Carto-Vexillo-philic tattoo

Moments ago, I posted this on my Flag Fan blog, Vexillophilia. But then (to my horror) I took a closer look at the photo and saw that he also has maps tattooed on his belly!



Time to wash my eyes.

Hot Hungarian

Occupying a prominent location in the Cartophiliac kitchen is the Szeged Hungarian Hot Paprika. Good stuff, not only because it features a map on the tin!

But wait, there's more! The map of Hungary, in three regions, looks like a sideways flag of Hungary!

Can any Hungarian carto-fans out there tell me if the tri-colored regions on the tin represent three distinct regions in the country?

Vexillophiles note: Michael5000 gives the flag of Hungary an "A" in his latest Flag Friday post.

(I'm also hoping the title "Hot Hungarian" will help me get more hits from web surfers....)



[Cross-posted to Vexillophilia]

Bahar

[It has been far too long since Cartophilia has visited Michael5000's Forgotten Lands. Today he posted an update to the forgotten Mediterranean land of Bahar, which inspired me to create some maps.]

Bahar

Capital: Djiranda
Population: 2,200,000 (1996 estimate)
Area: 54,000 km²
Independence: 1971

Economy: Major exports include Mediterranean agricultural products (grapes, dates, wheat), fish, and some oil. There is a growing industrial sector, of which leading products are glass, machine parts, and sporting equipment. Bahar’s currency, the Baharian lira has been pegged to the Euro since 2005.
Per Capita Income: US$11,530
Languages: English (official), Turkish, Greek, Arabic
Literacy Rate: 77%

A lush, fertile coastal land nestled against the mountains of Asia Minor, Bahar has always been, as Woodrow Wilson observed, “too rich to be free. She is forever coveted by her mighty neighbors” (Greenberg, American Mediterranean Policy and Practice, 1900-1940). Throughout recorded history, Bahar has been subject to a parade of empires: Greek, Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman, British, French, Italian (during the Second World War), and finally, until 1971, the British again.



Because of this “Colonial Tradition,” and despite four decades of independence, neither the world at large nor many of Bahar’s own citizens are accustomed to thinking of this small nation as a truly sovereign country. Still absent on most modern maps, Bahar is one of only four countries not to host a U.S. diplomatic mission as of 2010. Even within the capital, Djiranda, one sees few national flags or symbols, and “arguments in the tobacco bars and town plazas are more likely to be about the relative merits of football teams or fishing grounds than about national politics” (Fisher, Bahar and the Colonial Tradition).

Djiranda is one of a string of walled, whitewashed towns built up the steep cliffs that rise from the Mediterranean shore. Although modern stores and factories have been built inland, the alleys, plazas, homes, and storefronts within town walls look much as they have for centuries. Few tourists know to look for Bahar, but those who have spent time there typically rhapsodize over the beauty and charm of these ancient but vibrant ports. Djiranda, however, does have the reputation of being a difficult city for the casual visitor to navigate. Lacking the grand public buildings of most capitals – Bahar’s parliament meets in a nondescript office building facing a narrow side street – the city lacks obvious, immediately recognizable landmarks to navigate by.



Wine pressed from the grapes grown on the south-facing slopes of Bahar’s coastal hills has been declared among the world’s best by many leading authorities. Unfortunately, because production is still small-scale and largely structured to supply the domestic market, few enthusiasts have had a chance to sample the products of Bahar’s vintners.

Flag: The three colors of Bahar’s flag are green, white, and black. The green field represents the agricultural underpinnings of Baharian society. The white stripe represents the sea, which Baharians consider to be not blue but clear. The black field, according to government literature, represents “our national mourning for four millennia of imperialist oppression.” When informed of this symbolism by this writer, one typical Baharian shrugged and replied “independent or not, it matters little.”

National Anthem: “Our Freedom We Hold Sacred.”

Other Forgotten Lands on Cartophilia.



From Cartophiliac:

So, I created those two maps above, but I'm not quite happy with them. Bahar just looks too large. However, I tried to approximate the actual area in km² that M5K used. So I created this map, below, that manages to nestle into the Turkish coast unobtrusively. Dear Readers, which version do you prefer?



Mega-Bonus points for anyone who can identify the geographic source for the shape of Bahar. A clue is in the text.

