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US electoral college reform - a modest proposal from some random bod on the internet

Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Saw this earlier, and thought I'd take it to a narrower audience:

The idea is that each electoral college vote would represent more equal population, plus it makes for an interesting map and provides some head-scraching names.  More at the author's site.

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posted by Croydonian

Interesting map o' the day

Thursday, October 29, 2009
France's Protestants:


Taken from an Ifop poll.  Ther headline finding is that Protestants make up 2.2% of the French population, including former prime ministers Lionel Jospin and Michel Rocard  No idea why the map has ignored Corsica....  The land of my Huguenot forebears is pretty well protestantrein, so to speak.

Politically French Protestants are more likely than the norm to shun the extreme left, apart from the Greens, and lean towards the wet right / MoDem and Gaullism.

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posted by Croydonian

The place to be

Friday, October 23, 2009
Is Dinosaur, Colorado.  Check out the awesome street names:


A link to the map is here.  I know a number of people, not all with ages in single figures, who would sell their souls for the ability to give out 13 Tyrannosaurus Street as an address.

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posted by Croydonian

Interesting map o' the day

Thursday, September 24, 2009
Courtesy of Eurostat.



The map needs clicking for any degree of legibility, but I think it is worth it.

The highlights noted by Eurostat are these:

Regional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per inhabitant (in purchasing power standards) in 2006 differed widely across the 275 regions of the EU, Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In Inner London (United Kingdom) it was 336% of the EU-27 average, while in Nord-Est (Romania) it was only 25% of the EU-27 average.

Elsewhere, the author notes 'We find the largest regional differences in the United Kingdom, where there is a factor of 4.3 between the highest and lowest values

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posted by Croydonian

More map malarkey - Africa in 1858

Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Despite much excavating in the bookmarks, I am struggling to find anything I fancy posting about, so here are some more maps, again from Delamarche, of Africa as known to Europeans in 1858:


Particular stand out are the Congo and Lake Victoria/Tanganyika.

I've got an awful lot more of this stuff, although much of it is not especially scanner-friendly for reasons of size and / or binding, but I'm taking requests until such time as something more on topic shows up on my radar. I can't even find any mad French surveys.

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posted by Croydonian

A map of the British Isles takes an acid trip

Friday, July 24, 2009
In the face of overwhelming popular demand, the very bad British county map from French cartographers Delamarche (1858) referenced earlier:


Double click it, it is worth it.

And the South East in close up:


My own former county of Essex gets a particularly raw deal, although the cruciform shape of Leicestershire is novel, as is Bucks bordering Huntingdonshire.

There is nothing else quite so comically bad of the world well known to Europeans in this particular atlas, but I might offer up Africa later.

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posted by Croydonian

Good news, map fans

"A Danish expert said on Friday that a 15th century Vinland Map, the first known map depicting part of America prior to Christopher Columbus’ arrival on the continent, is almost certainly authentic... The map shows both Greenland and a western Atlantic island "Vinilanda Insula," the Vinland of the Icelandic sagas, now linked by scholars to Newfoundland, Canada, where Norsemen under Leif Eriksson settled around AD 1000.

Larsen said his team studied the ink, writing, wormholes and parchment of the map, which is kept at Yale University. They found that wormholes caused by wood beetles were consistent with those in the books in which the map was bound, he said". Source

Not the last word in accuracy, even for the 'known world', and probably not much use for route planning. Better than the Mappa Mundi though.

As some may have noticed, I have an unhealthy interest in maps, and may well do some more map posts further down the line. The major problem is scanning A3/A2 ish sized maps, even in parts without damaging the spines of the atlases concerned. Anyway if anyone fancies seeing a hilariously inaccurate French county map of the UK from about 1860 I'll give it a go, techical problems notwithstanding.

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posted by Croydonian

Europe re-jigged

Monday, March 23, 2009
Pondering idly on some of the more curious names for sovereign states in other parts of the world, I have re-worked the names of European states on the same basis, using saints, rivers, founders, mountains national products and the like.

