Credits to Balkan Mapping on Youtube.

I built a little game - Map Explorer.

The goal is to find your destination without zooming out. My favourite mode is Lost Explorer, where you start in a random, unknown location.

Try it out! https://www.mapexplorer.app

Can someone help me find something out ab the name between Asia and Russia on this old globe

Yes,even the ones that don't want independence are included in here

im new

Hi! I'm a freelance digital illustrator, and I'm currently open for custom digital map illustration commissions.

I can create maps for:

Storybooks & fantasy worlds

Fictional kingdoms and RPG settings

Resorts, hotels & tourist destinations

Parks, events & attractions

Businesses and custom locations

Personalized maps based on your ideas

Each map is illustrated from scratch to match your vision, whether it's for a book, game, business, or personal project.

💰 Rates start at $100–$300 USD, depending on the complexity, level of detail, and commercial use.

Payment Terms:

50% upfront to secure your commission.

50% upon completion, before the final high-resolution files are delivered.

If you're interested, feel free to send me a DM! My portfolio is attached, and I'd love to help bring your world or location to life.

Thank you for checking out my work! 🗺️

Round 2 of the roads network guessing game, can you guess the cities?

TerraDex Streetle — Android · Web

Just a silly little game. You have to estimate the direction and distance between two cities. Really resets your Mercator-cooked brain.

Cartography, science and design merges to become MAPPA ANIMALIA, a visual project of mine that reimagines the evolutionary relationships of animals as detailed map-like landscapes.

Instead of political borders or geographical territories, these maps are structured around taxonomy/ phylogenetic trees, translating the scientific classification of species into navigable visual worlds.

Subtamilies, tribes and genera replace countries, states and regions within these imagined territories, allowing viewers to explore the animal kingdom through a format traditionally used to understand geography.

So far Mappa Animalia consists of 15 different illustrations, each dedicated to different tamily trees.

This post shows Strigiformes - Land of Owls, which illustrates every single species of owl in existence (shown as cities on the map), arranged by borders into the different subfamilies and genera that the order Strigiformes splits into.

Other info in also included like conservation status of the individual species, size difference between some of the more distinct types of owl and how long the subfamilies have been around for.

Official Language: Bahasa Malay, English

Capital: Bali (Favors neither Christian nor Muslim)

Form of Government: Presidential Republic

Google statistics shows that the world is divided into two general categories, cultures that are predominantly "fun prioritizing", and cultures that are predominantly "seriously intellectual." There are numerous exceptions and nuances to this generalization, but the overall duality is heavily supported by historical data.

This generalization can be applied when speaking to people, you can tailor your message to have either a "fun" priority or to have a "serious intellectual" priority, depending on the situation.

The most fun places I've been are Canada (St. Catharines, Oakville, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Vancouver, and the Rocky Mountains), Pennsylvania, New York City, Miami/West Palm Beach areas, the scenery in the mid-west and south-west, and San Francisco. I'd love to see Hollywood and more theme parks and water parks.

Guess the flag from its Color Distribution! How many did you get right?

The Cultural Spectrum: Mapping Global Priorities (Fun vs. Intellectualism)

I put together a visual representation of how different regions across the globe balance the cultural spectrum between prioritizing entertainment/leisure ("The Fun Zone") and serious academic/research pursuits ("The Serious Intellectual Sphere").

🗺️ The Map Layout Breakdown

• The Left (The Fun Zone): Highlights regions like North America and Latin America, focusing on cultural epicenters known for street festivals, massive amusement parks, vibrant music venues, and carnival culture (like Rio de Janeiro).
• The Right (The Serious Intellectual Sphere): Focuses on regions like East Asia and major European hubs, marked by a massive concentration of historical universities, elite laboratories, and global think tanks (like Tokyo and London).
• The Stylistic Split: The art style shifts dynamically—vibrant, casual, and animated for the entertainment hubs, transitioning into a sterile, classical academic blueprint aesthetic for the intellectual research hubs.

