Frank Jacobs

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Frank Jacobs

Journalist, writer, and blogger

strange maps

Frank Jacobs is Big Think's "Strange Maps" columnist.

From a young age, Frank was fascinated by maps and atlases, and the stories they contained. Finding his birthplace on the map in the endpapers of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings only increased his interest in the mystery and message of maps.

While pursuing a career in journalism, Frank started a blog called Strange Maps, as a repository for the weird and wonderful cartography he found hidden in books, posing as everyday objects and (of course) floating around the Internet.

"Each map tells a story, but the stories told by your standard atlas for school or reference are limited and literal: they show only the most practical side of the world, its geography and its political divisions. Strange Maps aims to collect and comment on maps that do everything but that - maps that show the world from a different angle".

A remit that wide allows for a steady, varied diet of maps: Frank has been writing about strange maps since 2006, published a book on the subject in 2009 and joined Big Think in 2010. Readers send in new material daily, and he keeps bumping in to cartography that is delightfully obscure, amazingly beautiful, shockingly partisan, and more.

Everything Videos Articles
Strange Maps
What’s Your Country Best in the World At?
It might not be what you expect
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
The national debt pizza: How much is your slice?
You might find this hard to swallow
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Why Trumpistan Is So Much Bigger Than Clintonesia
The winning side in the U.S. presidential election rules a vast, contiguous land mass, the losers are cooped up on a far-flung archipelago
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Secret Map Shows Brits Considered Giving Lower Canada to U.S. in 1783
The secret Red Line Map that could have given Lower Canada to the U.S.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
What Does the Internet Actually Look Like?
It's a web, it's a cloud - it's under attack: how outages reveal the actual shape of the internet
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
The Weird Geography of Autocomplete Maps
Not as cheerful as your standard cartography - but you might learn a thing or two
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
In a Man’s World, Trump Would Still Win
If only men would vote, Trump would be the next president. If only women voted, Clinton would win by an even bigger landslide.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
All Pop Music Since 1880 in One Clickable Map
Welcome to Music City - just click and play!
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
10 Jewish Homelands Outside Palestine
A Jewish state in Alaska?
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Update Needed: the Liam Neeson Kill Map
Europe is the continent where you are most likely to be killed by Liam Neeson.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Solitude, Space Junk and Sea Monsters: the Eerieness of Point Nemo
Only in 1992 was science able to calculate the remotest part of the ocean
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
This is What Our Nearest Exoplanet May Look Like – A Giant Eye Staring at the Sun
The nearest exoplanet ever has been observed, but not yet seen. Is this what the 'Earth Next Door' looks like?
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
The Map as Address: Cryptic Letter Reaches Icelandic Destination
The sender didn’t have a name nor an address for his letter. So he drew a map instead.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Children’s Map of the World
As this stark map shows, domestic violence against children is still legal in most of the world.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Real Map of the Middle East
Years of war in the Middle East have erased old borders. Here is what the map currently looks like. 
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Louisiana Flooding: Is This the State’s New, More Accurate Map?
Once the emergency is over, maybe it's time we drew a different map of Louisiana - however shocking it may be.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Novosibirsk, the Economic Centre of the World?
The Global economic midpoint is returning to Asia - at increasing speed.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
San Francisco is Built on a Ghost Ship Graveyard
Did you know the Metro to Embarcadero Station passes through a buried Gold Rush ship?
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
These Are the Most Bigoted States on Twitter
Like most data produced on social media, online bigotry is geotagged. Meaning that hate speech can be mapped. That is exactly what this newest map has done. 
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Why Catalonia Will Never Get Rid of Spain
The map of Spain is tattooed into the Catalan landscape, as indelible streets and avenues
Frank Jacobs
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