Thursday 22 August 2013

Mapping our Inspiration a Little Differently: The Sequel to ‘Mapping our Inspiration’


You probably remember the blog I posted a little over a week ago about maps, and how much I love them. Just in case you don’t, or haven't read it, you can read it here: Mapping our Inspiration

Not long after I posted that blog, a friend of mine shared this link on Facebook. 40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World

It is, as the title says, a list of forty world maps. But, each map shows different aspects of our world from the educational to the shocking to the downright fun. One map showcases where Google Street View is available, and it’s surprisingly very small. Another map brings us back to when we were one big continent, but keeps our current international borders. There is one that maps the world according to the different writing systems. One more shows us the global internet usage based on the time of day, and yet another shows us where 29,000 rubber duckies made landfall after falling off of a cargo ship during a 1992 storm in the Pacific Ocean. The rubber ducky map is my favourite of the forty maps.

The journeys 29,000 rubber duckies embarked on in January 1992.

Maps are informative, even if they are sometimes a little comical, like the overboard rubber duckies shown above. Maps are important and some, like the map of Pangaea and the journeys the lost rubber duckies embarked on, provide us with vital information like what our world looks like millions of years ago and how our ocean currents are connected. Maps show us how, like our ocean currents, we are connected and how we are different. For these reasons, maps are wonderful and I love them.



And, if you don’t believe me about the rubber duckies, check out this UK article from June 2007: Rubber ducks to land on British Shores after 15 year journey

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