Category: maps

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Temperature change in Central Asia throughout the year

After looking at how stable the temperature is in the Caribbean, let’s look at one of the regions where it actually fluctuates the most. For this map, I selected cities from various parts of Central Asian countries to show the diversity or similarity of temperature conditions in relatively faraway places. I also used local spelling, not English, except for Kyrgyzstan, where the Cyrillic alphabet is used. The colours on the map are taken from the flags of the respective countries. I’m looking forward to making more Central Asian maps because I think this massive region is often overlooked! Couldn’t resist adding Mongolia as a bonus because of how cold onavarege Ulaanbaatar actually is.

The data was taken from Wikipedia pages for respective cities.

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Coins and banknotes with a face value of 3

Only 6 countries in the world currently use banknotes or coins with a face value of 3! One of them, the Cook Islands dollar is even more unique than the rest. Although the currency was used only for a few years at the end of the 80s – the beginning of the 90s (preceded and succeeded by the New Zealand dollar), the 3$ banknote survived. It is the only Cook Islands dollar banknote or coin that still maintains the status of legal tender. And of course, because of how special it is, the banknote is also a sought-after collector’s item. Thanks to the redditor u/Show_Green for bringing this to my attention!

Over the years many countries experimented with 3-unit coins or banknotes. For instance, in the 90s, Ukraine had a 3 karbovanets banknote and Uzbekistan had a 3 som banknote. Many examples can also be found in the 19th century. Even the US minted a 3-cent coin in the 1850s! You can read up more on this topic in this excellent article by Peter Symes.

The idea for the map came from the Tajikistan episode of one of my favourite YouTube shows GeographyNow. The sources are Wiki and Banknote World.

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GeoGuessr Country Streak: how often do you get each country

I’ve been playing the country streak mode for almost a year now and in this timespan, I reached nearly 2.5 thousand points. I was curious to see how often you get each country, so I built an app which would do the calculation job for me. Unsurprisingly, Finland, Sweden, the US, Hungary and Brazil took the first 5 spots. 2405 points might not be enough to draw meaningful conclusions but it’s still interesting to see what you get. If you know how, you can use my app to calculate stats for your own country streak games. See my other post linked above for more info!

I play in the default mode so it’s more of a patience and luck game to find out where you are and not get trapped on a random road in the middle of nowhere (then you are probably in Argentina, though).

Cheers and keep playing GeoGuessr or start if you haven’t already 😉

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Temperature stability in Central America

Once, a friend of mine wondered if there was a place in the world where the temperature stays more or less the same throughout the year. “Well, check out the areas around the equator”, I said and made this map. Although yes, the Caribbean and Central America are not the closest areas to the equator, I still think the stability of air temperature in this region is absolutely astonishing.

For this map, I used the data from WMO, respective Wikipedia pages and a bit of Weather Spark.

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Purchasing power in Russia based on potatoes

Some time ago we looked at the nominal monthly income in Russian regions but of course, the picture would be incomplete if we didn’t look at the actual difference in purchasing power. We see that this difference is not as striking as the income one, however, you can easily see the divide between the Western part of the country and basically everywhere else (apart from Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrugs).

Here’s the source. Contact me here if you want to know more or hear a lame joke.

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Ukrainian Independence Referendum

In 1991, the Ukrainians clearly voted to leave the USSR and become an independent country. The referendum passed with 90.32% of the voters saying “yes, I approve” to the declaration of Ukrainian independence, which stated that continuing a millennium-old tradition of statehood in Ukraine, the country was to become independent as of now (then) and that its territory is indivisible and untouchable.

As shown on the second map, even the regions with significant Russian population decided that they didn’t want to be part of Russia anymore. That is something that this old man refuses to understand. Stop living in 1922, Volodya, your time has passed, leave Ukraine alone and, preferably, Russia too.

Contact me here if you have an idea for another map supporting Ukraine (or any other map for that matter).

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Russian regions

In light of recent events, I thought it might be a good idea to make a map with an overview of Russian regions. There are 6 types of subdivisions in Russia:

  1. Republics – nominally autonomous, with its own language and constitution, created around local non-Russian ethnicities in these regions but when it comes to international affairs are basically parts of Russia
  2. Oblasts – your normal region
  3. Krais – your normal region but when new regions were created in the USSR all krais were supposed to have autonomous regions within them, something oblasts couldn’t do. Over time the situation changed, but the names remained the same.
  4. Autnomous okrugs – another form of ethnicity-based subdivisions in Russia but without official regional languages and with an option to become a part of other regions. Among all the autonomous okrugs, currently, only Chukotka is not a part of any other region.
  5. Autonomous oblast – there’s only one of them, which was created by Stalin in the 1920s to send all the Jews there. Never worked and no one knows why it is still there. But hey, they are still trying to preserve Yiddish there!
  6. Federal cities – biggest cities, i.e. Moscow and St. Petersburg

In the first decade of the 21st century, a few autonomous okrugs were fully incorporated into respective oblasts losing their subject status brining the current number of the federal subjects to 83.

As usual, you can contact me here for this and other maps in better resolution, to suggest new maps and for other matters.

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Apprehended anti-war protesters in Russia

This invasion is absolutely absurd. This man is a paranoid senile maniac. I stand with Ukraine. I detest everything about this Russian government. I adore those Russians who risk being arrested and go out on the streets to protest these appalling actions of the Soviet Russian dictatorship. I don’t want to take the focus off Ukraine but I’m glad to see that there are Russians who see the situation for what it is – Russian imperialism.

Here’s the source. The data was collected by a human rights organisation that investigates politically motivated arrests, layoffs, etc. and helps those affected by it. If you want to help OVD-News, you can donate money on their website but don’t forget, the Ukrainians need help too and even more. Stay strong, Ukraine, he will fall one day.

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Three points for a win in European leagues

For us, football fans in 2022, 3 points per win sounds like the norm and for someone my age, it has always been so. However, before the mid-90s, only a handful of leagues in Europe used this system. Before it, only 2 points were awarded per win. Proposed by Jimmy Hill, thу 3-points system was first introduced in England in 1981 but up until the 1994 World Cup, it didn’t gather much support. Only when it proved successful in this tournament, other countries followed suit. This system increased the value of a victory compared to a draw but did it really decrease the number of draws? I don’t know, I will research it and make a new map for all of us to see.

To make this map, I used this Wikipedia article and some extra sources I had to dig up to gather data on, for instance, Gibraltar. If you want, you can send me some compliments using the contact form.