents, post-independence, acquired which chunks of the current United States.
www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/j7ag3y/american_territory_acquisitions_by_president/
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October 14 is National Fossil Day. You can use this interactive map from data mapping engineer Ian Webster to see what the earth looked like 20 million to 750 million years ago and what kinds of dinosaur fossils can be found near your town (or any other). dinosaurpictures.org/ancient-earth#260
Escalating fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan has been in the news this week as the two countries battle, again, over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The end of World War I saw both the emergence of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Treaties of the 1920s ceded Ottoman territory in the Caucasus Mountains to the Soviet Union. This territory became, in part, the Soviet republics of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Soviet leader Josef Stalin chose to make the (Armenian, Christian) enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh part of the (Turkic, Muslim) Soviet republic of Azerbaijan but gave it limited self-government as an "autonomous oblast." In the waning days of the Soviet Union, Nagorno-Karabakh saw an opportunity to secede from Azerbaijan and join Armenia. Azerbaijan, first as a Soviet republic and a few years later as an independent country, did not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh's demands to secede, and Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Nagorno-Karabakh have been frozen in conflict, with occasional bursts of fighting, ever since. Nagorno-Karabakh's territorial claims vary, but this map shows the borders as inherited from the Soviet Union: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Location_Nagorno-Karabakh2.png/375px-Location_Nagorno-Karabakh2.png
Did physical geography, including terrain and biogeography, influence early human brain development? New research suggests that yes, it did:
"'The basic idea is that open spaces—open grassland, flat plains—are just speed games, favoring the predator, since they are larger," [Northwestern University neuroscientist and engineer Malcolm] MacIver told Ars. 'Closed spaces—dense forests or jungles—favor simple strategies of running for cover. Using a complexity measure, we show both of these habitats have low complexity.' ... The complexity 'sweet spot,' according to MacIver, is a landscape like the one featured in The Hobbit chase scene, or like Botswana'a Okavango Delta, both of which feature an open grassland and moss zones dotted with clumps of trees and similar foliage. 'In this zone, neither speed games nor running for cover maximizes survival rate,' said MacIver. 'But planning—by which I mean imagining future paths and picking the best based on what you think your adversary will do—gives you a considerable advantage.' And that planning requires the kind of advanced neural circuitry typical of the human brain. MacIver and his Northwestern colleague and co-author, Ugurcan Mugan, performed numerous supercomputer simulations, which revealed that while seeing farther (MacIver's original theory) is needed for advance planning to emerge evolutionarily, it is not sufficient by itself. Rather, it requires a combination of long-range vision and complex landscapes. This, in turn, may have led to the development of one of the most difficult cognitive operations: envisioning the future. ... [I]n the simple water and land simulations, the prey showed low survival rates regardless of which strategy it employed, demonstrating that there was no evolutionary benefit to being able to plan in environments that are very open or too densely packed. In the former, the best bet is to try and outrun the predator; in the latter, there are too few clearly available paths, and the densely packed environment hinders how far the prey can see. But a patchy landscape in the Goldilocks zone of complexity showed a huge increase in survival rates for prey that relied on the planning strategy, compared to the habit-based approach." arstechnica.com/science/2020/07/how-the-geometry-of-ancient-habitats-may-have-influenced-human-brain-evolution In a ruling that surprised many earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Oklahoma statehood in 1907 did not abrogate the U.S. government's treaty from the 1830s with the Muscogee (Creek) Indians that promised the tribe a chunk of eastern Oklahoma, including land that today includes parts of Tulsa, Oklahoma's second-largest city. The ruling also provides precedent for land allotted to the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole tribes, which collectively, as this map from The Wall Street Journal shows, may be entitled to more than half of Oklahoma. (from www.wsj.com/articles/american-indian-lands-include-eastern-oklahoma-supreme-court-rules-11594304003)
