Who likes looking at maps?

[tee rex]

I'm going to take some persuading that the Melchester map location is canon. The Twitter account is fun (including the other map) but I'm still not buying it.

A detailed perusal of hundreds of comics (with magnifying glass) will show the crowds to have the dress, eating habits and speech patterns of a sizeable city in the Midlands (vowels not flat enough for the North proper, but definitely not London). There's no way Melchester is an overgrown village along the Welsh borders.

[ursus arctos]

The Blizzard would publish that piece.

[NHH]

On that map, it's basically Stoke/The Potteries, which is, well, a sizeable city in the midlands-ish.

[Furtho]

On your marks, get set, argue.

[delicatemoth]

I apologise if we've had these maps of river basins by continent* before, but the thread is long, too long for me to check, and the maps are good, good enough to go again.

*One self-important little island gets its own map, as does California.

[Furtho]

Map of the most remote inhabited island in the world, Tristan da Cunha ("there is only one town on the island, officially named Edinburgh Of The Seven Seas but locally known simply as the Settlement"), 1948. More info here.

[Furtho]

Maps portraying the location of the disappearance while swimming of Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, 1967. I hadn't heard about this incident at all, but the whole back story is currently being covered on a Twitter account, The Prime Minister Is Missing, here.

[Gangster Octopus]

Oo, I remember that.

[sw2borshch]

Back to RotR, who were OFC?

[sw2borshch]

Ah, possibly Oldfield. Bit rubbish. Could have been Teesbrough, Stockbrough, Steelbrough Chemicals, Middlingham Synthonia etc.

[San Bernardhinault]

This is a map of the Kalaupapa Peninsula on Molokai island in Hawaii. It is home to the smallest true county in the US by land area (Falls Church in Virginia is smaller, but is an independent city); and also the county with the lowest population.

It is fascinating because it is protected by 1600 foot sea cliffs, as you can see from the contours. That means that the county is accessible only through a very steep mule trail, or by air.

Historically, that isolation was used by the Kingdom (then Republic, then Territory and then State) of Hawaii to exile all sufferers of leprosy, up until 1969. Once an antibiotic cure for leprosy had been found, many of the residents of Kalawao still refused to leave the peninsula, believing that their level of disfiguration would mean they couldn't reintegrate. The state decided that they could live there for the rest of their lives, but no new patients - nor any new permanent residents - were permitted to move to Kalawao.

The population in 1970 was around 400. Today it's down to 90, of whom only 16 are former patients. The remainder are temporary, health workers, or working on federal preservation projects.

[Ginger Yellow]

It is fascinating because it is protected by 1600 foot sea cliffs, as you can see from the contours. That means that the county is accessible only through a very steep mule trail, or by air.

And boat, presumably.

[San Bernardhinault]

I guess that has to be true given that it's a low-lying peninsula, but it's not mentioned as one of the ways it's possible to visit in the couple of bits of literature I've read.

[ursus arctos]

It's a National Historic Park, and it looks as if the Parks Service may have essentially barred private boats from landing at the site.

[Furtho]

Dramaaaaaaaaah! Deadspin report on a constitutional crisis at the International Society For The History Of The Map, here.

Lonely Farm and Lonely Cottage are not too far apart in this snippet from an Ordnance Survey of rural Suffolk.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Ah, possibly Oldfield. Bit rubbish. Could have been Teesbrough, Stockbrough, Steelbrough Chemicals, Middlingham Synthonia etc.

Curiosity got the better of me and I went looking to find out the one that's been placed over Carlisle (it's Castlemere), which got me here. This has potential to be an absolute time sink, including this thread on European clubs in the ROTR "universe", in which you'll find such gems as:

There were a few made up countries in ROTR, Vlatnia, Segovia, Pueblata, Mulvania, Basran and a few more

Porgual Real (Spain) - Have to be Spanish as the Portuguese Royal Family were overthrown in 1915 I think

[sw2borshch]

Looks like DUFC are Danefield United.

[Furtho]

Couple of not-really maps today.

A shot of Berlin by Chris Hadfield from the International Space Station, showing the continuing difference in illumination between the eastern and western parts of the city.



Richard Carline's An Impression Of Lens, France, Seen From An Aeroplane, 1918.

[Aitch]

Booth's map of poverty in London 1898-99


More available here.

[San Bernardhinault]

Both the London poverty map (I love some of the language, like "casual" and "Vicious"), and the Berlin streetlighting are fascinating. I'm going to have to read up on why East Berlin appears to use sodium bulbs and West Berlin appears to use mercury

[Guy Profumo]

Could be high pressure sodium though?

[tee rex]

Try not to get lost in the South Pacific. Here is New Zealand's maritime search area ...



And here is the same area transferred to the Northern hemisphere:

[Furtho]

That same area applied to the northern hemisphere is absolutely incredible.

Map of sheep & wheat distribution, Australia, 1920s.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Looks like DUFC are Danefield United.

Thank you!
Some of our songs still fit: It's United, you've got to be- D!-U!-F!-C!

[Felicity, I guess so]

including this thread on European clubs in the ROTR "universe"

Contains this gem:

Real Almodovar (Spain) - European Cup finalist in 1970 (Monthlies)

I might use that in a class on the real Pedro, get them to come up with ideas for a post-Franco ironic/kitsch football film!