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
A mind map with the words hindi, hindi, hindi, hindi, hindi, hindi.
Strange Maps
The “Roof of the World,” in eight simple lines
This minimalist map unties Asia’s mountainous geography, centered on the “Pamir Knot.”
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
The loneliest roads in America
If you find yourself on one of these roads, it might be a while before you see another fellow traveler.
Frank Jacobs
A 3d image of a blue and red sphere.
Strange Maps
The Indian Ocean has the world’s largest gravity hole. Now we know why
Seventy-five years after the anomaly's discovery, scientists have finally figured out why sea levels are so much lower here.
Frank Jacobs
A map of a city with a lot of pink dots.
Strange Maps
Germany to legalize cannabis — but not here, there, or just about anywhere
Legally smoking joints in city centers will require alertness and a keen sense of orientation — two things stoners are not known for.
Frank Jacobs
A map showing the spread of the euphrates river.
Strange Maps
Study: The Indo-European language family was born south of the Caucasus
Though over three billion people speak an Indo-European language, researchers are not sure where the language family originated.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Umami: You never say its name, yet you taste it every day
Sweet, bitter, salty, sour. These are the four basic tastes we were taught in grade school. But there is a fifth: umami. And it's everywhere.
Frank Jacobs
A map of the world with a circle around it.
Strange Maps
Lemuria, the weirdest continent that never existed
To this day, one cult believes that Lemuria was real, and that its people left us the sacred wisdom to revive their advanced civilization.
Frank Jacobs
A painting of a man with a turban and a map.
Strange Maps
The medieval mapmaker remembered for the wrong map
The history of cartography might have been very different if the Latin version of Muhammad al-Idrisi's atlas had survived instead of the Arabic one.
Frank Jacobs
Cephalic Index World Map
Strange Maps
The skull maps that quantified racism
These landscapes — of geographical differences in head shapes — have vanished from acceptable science (and cartography).
Frank Jacobs
A map showing the location of the arctic ocean.
Strange Maps
No, the Gulf Stream isn’t going to collapse
If we're going to discuss oceanography and climate change, we should at least identify the currents correctly.
Frank Jacobs
America defeated
Strange Maps
Alt history: What if the U.S. lost a World War?
Opponents of America's entry into the looming Second World War believed the U.S. would be dismembered.
Frank Jacobs
dunkin's starbucks rate by state.
Strange Maps
Where Americans prefer to eat and drink coffee in each U.S. state
The richness and variety of America’s food landscape, in a buffet of maps.
Frank Jacobs
Strange Maps
Geopsychology: Your personality depends on where you live
Research suggests there's truth to regional stereotypes in the U.S. — with some caveats.
Frank Jacobs
a large white dome in the middle of a city.
Strange Maps
There’s an entire solar system hiding inside Sweden
Get ready for the most peculiar road trip that will help you understand the vastness and emptiness of the solar system — and Sweden.
Frank Jacobs
a large map of the world with all the countries.
Strange Maps
An astronaut’s view reveals China’s geopolitical claustrophobia
When you turn a map of East Asia upside down, Beijing’s geographic constraints and regional ambitions become much clearer.
Frank Jacobs
A map showing the Columbian Exchange.
Strange Maps
Columbus was neither the first nor the nicest. But his voyage was the most important
For better and worse, the Columbian Exchange plugged the Americas into the global system — and there was no going back.
Frank Jacobs
a map of the area where the trail is located.
Strange Maps
Mongolia’s “Forbidden Zone” is guarding an 800-year-old secret
Is the vast "Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area" the final resting place of Genghis Khan?
Frank Jacobs
a map of a park with a lot of trees.
Strange Maps
What do King Charles III, the Pope, and Canadian Inuit have in common?
Meet the world's largest landowners.
Frank Jacobs
a circular diagram with the names of different types of people.
Strange Maps
Happy, sad, angry, horny: The ultimate map guide to 90s rock music
The Foo Fighters are at the dead center of the map, so all the other bands are happier, sadder, angrier, or hornier.
Frank Jacobs
a map of the united states with the words 70 % of canada.
Strange Maps
Most Canadians live south of Seattle and other mental map surprises
Reject your Mental Map Oversimplifications.
Frank Jacobs
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