Vexillophilia and Ausflag

Yours truly, Cartophiliac, loves maps. It's in my name. Many times, while discussing maps, I find an excuse to also mention flags. [Flags on Cartophilia]. For example, when creating and drawing maps of imaginary countries, it is often necessary to create flags for these imaginary countries. [See Flag of Quastolia.] It is time to come out of the closet. In addition to being a Cartophiliac, I am also a Vexillophiliac. A flag lover. [See Vexillophile]

So, fellow cartophiles, if you care to join us, I have begun a new blog project: Vexillophilia: Flags and Flag Fun. In this new venture, I have been joined by Michael5000, my favorite blogger from Portland, OR, and fellow cartophile and vexillophile. Michael and I have already written about flags in history, flag days, flag songs, and Michael has undertaken to give a letter grade to every national flag of the world (à la Josh Parsons).

Today, Michael5000 wrote about The Great Australian Flag Debate describing the movement in Australia to replace its Union-Jacked flag with something more... "local".

"Ausflag is an apolitical, non-profit organisation seeking to secure the popular support of the Australian people for the adoption of a truly Australian flag."

What I love about this logo is that instead of a flag with a map on it... it is a flag, that looks like a map! (See, I eventually came back to maps.)

Good luck, Australia, I'll love your flag, whatever you decide...

Where is West Xylophone?

They Might Be Giants, the American alternative rock band, primarily John Flansburgh and John Linnell, have released dozens of children's songs over the years. Including "The Alphabet of Countries"

The official TMBG video includes much map and flag fun... but where is West Xylophone?



From This Might Be A Wiki - The TMBG Knowledge Base:

Technically, there is no nation whose name begins with the letter 'X' or the letter 'W.' (Wales is a principality, Wallis is a territory of France, and Western Sahara is a disputed territory below Morocco). The fictional West Xylophone is used as a stand-in for both of these letters.

Several other TMBG fans have created videos for the song, with more map and flag fun:

Flags of Arabia

Curzon at Coming Anarchy provides us with a brief explanation of why so many Arabic speaking countries have very similar flags, featuring a flaggish map!



Flags of Arabia, Part 2: Flags of the Arab Revolt, the Hashemite Kings, and Pan-Arabism

Flags of Arabia, Part 1: The Trucial States of the Persian Gulf

The Crescent and Sacred Green: A Postscript to the Arab Flags Series

Make Way for the Amero

Snopes.com, the Urban Legend Reference site, today addressed the rumor that the United States will soon replace its currency with the Amero. This new currency would combine the Canadian and United States Dollars with the Mexican Peso to create a single economic union, not unlike the European Community's Euro.

While Cartophilia does not wish to feed the paranoid fears of the wing-nuts, we will heartily endorse this new currency, as long as it includes a map! Daniel Carr of DC-Coin and the Moonlight Mint has created a collectible fantasy Amero coin that does just that:





It is rumored that the postage stamps of this new economic union will feature black helicopters...

#365

Newest Country: Coolest Country?

Yesterday, Greenland voted in favor of independence from Denmark. While the new status will not take effect until June 21, let us take a moment to welcome them to the family of nations. Also, we must acknowledge that they have one of the coolest flags!

Known as Kalaallit Nunaat in the local Inuit language, the new nation will be able to control the vast and lucrative untapped Arctic resources. With global warming, it may be easier to access petroleum products, as well as gold, rubies, uranium, aluminum, nickel, platinum, tungsten, titanium, and copper. Does this make Greenland the only nation that is in favor or global warming? Perhaps greater tourism is in their future. Greenland: the new Riviera of 2078?

Meanwhile, it's still pretty cold there. I would presume that Greenland is the coldest nation, north to south... someone will correct me if I am wrong.



UPDATE: OK, I stand corrected. They only voted for greater autonomy. It sounds like they will be able to act like a separate country in nearly every way...

Michigan's Superior Peninsula

In his book, Lost States: Real Quests for American Statehood (discussed earlier this week) Michael Trinklein discussed the proposed State of Superior. Composed of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and portions of Northern Wisconsin, this state would presumably give the attention this region deserves, but is not getting from Lansing or Madison.