Anyway, it amuses me, and I trust it will prompt the odd chortle elsewhere.
(Click for improved legibility)

Explanations for names are available to anyone sufficiently interested and stumped by the antecedents. C.E.R stands for Central European Republic, by the way.

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posted by Croydonian

Where to find Limeys Stateside

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Or at least those born in these parts.


This has been 'borrowed' from the New York Times, which has a whole range of interactive maps showing birth nations of sundry ethnic groups over the last 100 odd years. That the East and West coast metropolises are so popular is no great surprise, ditto Florida, but there are some oddities - why Phoenix, Arizona and why Cleveland, Ohio?

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posted by Croydonian

The new map of France

Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Provisionally, until the squawking reaches a crescendo.

The Balladur (1) committee has come up with a reworking of the French regions, and care of those nice people at Libé, here it is:

I blogged early thoughts on the matter last year, and I think I am going to give Balladur a C+. I approve strongly of returning Loire Atlantique to the bosom of Brittany, and uniting the Alsatian départements and uniting the two Normadies seems sensible enough too.

On the minus side, Poitou Charente has a better claim to existence than the utterly ersatz Pay de la Loire, although I still have not forgiven the Poitou Charantais for slaughtering my Huguenot forbears. Given that Poitou Charente is Ségolène Royal's fiefdom, I imagine she will be livid. It also seem a little raw on the Auvergne that it is added into Rhones Alpes while the smaller (population and size) Limousin retains an independent existence. Can't say I feel particularly strongly one way or the other about Picardy.


(1) The French for walkman is 'baladeur', so I always visualise him wearing headphones. However, hats of to him for continuing to be active in public life at the age of 79.

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posted by Croydonian

Turning back the clock with Fidel Castro

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
20th century? Pah. Fidel prefers 1879:

"Cuba’s Fidel Castro opened some historical wounds last week when he publicly asked Chile to return land Bolivia lost in a war 130 years ago that cut off its access to the Pacific....the ailing former president compared right-wing supporters of the late General Augosto Pinochet to the same Chilean “oligarchy that robbed Bolivia of its coastline” in 1879. “Bolivia suffered an extraordinary historical humiliation in that struggle,” Castro wrote. “Not only was [the country’s] coastline and access to the ocean stolen away from it, but extensive territories were also taken away from it.”....Meanwhile, Bolivian President Evo Morales thanked Castro, who has become a close ally. “With the utmost respect to the Chilean people, we may have to take this [dispute] to the international level,” he said in a statement from Russia, where he is on a state visit" (El Pais - link will only work today though).

Details on the War of the Pacific here, but note that it was Bolivia that made the first declaration of war, 1/3/79. Chile did the same 5/4/79. Anyway, it is still a bone of some contention, with the Bolivians taking it badly, and Chilean football fans chant "Vamos a la playa" ("Let's go to the beach")' when playing Bolivia, apparently.

Anyway, Bolivia at its greatest extent:

(Atlas of Territorial and Border Disputes, NEL 1980)

And going that little bit further, South America in 1883:



(The Student's Atlas, Collins, circa 1880. Every home should have one...)

Fidel should be wary of this revisionism, as Cuba was still a Spanish colony in 1883, and did not abolish slavery until 1886. However, this is all about sucking up to one of his mate's on the continent, obviously. Further, a quick glance at the respective militaries of Chile and Bolivia - should Morales fancy upping the ante - suggests that Bolivian forces would face annihilation. Plus the Chilean Army has never lost a war, marking this with the motto, "siempre vencedor y jamas vencido".

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posted by Croydonian

Well, I ain't superstitious, or survey o' the day

Friday, February 06, 2009
Or to quote the great Willie Dixon more fully, "Well I ain't superstitious, but a black cat crossed my trail".

Anyway, I am yet again indebted to those lovely French pollsters for coming up with another corker - 'The French and superstitions'.

