Each week, Spatial Source finds the best that the internet has to offer.
Wednesday 3 May is International Press Freedom day. This interactive map discovered by Maps Mania allows you to see how every country in the world ranks on the 2017 ‘World Press Freedom Index’ compiled by Reporters Without Borders. Countries are coloured on the map by their level of press freedom. Top of the list is a certain Scandinavian country. Take a guess where Australia stands… [Maps Mania]
Thanks to an error on Google Maps, a home in Australia’s Northern Territory was incorrectly labelled as a pizza shop .This promptly created many disappointed would-be pizza eaters and one very disgruntled home owner. “It is like getting your identity stolen,” homeowner Mr McElwee told ABC Radio Darwin. “I don’t know how many people have turned up at my house thinking it was a pizza place.” [ABC News]
US President Donald Trump has properties named after him in four out of seven continents. You could visit Trump Tower not only in New York, but also Toronto, Vancouver, Waikiki, the Philippines, Mumbai, Dubai, Istanbul and Ireland. But perhaps you would rather visit someplace that is the maximum distance from all the properties bearing Trump’s name. The Washington Post did some mathematics to find out just where that might be. [The Washington Post]
We talk a lot about caring for the environment, but the environment doesn’t always care for us. You see, there are locations where nature does quite the opposite. This story map shares some of the places on Earth that are so dangerous or extreme that simply going there would kill you. This includes Lake Nyos in Cameroon (pictured), which is actually underlined by magma. [Geo-Jobe]
In historical terms, Europe is the source of the world’s most prolific colonisers. But what would Europe look like if the tables were turned? This map shows what if Europe might look like if it had been colonised like the rest of the world, complete with the many straight borders and improvised names you see elsewhere in the world such as in South America. [Big Think]
