Brilliant Maps

Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time

Did You Know Russia & The United States Are Just 2 Miles Apart In The Diomede Islands

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Did You Know Russia & The United States Are Just 2 Miles Apart In The Diomede Islands

The map above shows the Diomede Islands where the distance between the Russia on Big Diomede Island and The United States on Little Diomede Island is just over 2 miles.

They are also on opposite sides of the International Date line, although the Russian side is just 21 hours ahead of the United States rather than 24 because of how they’ve chosen to adopt Time Zones.

But this does mean when it’s 1am on Monday morning on the Russian side, it’s just 4am Sunday morning on the American side.

More about the islands.

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If You’re In Windsor, Ontario, Canada & Want To Get To Detroit You Have To Head North Rather Than South

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If You're In Windsor, Ontario, Canada & Want To Get To Detroit You Have To Drive North Rather Than South

The map above shows an unintuitive geographical fact.

If you’re in Windsor, Ontario, Canada and want to visit Detroit on the US side of the border, you head north rather than south as you’d expect.

Why?

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Watch The Reconquista In Just 60 Seconds

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The video above is a sped up version of the following video showing the The Reconquista: Every Year.

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Population Growth & Decline of Japan’s Prefectures From 1920-2020

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The video above shows the rise and now fall of Japan’s population by prefecture between 1920 and 2020. Japan’s population today is still 125% higher than it was a century ago, but as is well known has started to decline in recent years.

The maps and video are all the work of Wikimedia users Monaneko and Pekachu.

Here are the numbers:

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Where Are VPNs Restricted/Illegal?

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Where Are VPNs Restricted/Illegal?

Map created by Surfshark
The map above comes from VPN provider Surfshark. It looks at which countries have some form of restrictions on VPN use specifically and not general internet censorship.

Here’s more on their methodology:

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Which Countries Censor The Internet The Most

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Which Countries Censor The Internet The Most

Map created by comparitech
The map above shows which countries censor the internet the most and which ones have the fewest controls.

It’s based on data collected by tech site Comparitech.

Here were their criteria

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Number of Books Banned By Schools In Each US State: Including Most Banned Books & Authors

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number books banned by schools by state 1

Map comes from PEN America
The map above comes from from PEN America, which tracks book bans and fights censorship in public schools and libraries across the country.

Here’s how they defined a ban:

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3 Maps Of Doggerland: Mapping The Lost World

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Excerpt of Map of Doggerland - The Europe That Was

Excerpt of Full Map by William E. McNulty and Jerome N. Cookson, National Geographic Magazine (click for full version)
The map above shows how big Doggerland may have been at it’s maximum extent in around 16,000 BC (18,000 years ago).

For more please see the following:

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Map of International Telephone Country Codes By Country

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Map of International Telephone Country Codes By Country

Map created by Maximilian Dörrbecker
The map above shows all of the world’s international telephone country codes from 1 to 998, grouping them by the first digit.

There are 9 zones which cover:

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Countries Whose Citizens Have Been To Space

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Countries Whose Citizens Have Been To Space

Map created by Mapsinterlude
The map above shows the 48 countries (49 if you count the USSR) whose citizens have been to space.

However, only the United States (both via NASA and private businesses), Russia and China currently have the ability to send people into space.

And here’s another interesting fact:

People trained for spaceflight are called astronauts (American or other), cosmonauts (Russian), or taikonauts (Chinese); and non-professionals are referred to as spaceflight participants or spacefarers.

Below is the full list of when each country had their first citizen sent into space. You can also see a List of space travelers by nationality here.

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