And below we see the regions that are the most superstitious - black, least - white and those on the Juste Milieu - a strangely appropriate beige.



The Auvergnats are the most credulous at 48%, and the Dauphinois/e (OK, Rhones Alpes) the least at 33%. One does wonder quite what it is that separates the two varieties of Normans.

Women are more superstitious than men - 49% vs 34% and the young (15-34) more than the mature (60+) - 51% vs 31%

Limousin types are the most likely to think that they were born for bad luck and trouble are unlucky (17%), but also the most likely to think they are lucky (26%).

As to superstitions themselves, fully 37% of Gauls think that finding a four leaf clover will bring luck, 32% think the same of seeing a meteor and 31% of touching wood. A mere 14% think it is worth wasting a euro on a fountain.

As to bad luck, 46% think that trouble will come from putting bread on the table upside down, 40% from walking under a ladder and 31% from opening an umbrella indoors. Only 10% are worried about Willie's cat. The single most jaw dropping factlet is that 14% of our neighbours have stayed home out of fear of Friday the 13th.

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posted by Croydonian

Heads of state on Kim Il Sung's Christmas card list

Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Or more strictly, New Year card list. And a pretty odd list it is too. Why Prince Albert of Monaco? (referred to as King Albert in the press release...) Why Montenegro, Dominica and Armenia?


Can we, as a nation, cope with this snub?

Meanwhile David Alton is in the DPRK as the head of a delegation from the All Party DPRK group. I hope they keep him.

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posted by Croydonian

If Napoleon had conquered Croydon

Saturday, January 31, 2009
Inspired by The Great Bear, other reworked tube maps and my age old pastime of mentally translating tube station names into other languages while travelling (and because I am sad, empty and worthless etc, obviously) I have had a go at rendering the Croydon tram map into French, and await criticism for poor French grammar, use of the wrong font, lawsuits for copyright infringement and so forth.


I have gone for a mixture of translations that are variously semi-serious, gratuitously silly and those based on the idea that we became part of the Napoleonic system. I have assumed that the name George Street stems from the saint rather than the kings, but confirmation or refutation by anyone with knowledge of local history would be welcome.

I generally decided against rendering town names in French, as Vallée Sinueuse or Vallée de Crocus for Croydon seemed a bit over the top.

No mention of Croydon trams is complete without noting that at one point the name signs at stops were stickered letters, so some wag removed leading and trailing letters from Addiscombe, making it sound a great deal more intriguing.

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posted by Croydonian

What will NOT happen in 2010

Friday, January 09, 2009
Story borrowed from the Wall Street Journal, as is the map. I thought about knocking up my own map, but the map is all over the internet already.

Anyway, a Russian crystal ball gazer called Igor Panarin thinks that the US is going to split into six in 2010, as per the map below:


And how will these states align themselves?

"California will form the nucleus of what he calls "The Californian Republic," and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of "The Texas Republic," a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an "Atlantic America" that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls "The Central North American Republic." Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia".

Although all six hypotheses suggest that the professor has been taking crack, I think Alaska reverting to Moscow is the silliest suggestion. Mind you, having Ozarkers represented in Brussels is pretty mind-boggling.

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posted by Croydonian

Strange map o' the day

Wednesday, January 07, 2009
As found at the Czech EU Presidency site:


Pretty, but not entirely sure it works beyond being an exercise in fancy graphic design. I think it does make the point that all 27 are equal, so a snook is well cocked at our Gallic chums, inter alia.

While there is no sea coast of Bohemia, Luxembourg has gained one. It also shows of the paucity of colours in European flags. Curious that bar Malta, there is less red on the periphery than at the centre.

Anyone unfortunate not to know *the* Strange Maps blog is urged to make haste to it, although that does risk making the rest of the morning a write-off.

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posted by Croydonian

Is France about to undo a 70 year wrong?