While the proposal gained some traction among "Yoopers" in the 1960s and `70s, it never came to a formal vote. Although they do have their own flag:



Some residents of the U.P. have an inflated view of their region's importance (as seen in this postcard):



(See other inflated views)

Additional map postcards with views of pleasant peninsulas:







Speaking of the Keweenaw Peninsula... For those of us of a certain age, who grew up in or near Detroit, we remember TV Weatherman, Sonny Elliot, and his special recognition of the Keweenaw Peninsula... ("Right... spweeeeet!... here...") Watch this video just past the two minute mark:





As you can see, his very first weathermap of Michigan lopped off the Keweenaw, and he had to add it on... In later years he made sure his (higher-tech) weather maps always had a detachable Keweenaw. He was also famous for coining new weather terms: cloudy and cool = "clool"!

Sporcle: Can you name the most populous US cities?

Can you name the 25 most populous US cities?



Sporcle.com posts new trivia quizzes every day. Many of them are geography related. Today they posted a quiz on the 25 most populous cities in the United States. I am embarrased to say that I only scored 21 out of 25. Can you do better? No cheating by looking at the U.S. Census figures first...

Other map related Sporcle quizzes:

Countries of Europe
Countries of Asia
Most populous cities of the world
etc.

Plus, these were tougher than I thought they'd be:

U.S. State Flags
Flags of Europe

#260

Northern Antarctica

Another entry from Michael5000's Forgotten Lands:

Republic of Northern Antarctica

Capital: New Bristol
Population: 34,881 (1998)
Area: borders undefined
Independence: 1982
Economy: Based on tourism, supplemented by modest mineral exports and seasonal commercial fishing. Visiting scientific missions are a significant source of revenue. Heavily dependant on imports for manufactured goods and foodstuffs.
Per Capita Income: US$52,080
Literacy Rate: 100%

When Disraeli made his famous remark that "the Frenchman yearns for glory as the Northern Antarctican yearns for summer," he revealed as much about the latter nationality as the former. While the long, dark, and of course extremely cold winters make life on "the Underside" challenging, natives can look forward to the relatively mild summer, with its influx of tourists from all over the world and its frequent days of 24-hour sunshine.



Northern Antarctica has the unusual distinction of being the only country to span all 24 time zones – although a few of these are home only to two or three isolated settlers. Eighty-seven percent of Northern Antarcticans live in the country's four "cities" – of which the largest, Queen Maud, has a population of only 9400. None of the cities are connected to each other by road, due to the difficulty of building and maintaining highways in the harsh local environment. AntarticAir, the national airline, is the cities' primary connection to each other and to the outside world. It is the country's largest employer.

Few issues are more hotly debated among Northern Antarcticans than petroleum exploration. Exploiting Antarctic oil reserves would undoubtedly lead to much growth and economic development, but many fear that such rapid growth would destroy the existing Northern Antarctic way of life.

Flag: Three horizontal stripes of light blue, deep blue, and white. The design is pictographic, representing the typical view seen daily by the North Antarctican: ice in the foreground, the polar sea stretching to the horizon, and the pale Antarctic sky overhead.

National Anthem: "Land of Long Winters."

What Happened While I Was Gone?

Mrs. Cartophiliac and I are back from our trip to Mexico. We visited Mexico City and several nearby sites, Including Teotihuacan:



I found a handful of map postcards, but not much else in the way of map memorabilia. I'll post a few things in the next few days.

Normally, I like to keep tabs on the news, and of course most of the news I saw was in Spanish, so I wasn't always sure what was going on... however, clearly the two biggest news stories of the last two weeks have been the Olympics and the fighting in the former soviet republic of Georgia. Since returning home I have been doing some catching up... so some of these images may be old news for you...

The New York Times has this terrific Olympic cartogram, that compares the number of medals won per country, at every Olympic Games from 1896 to the present:



Via The Map Room

Also via The Map Room is this embarassing Google News map goof:



Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's The Daily Show makes light the average American's ignorance about World Geography:



"War. God's way of teaching Americans geography."



The Princess Sparkle Pony Blog was more than a little tired of the media's repeated allusion to the Ray Charles song, Georgia on My Mind.



FWIW

I do not find humor in the loss of life in this conflict between Georgia and Russia, but I cannot help but find ironic humor in the silly and ignorant responses to the tragedy.


