Mapping Countries by Similarity
Maps Mania
The Grand Prize winner in the World Data Visualization Prize 2019 was an interactive visualization which groups the world’s countries using artificial intelligence. The Country t-SNE map rearranges the countries of the world so that instead of being geographically positioned they are grouped by similarity.
Library of Congress Story Maps Dive into Early Photography

Worlds Revealed: Geography and maps at the Library of Congress
New Story Maps from the Library of Congress, detailing some of the fascinating adventures and technological innovations of early photography in the United States.
IKEA Map Poster Omits New Zealand
The Map Room
IKEA is apologising after it was discovered that one of its BJÖRKSTA world map posters left off New Zealand. (Yes, that again.)
Australia’s First Language Maps
Maps Mania
First Languages Australia is working with regional language centers across the country to build an interactive map of Australian languages — a map that uses the names and groupings favored by the speakers of each language. The first languages listed in the map sidebar which have small circular images include recordings and / or videos with recordings. These recordings include examples of first languages being spoken and first language speakers discussing the importance of first languages to indigenous communities.
Cards Against Humanity Stops the Wall
Map of the week
Cards Against Humanity is a self-described “party game for horrible people.” As a protest against a border wall that is by any objective standard an ineffective waste of huge sums of money, they have purchased a plot of land along the US-Mexico border and hope to delay construction by forcing a lengthy eminent domain case. Since the wall is “12th Century Technology” they have also purchased a trebuchet, a medieval device (not the font) for catapulting objects to destroy walls.
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