Friday, November 28, 2008
Under Pétain, France's historic regions were mucked about with for administrative convenience, resulting in the equivalent of Cardiff ceasing to be the chief city of its nation. Bretons, for it is they, can get quite irate about Nantes / Naoned and Loire Atlantique not being part of Brittany, but rather being part of a wholly artificial construction called Pays De La Loire concocted from parts of Brittany, Poitou, Anjou and Maine.

And here are the modern regions and historic ones:
Plenty of other wrongs there for the redressing too, like shoehorning Orléanais and Berry into 'Centre' - top marks for imaginative naming, people - and doing away with the Dauphiné.

Anyway, this is at issue as Sarko himself has raised the question while addressing a Mayoral bunfight:

"There are two Normandies. But does there need to be? In Alsace, some people think it could be arranged differently. Brittany is four splendid departments (1). But when I go to Nantes, they tell me this is the historic capital of Brittany.... Is it necessary - as I think - to encourage an experiment to merge a certain number of regions which wish to do so?"

Note that when the Babylon that was the German Democratic Republic fell, the newly re-united Germany did away with the 15 Bezirke and reconstituted the five Bismarckian lander (-ish - No Prussia), so if Kohl could do it, why can't Sarko? I have had a look at online editions of Ouest France and Le Télégramme de Brest and neither seems to have editorialised the issue, which is pretty poor.

Meanwhile, a Breton cleric of my acquaintance refuses to use the first republic departéments in his correspondence, preferring the pre-revolution bishoprics instead.


(1) He has form when it comes to annoying Bretons - 'Je me fous des Bretons' - so mindful of the next election he will always be going out of his way to butter them up.

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posted by Croydonian

And the results are in...

Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Unnoticed by much of the world, Greenland has been voting on home rule, and those fine people at Sermitsiaq have published the results and I have taken the opportunity to map them....

White represents unincorporated areas, and shades of grey ascending gradations of 60%+, peaking at 92% (black) for Kangaatsiaq. The heaving metropolis of Nuuk, or Godthåb, (pop. 15,047) is one of the least enthusiastic at 63%.

But what of the red blob? That is the municipality of Ivittuut, where just 23% want self-rule. And for why? Perchance because it is home to 'the Danish naval headquarters of Greenland'. Nothing like knowing which side your bread is buttered, is there? Mind you, just 65 of the electorate of 119 could be bothered to make it the polling station.

Thule Air base is in the extreme North East (Qaanaaq) and is entirely self-contained without offering employment to the locals, by the look of things, so no red blob there. Note that the settlement of Moriusaq, all of 19 miles from Thule, saw 100% voting for home rule, although that was three people out of seven voting.

Other notable findings include the outbreak of spoilt ballots in Kujalleq, at 11 out of 94 and the three blanks (out of 56) in Narsaq. There was a 13% blank 'vote' in Nalunaq, but that looks to be the work of just one voter. One in the five voters in Upernaviarsuk spoilt his or her ballot.

While I derive an unnatural degree of entertainment from the availability of data at this degree of detail, I do wonder whether there might be scope for post-electoral recriminations if a vote is very tightly contested or a controversial party is voted for.

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posted by Croydonian

Really rather good

Saturday, November 22, 2008
Take a close look at this:


This novelty is care of some inventive folk who have published maps of Europe and the world with literal renderings of place names in the place of the more usual. More maps here and here.

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posted by Croydonian

The brilliance of Mr Brown

Friday, November 14, 2008
Here, borrowed from the FT, is a map of currency movements against sterling over the last 12 months:

Light green is a rise of less than 5%, dark green 5% +. Note that the US dollar is up 38%, the Euro 20% and the Japanese Yen 57%. The Swiss Franc is up 30% and the rouble 19%. By my reckoning, sterling has fallen against every other currency in the developed world. In addition to those visibly mapped, sterling is also down against the Shekel and the Singapore dollar, these also being currencies of IMF-defined advanced economies.

So much for his mastery of the economy.

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posted by Croydonian