#238

Iraq-Pakistan Border

On Good Morning America, while commenting on Barack Obama's Middle Eastern tour, John McCain made a bit of a geography "gaff":

"We have a lot of work to do. It’s a very hard struggle, particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Pakistan border."

While I will not likely be voting for McCain, it wouldn't be because of this silly little slip of the tongue. However, the satirical side of the vast left-wing media conspiracy is having a field day. I just enjoy the maps:

Countdown with Keith Olbmermann

Media Matters

CrooksandLiars.com

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Matthew Yglesias

Hip Hop is Read

In the interest of fairness, as soon as the vast right-wing media conspiracy mocks Barack Obama with maps, I'll be sure to cover it here.

UPDATE 7/23: Mr. RW Anon (see comments) is making me do all the work. OK, here we go:

I had forgotten about Obama's 57 states comment... in fact I vaguely recall an editorial cartoon that included a map... but I found this one from the Power Line Blog:



"Reader Porter Yates created the 57-state map above in honor of Obama's recent slip of the tongue. The map highlights all 18 states that voted for Kerry in 2004, all 31 states in Mexico, the 6 provinces in Canada that didn't vote conservative in 2006, Jamaica and Cuba (naturally)."

However, I think this new lapel pin is the funniest image to come out of that whole flap:


#224

Zagria

Michael5000 has created a handy index to his Forgotten Lands.

Zagria
Capital: Brevogrod
Population: 6,734,232 (1995 Census)
Area: 38,860 km2
Literacy Rate: 98%
Independence: 1672
Per Capita GNP: $12,030
National Anthem: “To Zagria we Pledge”

Economy: Zagria is an agricultural exporter, especially of grains, apples, grapes, and cheese. A coal/steel based heavy industrial sector suffers from aging and obsolete factories and facilities and from international competition. Oil fields underlying the southern plains of Svisla province provide Zagria’s most important source of foreign exchange.



Zagria is an anomaly in Eastern Europe. In this region of the Earth, as in no other, countries represent the territorial aspirations of cultures. The Poles have their Poland, the Slovaks their Slovakia, the Magyars their Hungary, and the half-dozen former Yugoslavs their half-dozen former Yugoslav republics. Yet within this mosaic of nation-states sits heterogeneous Zagria. Polyglot (Hungarian, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian), religiously inclusive (Catholic, Orthodox, Islamic, and, surprisingly, Lutheran), Zagria is easily as culturally diverse as any other similarly sized piece of land on Earth.

For all of this, many observers find Zagrian society is disappointingly prosaic. Its many ethnic groups have neither walled themselves off into discrete enclaves, nor exhibited an unusual degree of mingling or intermarriage. There is little sense of animosity or contention between the people of this land, but neither is there any widespread sense of patriotism or national unity (Menillini, The New Nationalism).



Since independence, Zagria has gone through prime ministers at a rate of more than one per year, with parliamentary coalitions in constant flux and no political party able to maintain a stable majority. Post-communist economic stagnation and a widespread culture of corruption and bribery have created fertile grounds for a shadow oligarchy of ostentatious gangster-businessmen and their well-dressed thugs. To the average Zagrian of any culture, such things have long since ceased to excite much anger. “In Zagria,” wrote Brevograd’s great novelist Gnadyy Zvorić, “public life is as constant as weather, and as fruitfully cursed.”

Flag: Based on the shields of the medieval dukes of Zagria, the flag is a simple black diagonal through a field of dark green.

UPDATED 2008-08-28



#219

Forvik Update

Today is the Independence Day holiday in the United States. Last month, we learned of an announcement of the "independence" of the latest "micronation": the island of Forvik. We also see that they now have a flag.

However, not all is peaceful in the North Sea. Cartophilia has learned of a competing claim for sovereignty of the island.

The website, Forvik - Truth & Light, offers evidence of prior ownership, dating back to 1899. Below is a photograph of island and its inhabitants in 1938.


The decendants of that original owner now live on Cape Verde.

The Cape Verde military has mobilized for invasion!

Could be trouble.

Cartophilia and the BBC will keep you informed as the situation develops.


#211

New Bretton

[Another entry from Michael5000's Forgotten Lands with maps by Cartophiliac.]

