Map 357 is actually 13 different maps about the foods of Thanksgiving (I’m hungry just thinking about it). These maps are harder to see so I’ve included additional copies below where they are a little bit easier to read. The point of these maps, created and disseminated by Western Illinois University, is to show where…
The United States Football League, which is apparently still a thing, has unveiled the eight teams it will have for the April 2022 season. National Football League fans may be much more informed about the 32 teams in the NFL (including my favorite team, the Minnesota Vikings) but there are eight new teams that are…
Map 353 is actually two maps (how lucky you are)! It comes from a Facebook post I found when my mother-in-law shared it. The top map shows the most common spoken language other than English in each of the fifty states. The bottom map shows the most common spoken language other than English and Spanish.…
Map 351 comes from the movie Fly Away Home (1996) starring Jeff Daniels and Anna Paquin and directed by Carroll Ballard. It is a dramatized version of the true story of Bill Lishman who trained Canadian Geese to follow his ultralight aircraft in order to help them migrate south. In the film version some land…
My family went to the Minnesota Zoo yesterday. It was 100 degrees and sunny but there was a slight breeze so it was fine. Hot, but fine. Next time you find yourself in a zoo pay attention to the maps (I always do, of course). Map 349 is actually a series of small maps from…
Map 347 comes from the Economic Policy Institute and shows how teachers are paid across the United States compared to comparable college-educated workers. Spoiler alert before you look at it… teachers are underpaid in all fifty states versus comparable college-educated workers. At best, teachers were paid 2.0% less in the state of Colorado and that’s…
The new Census results are out and that means changes are coming to the Electoral College Map. Map 345 is the 2020 Apportionment Data Map, which shows how seats are moving from state to state. The census tells us where populations are increasing faster than others which results in gains and losses of seats/votes in…
Map 343 is a fictional map from the Hulu original series The Handmaid’s Tale. The show’s Twitter account posted it in advance of the show’s highly anticipated fourth season. If you’ve seen the show you’ll know that a religious-based government took over what we know as the United States and renamed itself ‘Gilead’. These right-wing…
Map 341 is a Republican’s pipe dream. More specifically, that Republican is State Representative Jeremy Munson (R-Crystal Lake). He introduced a bill, HF 2423, into the State House on March 25th that would start the process for Minnesota counties to secede and join South Dakota. I have covered secession attempts before, all of which I’ve…
Map 339 is the Texas COVID-19 Vaccine Availability Map (there are some close-ups available too). The blue dots connote where a vaccine can be found. The yellow dots are hubs, meaning a larger volume of shots are available. Visitors to the availability website can click on the various dots for the exact address, facility name,…
I haven’t been on vacation in a long damn time. Beth and I took James to California for the first two weeks of July 2018 and we haven’t gone anywhere since. Beth was pregnant in 2019 so we didn’t plan any vacations and it turned out to be an uncomfortable pregnancy so if we had…
Map 337 is a potential Amtrak Route Map that I found on Twitter after President Joe Biden announced a new infrastructure bill his Administration is working on. I know Mr. Biden is a big fan of Amtrak and riding the rails, something he has done a lot over the years as a Senator from Delaware…
Map 335 is about hockey, more specifically college hockey and the 2021 Frozen Four Tournament. What do I know about college hockey? Nothing, but I saw the bracket released and I thought, “I could make a map out of this!”. So I plotted all the home arenas of the 16 teams that made the tournament…
Map 333 comes from MPR News. It tracks the movements of a GPS-tracked wolf known as F003. In the fall of 2018 this female wolf, along with several others, was relocated from Northern Minnesota to Isle Royale National Park, an island in Lake Superior that is technically part of Michigan despite being closer to Minnesota…
Map 331 shows the Percentage of Small Businesses Receiving PPP Loans in the first batch from 2020, which I found in a Slate article from 5/7/20. The map uses dark red to show the states where the highest percentage of small businesses received the special PPP loans. These loans were limited because Congress approved a…
[Wanders into the room] Oh, hello there. Are you still here?! I haven’t posted in quite some time so I’m both surprised and impressed that you’re all still around. Good for you! It shows determination and moxie. I didn’t realize you were still hanging out here in my basement all this time (and frankly it…
Map 327 shows how landlocked each province of Europe is. That’s not a thing you probably thought you needed to know prior to reading that first sentence, but if you are like me (hungry and tired?), then you may have realized just how important that information is. It’s not important in a traditional sense, of…
I have been away from the blog for about a month and probably will be for another stint here as Beth is expected to give birth in the next week or less (hopefully less). I’ll be sure to share our birth story as soon as I can after it happens but having a newborn around…
Map 323 comes from an article on Curbed.com titled The nation’s most exciting park project is taking shape in North Carolina. I saw the article by happenstance, and only skimmed it, but came upon this beautiful map. It is a map/rendering of what the developer (Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates) has planned for Dorothea Dix Park…
I normally prefer not to give you two United States maps in the same post but Independence Day is tomorrow so I’m going to roll with it. Happy Fourth of July everyone! Map 321 features the U.S cities with the most and least student debt. Student loan debt is a big topic right now because…