Volcanic eruptions have changed the course of human history many times across the millennia. New research finds that a volcanic eruption in the Aleutian Islands, 6000 miles from Italy, may have contributed to the end of the Roman Republic. "In recent years, geoscientists, historians and archaeologists have joined forces to investigate the societal impacts of large volcanic eruptions. They rely on an amalgam of records — including ice cores, historical chronicles and climate modeling — to pinpoint how volcanism affected civilizations ranging from the Roman Republic to Ptolemaic Egypt to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. ... Dr. [Joseph] McConnell and his collaborators recently analyzed six ice cores drilled in the Arctic. In layers of ice corresponding to the early months of 43 B.C., they spotted large upticks in sulfur and, crucially, bits of material that were probably tephra. The timing caught the scientists’ attention. Researchers have previously hypothesized that an environmental trigger may have helped set in motion the crop failures, famines and social unrest that plagued the Mediterranean region at that time. ... There’s good evidence that the Northern Hemisphere was colder than normal around 43 B.C. Trees across Europe grew more slowly that year, and a pine forest in North America experienced an unusually early autumn freeze. Using climate models to simulate the impact of an Okmok [Aleutian volcano] eruption, Dr. McConnell and his collaborators estimated that parts of the Mediterranean, roughly 6,000 miles away, would have cooled by as much as 13.3 degrees Fahrenheit. 'It was bloody cold,' Dr. McConnell said. Rain patterns changed as well — some regions would have been drenched by 400 percent more precipitation than normal, the modeling revealed. ... These cold, wet conditions would have almost certainly decimated crops, Dr. McConnell and his colleagues said. Historical records compiled by Roman writers and philosophers note food shortages and famines. In 43 B.C., Mark Antony, the Roman military leader, and his army had to subsist on wild fruit, roots, bark and 'animals never tasted before,' the philosopher Plutarch wrote." www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/science/rome-caesar-volcano.html
Last summer's European heatwave and regional droughts had an unexpected consequence: water flow in the Tagus River was sufficiently reduced in western Spain that the Dolmen of Guadaperal, also known as the Spanish Stonehenge, was visible for the first time in more than 50 years. Built 4000 to 7000 years ago, the Neolithic circle of granite stones had been submerged under the waters of the Tagus since a hydroelectric dam was built on the river in 1963. news.artnet.com/art-world/drought-reveals-spanish-stonehenge-1646509
Can construction practices influence a country's recipes? Apparently, yes. When the Spanish arrived in the Philippines and began building churches, they insisted on using egg whites in the concrete mix to strengthen the mortar. The number of eggs used in this way is believed to have run into the millions. What to do with all the extra egg yolks? Make flan, cakes, and other egg-rich desserts, of course -- a practice still in evidence in Filipino cooking today.
www.atlasobscura.com/articles/filipino-desserts St. Augustine, Florida, is the oldest permanent settlement in the United States. But until recently it was also the home of a 300-year-old mystery, which researchers recently solved with a combination of biogeography and materials science. "In 1702, when the Spanish still ruled Florida, an English fleet from colonial Carolina approached Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish stronghold on the Atlantic shore. The fort guarded the Spanish empire’s trade routes as well as the surrounding city of St. Augustine, and the English wanted to run this politically and economically important outpost for themselves. Led by Carolina’s governor James Moore, the English boats dropped their anchors and laid siege. But even after nearly two months of being shelled with cannonballs and gunfire, the fort’s walls wouldn’t give. In fact, they appeared to be “swallowing” the British cannonballs, which then became embedded within the stone. Precisely how the walls did this remained a mystery for the next three centuries." www.atlasobscura.com/articles/coquina-fort-in-florida
Auschwitz was liberated 75 years ago this week by the Soviet Red Army. Located in Nazi-occupied Poland, Auschwitz was not the only Nazi death camp, but it was the largest and arguably the most infamous. This map from The Economist (UK) shows the results of researchers' on-going efforts to identify the Jews who died at Auschwitz, including by country of origin: www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/01/25/archivists-are-racing-to-identify-every-jewish-holocaust-victim
One last photo instead of a map. This is the Hawaiian state fish, known in English as the reef triggerfish. In Hawaiian, its name is humuhumunukunukuapua'a. The Hawaiian language was oral, not written, until missionaries arrived in the islands in the early 1800s and used English letters to capture Hawaiian sounds. It turns out that the Hawaiian language employed only 12 sounds: the five vowels plus seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, and w). Not surprisingly, many Hawaiian words transcribed into English are long and, to outsiders, look confusingly similar. The Hawaiian language is related to languages spoken elsewhere in Oceania, including Tongan, Maori, Samoan, and Tahitian. (Politically, Hawaii may be part of the United States, but geographically it is actually part of Oceania.)
Most of the Hawaiian islands are fringed by coral reefs, providing Hawaii with the best snorkeling in the United States. This photo was taken near where British explorer Captain James Cook met his demise. (Kidnapping a local chief and holding him hostage for supplies turned out not to be a good idea.)