New Bretton
Capital: Ipswich
Population: 12,493 (2001 Census)

Economy: Fish, Optical Equipment

When Newfoundland voted to join the Canadian Federation in 1949, the local vote on the fishing island of New Bretton was strongly against union. One week later, the island’s local government invoked an unusual provision in its original royal charter – dated 1678 – guaranteeing it the right to "dissociate from any colonie, or other lands of ye king, or any conjoining to these at will". Initially dismissed as an anachronism, the clause was ultimately found legally binding by the Newfoundland courts. New Bretton thus became one of the world’s smallest independent entities.



Although they rely on Great Britain for defense and representation in world bodies, New Brettons are a fiercely nationalistic people. “Never call a New Bretton a Canadian,” goes the local joke – “and the bigger he is, the more important that you don’t.” Though to the outsider there might seem to be little cultural distinction between New Bretton and the Atlantic provinces around it, to the natives there is much substance in small differences.

New Bretton is spared many of the Northwest Atlantic region’s economic woes due to the presence of New Bretton Scientific, a leading world manufacturer of precision optical equipment. Occupying a bluff overlooking the capital and only real town, the company’s production facility employs one of every five New Brettons, many in highly skilled and well-paid positions. Local entrepreneur Brian Redham founded the company in his basement in 1962, and is now thought to be comfortably among the world’s richest 100 people.

Flag: A red St. George’s cross is evidence of the English ancestry of most islanders. The white background of the English flag is replaced by blue, however, on New Bretton’s banner. No symbolism is attached to the blue; a typically pragmatic New Bretton once told the author that “they had to pick something besides white, else it would still be the flag of England.”

[Cartophiliac's Note:] While preparing to map this forgotten land, I discovered yet another interesting tidbit of information. It is commonly known that the nation of Canada is covered by six different time zones, ranging from Pacific (UTC-8) to Atlantic (UTC-4) and Newfoundland Standard (UTC-3:30). However, in typical New Brettonish style, the inhabitants have stubbornly refused to acknowledge the "standard time" of their neighbors, and instead insist upon the use of New Bretton Lunar Time (ranging from UTC-3:15 to UTC-3:45) based on a complicated system controlled in part by the phase of the moon. Many New Brettons, not employed by New Bretton Scientific, are engaged as public clock resetters. A daily task.


Congratulations to New Bretton for the distinction of being the 200th post on Cartophilia!

Gokura

[The next entry from Michael5000's Forgotten Lands with maps by Cartophiliac.]

Gokura
Capital: Gokura
Population: 542,486 (2000 census)

Economy: Shipping, finance, and light industry dominate an internationally oriented economy. Agricultural production is exclusively for local production. Gokura prints no money of its own; the local merchants and cashiers are willing and uncannily able to accept, calculate a rate for, and make change in virtually any significant world currency.



If the impossibly rugged and remote island of New Guinea is to a certain extent a world of its own, then this prosperous little country occupying the lower valley of the Five Bats River is the least typical part of that world. Where Papua New Guinea is one of the least technologically developed countries on Earth, Gokura is a gleaming oasis of modernity. Where Papua New Guinea is loosely governed by a weak central government, in Gokura the state is deeply involved in the lives of its citizens. Papua New Guinea is overwhelmingly Christian and largely off the beaten track; Gokura is Muslim and, at nearly the eastern tip of the island, sits on a natural bottleneck for oceangoing traffic.



Gokura, converted by traders in missionaries in the 13th Century, represents the easternmost spread of traditional Islam. Held by the Portuguese during the colonial era, it was incorporated into Japan’s military empire in the 1930s, gaining independence after liberation by Australian troops during the Second World War. Though much smaller and of a lower profile than other Asian city-states, it has developed a similar prosperity over the last half-century through success in shipping, manufacturing, financial services, and technology. A rare high-profile moment was a 1998 cover story on “Asia’s Other Tiger” in the business magazine The Economist.

Gokura is a self-avowed Islamic state. Non-observance is tacitly tolerated, but public practice of faiths other than Islam is strictly prohibited. The city and its surrounding farms convey an impression of immaculate order, tidiness, and cleanliness. The government ascribes the extremely low crime rate to a faith-based public education system and strict enforcement of traditional Islamic law.

Flag: Intersecting green diagonals, trimmed with gold on official banners (but not on the less expensive flags seen on many schools and public buildings), against a black background. No official account of the flag’s design is known, but the green is assumed to have been chosen to represent Islam.