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
null island
Strange Maps
Welcome to Null Island, where lost data goes to die
Where the prime meridian meets the equator, a non-existent island captures our imagination — and our non-geocoded data.
Frank Jacobs
irish shipwrecks
Strange Maps
An interactive map of Irish shipwrecks, littered with thousands of stories
We have a morbid curiosity about nautical disaster stories. The Irish "Wreck Viewer" offers a window into centuries of marine misfortune.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Is your air as unhealthy as cigarettes? There’s a map for that
The World Air Quality Index shows how clean your city’s air is, in real time.
Frank Jacobs
Bar Chart Race for GDP
Strange Maps
Bar chart races: short on analysis, but fun to watch
Any dataset that can be quantified over time can be turned into a contest that is both exciting and (a little bit) enlightening.
Frank Jacobs
whale migration
Strange Maps
Map of whale migration “superhighways” might help save them from extinction
The world’s great whales aren’t just vulnerable where they congregate, but everywhere they roam.
Frank Jacobs
Growth of Ukraine
Strange Maps
Ukraine: made by Lenin, unmade by Putin?
The Bolsheviks may have created Ukraine’s current borders, but that doesn’t mean dismantling them is good for today’s Russia.
Frank Jacobs
Zarahemla, Iowa
Strange Maps
Mormon geography: why some Latter-day Saints are digging for a ‘lost city’ in southeastern Iowa
Using the Book of Mormon as a sacred but ambiguous atlas, the Latter-day Saints have been looking for the lost city of Zarahemla for decades.
Frank Jacobs
Trafalgar Square Pyramid
Strange Maps
Canceled megaprojects: Alternative visions of New York and London
Take a look at the Times Square Totem, the Trafalgar Square Pyramid, and other landmarks that were never built.
Frank Jacobs
gritter
Strange Maps
Scottish gritters and James Bond puns: a map for your ice only
To clear Scotland’s roads in winter, the local traffic agency employs heavy machinery with punny names. Can you grit and bear it?
Frank Jacobs
vietnam war
Strange Maps
Three maps remind us of the horror of the Vietnam War
America’s war in Southeast Asia is fading fast from memory. These maps offer a horrific reminder.
Frank Jacobs
A collage featuring an image of the Stasi Records Archive and a map of Europe with the shape of Germany blacked out.
Strange Maps
Why Germany is a blank spot on Google’s Street View
There are good historical reasons why Germans are suspicious of surveillance.
Frank Jacobs
debt-to-gdp
Strange Maps
Debt-to-GDP ratio: No country owes more than Japan
The U.S. has the world's largest debt in absolute terms, but Japan's is the largest when measured in terms of its debt-to-GDP ratio.
Frank Jacobs
ukraine
Strange Maps
Maybe Ukraine should claim some of Russia’s land, instead
One hundred years ago, a Ukrainian flag flew over Vladivostok and other parts of the “Russian” Far East.
Frank Jacobs
syphilis
Strange Maps
Syphilis: a disease so nasty that it was named after foreigners and enemies
The most feared sexually transmitted disease (STD) of the last half-millennium was usually named after foreigners, often the French.
Frank Jacobs
city syndromes
Strange Maps
Twisted cities: 10 places synonymous with psychological disorders
Stockholm Syndrome is the most famous of 10 psychological disorders named after world cities. Most relate to tourism or hostage-taking.
Frank Jacobs
map detective
Strange Maps
The map as detective: finding lost mothers — and fugitive killers
Maps can do more than show us places. They also can help determined people find others long lost, whether birth mothers or fugitive killers.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Let George Orwell guide you through 1920s Paris
Famished, not famous: retrace Orwell’s hunger days, when he was one of the city’s legion of poor foreigners.
Frank Jacobs
chess pieces
Strange Maps
How did chess pieces get their names?
One player’s pawn is another’s farmer. And at one time, the queen was a rather powerless virgin.
Frank Jacobs
map of the empty diagonal
Strange Maps
There’s a desert hiding in the heart of France
France is split in two by its very own "desert," the Empty Diagonal. The area’s depopulation is fairly recent, and Paris is to blame.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
“Welcome to Lake Toiletbrush”: How IKEA ruined the map of Sweden
Many of the furniture giant’s products are named after Swedish locations. Not everyone is happy about that.
Frank Jacobs
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