Not a map today but a photo: a tray of lilikoi (passion fruit-filled) malasadas. A malasada is a Hawaiian treat, a yeast doughnut brought to the islands by Portuguese immigrants. In the second half of the 19th century, Portuguese sugarcane workers were recruited in the Azores to come work in Hawaii's sugarcane fields. Although there is no longer any commercial sugar production in Hawaii -- the last sugar mill closed in 2016 -- there are still sugary malasadas, a reflection of Hawaii's complex cultural geography.
Have a Scottish surname somewhere in your family history? Or maybe a particular Scottish clan was mentioned in a book or movie? This map shows historic holdings of Scotland's clans. www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/e67d0r/map_of_the_scottish_clan_lands/
Atlas Obscura looks at 12 "ghost islands" around the world, islands that were once inhabited, some supporting large populations, but have been abandoned. Each has an interesting story to tell. www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-incredible-ruins-of-12-abandoned-islands
Ethiopia's prime minister Abiy Ahmed Ali was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this week, in large part for his efforts to normalize relations with Eritrea. This map, from 1979, helps explain the geopolitical context of the Ethiopia-Eritrea relationship: when Eritrea became independent of Ethiopia in 1991 after 30 years of fighting, Ethiopia, once a major Red Sea power, was left landlocked. Working together to improve the Eritrean ports shown on this map as Aseb (in the south) and Mits'iwa (in the north) has been a major item on Abiy Ahmed's agenda. Prior to Eritrean independence, Aseb handled two-thirds of Ethiopia's trade and Mits'iwa was home to the Ethiopian navy. legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/ethiopia.gif
One branch of forensic cartography uses an understanding of historical geography to date maps (and artifacts found with maps). This flowchart, while partly humorous, contains much good information to help you date older maps: xkcd.com/1688/large/
The need for both water supplies and renewable sources of electricity is leading to a profusion of dam-building projects around the world. The potential gains are not without losses, though. This article from Geographical (UK) looks at the ancient Turkish city of Hasankeyf and its imminent inundation when the Ilisu Dam on the Tigris River is completed. geographical.co.uk/people/development/item/3417-hasankeyf
During the last ice age, global geography would have appeared quite different, with extensive land and sea ice lowering ocean levels significantly. This Reddit map tries to recreate global geography as it would have existed 21,000 years ago. Although the ice coverage is eye catching, a careful look at southeast Asia, western Asia, and Oceania, for example, shows the way a drop in sea level changed the geography of these regions dramatically, a history that still echoes in their biogeography. i.redd.it/drvhvjbtw3b31.jpg
Beginning in the middle of September 1845, farmers in Ireland began noticing that when they went to harvest their potato crops, some of the potatoes were little more than black mush. Thus began the Irish Potato Famine that lasted through 1849. This map shows the impact on the population of Ireland. (The areas showing population gains are the cities of Dublin and Cork, to which people migrated from the countryside.)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ireland_population_change_1841_1851.png The U.S. recently marked the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first ship of enslaved people from Africa to U.S. shores. Yet, as my "Your Future World" students are always surprised to learn when we study Brazil, the U.S. accounted for only about 3% of the Transatlantic slave trade, with Brazil accounting for about 40% and the Caribbean accounting for another 40-45%. This map shows both destinations and origins of enslaved people, some of whom were from coastal communities in western Africa while others were captured in interior regions and sold to slavers at the coast. www.statista.com/chart/19068/trans-atlantic-slave-trade-by-country-region/
As they grow, cities develop into all sorts of shapes. But one principle seems to remain constant: the shape depends on prevailing transportation technologies and routes. In 1994, an Italian physicist, Cesare Marchetti, observed that across history most people have been willing to accept a commute of 30 minutes or less. This article looks at the way the Marchetti Constant has influenced the development of urban areas from ancient Rome forward, depending on if the prevailing technology was walking, carriage ride, railroad, street car, subway, automobile, etc., and what it might mean for the future of urban planning. www.citylab.com/transportation/2019/08/commute-time-city-size-transportation-urban-planning-history/597055
This GIF shows air traffic over the U.S. the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/9f5eqr/us_airspace_on_911_notice_the_dip_at_942_am_right/
The Imperial Japanese Navy lost 334 ships during World War II. This map captures the final resting place of most of them. worldwarwings.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ships-map.jpg
Looking for a citizen science project? The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is looking for people to help collect data on ginkgos leaves. "Ginkgo trees evolved before the dinosaurs, survived three mass extinctions, and one species is still living today. We are researching how the cells of leaves on ginkgo trees have changed over time and how we can use this knowledge to learn about the ancient atmosphere of the Earth." For more on the project and how to participate, see www.si.edu/fossil-atmospheres
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