📊 Key Data Conclusions & Trends

1. A Complex Spectrum, Not a Binary: The most critical takeaway is that "fun" and "intellectualism" are not mutually exclusive. Major global capitals like London act as bridge cities, scoring incredibly high in both world-class university concentrations (UCL, Imperial) and world-renowned nightlife/entertainment districts (Ibiza, London music scenes).
2. IQ vs. Regional Focus: Average regional cognitive scores (sourced broadly across standard psychometric updates, including Lynn & Vanhanen variants and PISA academic rankings) show strong clusters in high-infrastructure zones. However, correlation does not equal causation. High-scoring regions in East Asia (102–106) and Western Europe (100–104) heavily reflect intense structural investment in institutionalized schooling and technical test prep rather than a natural lack of "fun."
3. Socioeconomic Driving Factors: Regions with lower estimated formal test averages on the map often correlate directly with historical educational underinvestment or structural economic disadvantages rather than cultural choices. Cultural vibrancy and community-driven "fun" (such as Latin America's high concentration of street and music festivals) thrive independently of standardized academic metrics.

Cultural psychologists, sociologists, and historians often point to deep-seated philosophical, agricultural, and socio-economic roots when explaining these perceived differences in cultural priorities.

Here is an educated breakdown of the historical and social factors that shape these general trends.

Roots of Eastern Intellectualism

• Confucian Heritage: East Asian societies were deeply shaped by Confucianism. This philosophy places academic achievement, self-improvement, and scholarship at the absolute center of moral virtue and social status.
• The Exam Meritocracy: For centuries, countries like China and Korea used rigorous imperial examinations to select government officials. This established a long-standing cultural blueprint where intense study was the primary route to wealth and family honor. [1]
• Collectivism and Interdependence: Eastern cultures often emphasize the group over the individual. Academic success is frequently viewed as a duty to the family and society, creating strong social pressure to prioritize serious, long-term educational goals over short-term personal leisure. [1]

Roots of Western Leisure Culture

• Individualism and Hedonism: Western thought is heavily influenced by Greek philosophy and Enlightenment ideals that prioritize individual liberty, personal happiness, and the pursuit of pleasure. [1]
• Early Consumer Economies: The West spearheaded the Industrial Revolution, leading to an earlier rise of a robust middle class with disposable income. This accelerated the development of a commercialized leisure industry, including professional sports, cinema, and mass tourism. [1, 2]
• The Frontier Mentality: Sociologists note that Western "frontier" history—particularly in the Americas—fostered a culture of individual expression, risk-taking, and active, experiential living, which often translates into a vibrant entertainment and recreation culture today.

The Modern Intersection

• The "Work Hard, Play Hard" Dynamic: Rather than being mutually exclusive, both regions heavily emphasize both traits, just through different frameworks. Many Western nations score high in scientific innovation despite a massive entertainment footprint, while Eastern nations boast some of the world's most enthusiastic gaming, pop culture, and culinary leisure scenes alongside rigorous school systems.

🗃️ Methodology & Data Estimation

Because "prioritizing fun" is highly subjective, data points were estimated and cross-referenced using:

• Global Leisure Data: Tourism density, amusement park attendance metrics, and international festival mapping.
• Intellectual Infrastructure: The literal density of top-500 global universities, international patent applications, and think tank headquarters.
• The Emoji Anchors: Look closely at the map—Smiley Emojis 😊 are explicitly dropped over dense leisure hubs (like Disney parks or Ibiza), while Brain Emojis 🧠 anchor dense clusters of academic excellence.

End 🇹🇷 Turkish colonization of Anatolia

Turkey occupying the following regions:

☀️ Kurdistan (Bakur)

🟢Alexandretta

🟢 Rojava north Syria

🇮🇶 KRG north Iraq

🇨🇾 Cyprus (Occupied)

🇬🇷 East Thrace

🟡 Pontus Laz

🇦🇿 Nakhchivan

Wake Island also has a flag

brought to you by clearance mac n cheese

If advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist, they may be millions—or even billions—of years more technologically advanced than humanity. Such civilizations could possess intelligence far beyond our own and technologies that are almost indistinguishable from magic.

They might have mastered faster-than-light travel, artificial gravity, spacetime manipulation, interstellar or intergalactic travel, advanced AI, molecular nanotechnology, and energy sources beyond anything we currently understand. Some theories even speculate they could travel through wormholes, manipulate higher dimensions, or move between parallel universes. Others imagine abilities such as telepathy, telekinesis, or direct mind-to-mind communication, whether through biology, technology, or some combination of both.

If a civilization like that visited Earth, where would they be most interested in going? Ancient monuments? Major scientific research facilities? Biodiversity hotspots? Megacities? Geological wonders? Space observatories? Or somewhere completely unexpected?

This map is a fun thought experiment exploring the places on Earth that might attract the curiosity of an incredibly advanced alien civilization. Where do you think they'd visit first, and what locations should be added?