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
146 – Comparing Wikipedia to China, Macedonia and Barbados
n Frank San Miguel (“software geek, boat builder, musician and a veteran of a number of internet startups”, including what became mapquest.com) alerted me to this nifty little map he […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
145 – The Madonna Map Syndrome
n The cyclist pauses amid fields of produce that stretch toward the horizon, punctuated only by farms and roads. He stares in bafflement at a road map far too elaborate […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
2.000.000 Hits
On June 3, almost 9 months after the first post on September 10 last year, the hit counter on strangemaps went up to 1 million. Today, a bit over a […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
144 – Single Guys Live in LA, Single Girls in NYC
n This map out of the National Geographic magazine was sent to me by Xyzzy, a name that gives nothing away as to gender affiliation or relationship status. If Xyzzy […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
143 – Ex Unum Pluribus: New American Nations
The motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum, Latin for ‘Out of Many, One’. Matt Kirkland, who provided me this map, thinks the US has become too unwieldy, […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
142 – Redonda: Once, Twice, Nine Times A Micronation
The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Leo I of Redonda The Kingdom of Redonda, as presented by King Robert I the Bald of Redonda On his second transatlantic […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Curious Map Showing Europe as a Queen
Spain is the head, Lithuania the left knee - you get the idea
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
The Great Australian Inland Sea
If other continents have large inland river systems, why wouldn’t Australia?
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
‘Scott’s Great Snake’: a Plan to Strangle the Confederacy
It might have snuffed out Secession with minimal loss of life; but Lincoln chose both the blockade and an invasion
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
The Schlieffen Plan, Blueprint for German Victory
Failed in both world wars
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
137 – Occupied Territories
n Dominique Taléghani is a French scientific journalist by day, a designer of imaginary cartographies by night. On his or her (Dominique is one of those unisex first names) blog, […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
New Jersey, Mapped by Springsteen Lyrics
Is the Boss to Jersey what Joyce was to Dublin?
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
New Switzerland, Jules Verne’s Imaginary Shipwreck Sanctuary
The only way to visit this island is to read the book
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
A Map of Poland Under its Wry-Mouthed Duke
Despite centuries of war and territorial changes, Poland then looks a lot like Poland now.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
136 – New Iceland – A Forgotten Nordic Colony In Canada
n When it comes to the discovery and colonization of America, Iceland can claim a longer pedigree than all other European countries. The Icelandic explorer Leif Eriksson (970-1020) was the […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
135 – Update On the GDP Map of the USA
I’m not in the habit of extensively revisiting strange maps already posted here, as there are so many more out there. But the map of the ‘US States Renamed For […]
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
131 – US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs
This map renames American states as countries with similar GDPs. It gives you a sense of just how wealthy the United States is.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
The Jireček Line
Yet another border dividing the Balkans, in Greek and Roman halves.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings”: Real Places May Have Inspired Middle Earth
Tolkien himself wrote that "as for the shape of the world of the Third Age, I am afraid that was devised ‘dramatically’, rather than geologically, or paleontologically.”
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Meet the Zoo Hiding in the Tube Map
All Elephant and No Castle: a secret bestiary of the London Underground
Frank Jacobs
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