Map 319 displays the minimum wage in each of the United States. The federal minimum wage was first established in 1938. Since then, Congress has occasionally raised the dollar amount based on inflation. May of 2007 was the last time that happened when it was raised to $7.25 (a change that went into effect in…
This trip took place from June 30th to July 15th of 2018. The Knutson family numbered three as James was joining Beth and myself on his first major vacation! Day 7; San Francisco: I actually set an alarm to wake James up nice an early so we could try and time his nap. He didn’t…
Sometimes I’m browsing Facebook and come across a link. The link is about travel or other countries so I click on it hoping to find a really cool map. On many occasions I find an article, some nicely written, but no map. Then, every once and awhile, when the planets are in the perfect position,…
Map 315 features the geology of Texas, as in “Don’t mess with…”. I found this map through Pinterest (home to thousands of maps, by the way) and was stunned by how diverse the geology of Texas is. It’s a very large territory, of course, but it’s still interesting how many different eras are represented in…
Unfortunately, Map 313 features the deforestation of Los Angeles, California (sorry for the downer right at the top). Apparently, the “city has lost a shocking number of trees over the last decade, according to a group of USC professors from the Spatial Sciences Institute and Urban Wildlands Group who used aerial imagery to track the de-greening of LA. Their study,…
Map 311 shows the back half of a concert tour. The band on this tour is 311 (see what I did there?). 311 is currently on tour, they have a show on June 8th in Dana Point, California, but then they are scheduled to have a month off before resuming the tour on July 2nd…
FiveThirtyEight compiled data on where Democrats and Republicans live across the United States and the results may not surprise you. It is well known that urban areas tend to favor the liberal Democratic Party while suburban and rural areas prefer the conservative Republican Party. So how does that common knowledge compare to the factual data…
Map 307 is of the African continent. It shows some topography as well but the main focus is the geographic locations where different types of giraffes live. Take a look! The humble giraffe is the tallest living species on Earth (there were several dinosaurs that were taller, of course, prior to their extinction). There are…
Map 305 is a transit map for Game of Thrones fans. I’ve featured fake transit maps before and Game of Thrones maps too but this is a fun mix. I don’t watch the show, personally, but I’ve seen clips and my preferred sports talk radio show talks about it a lot. I could see myself…
I have very little context to share regarding Map 303. I originally thought it was in Russian since I recognized cyrillic characters but upon using Google Translate on some city names and phrases within the map I believe it to actually be Belarusian! I don’t normally share maps I cannot read but it is a…
If you haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame yet… GO SEE IT! Take tomorrow off work if you have to but go see this film. Even if you’ve never seen the rest of the franchise and nothing will make sense it’s still a great movie. Okay, so the movie making sense would probably be best so see…
This is my 150th Fun with Maps post! Congratulations to me! I suppose I should say something special to mark this important moment so… thank you to everyone that subscribes and reads my posts! I write this blog for the celebration of all things maps/travel and as a hobby (and for profit, although that hasn’t…
Map 297 shows what exists as South Africa today during an early period of war. I do not know much about the various conflicts in the region but you can read about them here. It is very interesting to see the troop movement lines and where each side, the British and the Boers, won battles.…
It has snowed like crazy in the Twin Cities the past 45 days. Holy moly has it snowed! This February was the snowiest February in Minnesota since they started keeping track of that statistic, and the fourth snowiest month overall. 39 inches! There were a couple times where it snowed and it was supposed to…
Map 293 is one of the best maps out there. How do I know? The topic of said map is none other than Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry! My wife, Beth, sent me this map earlier today and I love it. Hogwarts is cool. Maps are cool. What’s not to love?! This map shows…
China has the longest high-speed rail system on the planet by a wide margin. At 18,000 miles, China owns more than two-thirds of all high-speed rail here on Earth. “China’s ambition of building high-speed rails shows no sign of slowing down. With another 6,000 miles under construction, China aims to cover 80% of metro areas…
Map 289 comes from an awesome movie, 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow. If anyone out there doesn’t agree that this film is awesome, amazing, fantastic, and simply the best; you are clearly incorrect. I love everything about it and highly recommend you go watch it if you haven’t already had the pleasure. The basic premise of…
Map 287 is a Geological Map of Hong Kong from 2006. It is probably going to be difficult to really read and explore below so feel free to zoom in at the original source. This map is just plain awesome. It is both aesthetically pleasing and informative. Do I understand what is being shown? Not…
I recently found a blog post titled, “10 Rare Landmarks on the Map of Nigeria” and clicked on it expecting to see a big, beautiful map. I was, however, disappointed to find no map at all, just a list of places. The headline contains the word ‘map’ and everything so I’m not the crazy one…
Map 283 features the minimum wage in each state of the United States. The current Federal minimum wage is just $7.25 in the US but several states have passed laws to increase that figure. Five states have done the opposite by not mandating a minimum wage but of the 45 states with one the average…
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