Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would […]

What is your favourite name for a carbonated beverage?

Now that Russia has recognised the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the improbable phantom nation of Transnistria (1) might be gearing up for its own fifteen minutes of geopolitical […]

The map of the Bay Area has been in your hands all along

n n "I was watching TV and noticed an informercial for cure-all vitamin supplement with a unique map background," writes John Deal, who immediately grabbed a camera and took a […]

The fledgling state managed to elect a Miss Absaroka 1939 before disappearing into the dustbin of history

n n (click on image to enlarge) n The Zeitgeist of the mid ‘fifties probably wasn’t shrinkwrapped in quite so many layers of irony and political correctness as today’s is, […]

n n What is it with airlines and maps? Which part of ‘atlas’ don’t they understand? You’d think that, being the business of transportation, they’d get their distances and directions […]

nMississippi is the fattest state in the Union, with 30.1% of Mississippians being obese. That’s almost one in every three inhabitants. Not that the Magnolia State (in red on this […]

n n In 1989, Swedish author Herman Lindquist published Rapporter från Mittens Rike (‘Reports from the Middle Kingdom’). The title of the book is ambiguous, as it refers to the well-known […]

Spain, now a fully integrated member of the European Union, once was considered so alien to the rest of Europe that Alexandre Dumas is known to have remarked that “Africa […]

The Toscanelli map grossly underestimated the Earth's circumference (and left out America)

This crazy scheme would have restored the prehistoric land bridge between the UK and the Continent

Cannibalism is the ultimate yardstick for barbarity, and the ideal excuse to subjugate the accused  

n n I first encountered the term ‘galoshes’ in the same Russian novels that also introduced me, albeit equally theoretically, to the samowar*. Subsequently, I’ve always thought of galoshes (also […]

n n An interesting proposal has surfaced to help resolve the intra-Belgian political stalemate between Dutch-speaking Flemings and French-speakers, who prevail in Brussels and Wallonia: a couloir francophone (‘Francophone corridor’) […]

n China has land borders with 14 other countries – a world record*. And yet you should not think of China as particularly well-integrated with its neighbours. In fact, as […]

The map on the bedroom wall of every teenage Bilderberger

Did we miss a utopia or avoid a disaster?

The semi-mythical Greek is not only the father of the epic poem, but also of geography