a cloud of atlases

November 10, 2009 6:41 PM

We love our maps here, so how about a map quiz thanks to our friends at The Morning News. Warning: the answer underneath each map is a simple link, and the URL sometimes gives away the answer.
posted by shothotbot (10 comments total)

I was low single digits on this so maybe its more of a way to get you to look at and think about a map then a true quiz, but I have high hopes for my fellow MeFis.
posted by shothotbot at 6:42 PM on November 10

Wow, that was hard. But fun! A nice moment of "Ooooh" upon clicking. I especially smiled at #13.
This was a very difficult game, but a lot of fun to play. (Feel free to add scare-quotes around game and play.) Ordinarily, I look at statistical maps like these without really considering them. It was interesting to try and guess what X countries had in common, and get that fun "Oooh!" moment upon clicking.

Spoilers: Literacy was the easiest, and the only one I really got. The internet and lightning storm ones were really surprising. 1984 made me laugh.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 7:05 PM on November 10

Nothing like shouting across the room to an unsuspecting partner, "What does the US have in common with Burma and Liberia?"
posted by cobaltnine at 7:05 PM on November 10 [2 favorites]

Déjà vu? No, I didn't write the same thoughts twice. That's a glitch in the matrix.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 7:06 PM on November 10

Yeah, more of a "cool", then a game. I did get the map with only MN and DC highlighted (woo hoo), the internet one confused me until I realized it was talking actual numbers and not percentages, and I'm always a bit leery of the literacy rates clams in these situations, I highly suspect some countries are inflating their numbers (including the US).
posted by edgeways at 7:13 PM on November 10

8! Though #11 had me raking my brain to figure out what Italy and Poland had in common with each other.
posted by Sova at 7:22 PM on November 10

My moment of pride was not only correctly guessing #1 based on Australian states but also realising that they were using an out of date map.

I had few other moments of revelation (except thinking 'ha! Those outlines look like what the 1984 nations were supposed to be. I wonder what it is?').
posted by Serial Killer Slumber Party at 7:53 PM on November 10

I fail everything, but I did have that invisiclues book!
posted by jessamyn at 8:07 PM on November 10

The first one messed me around by being out of date. Western Australia (where I happen to live) no longer uses daylight savings (and never really did; we've only had "trials" followed by "no" referendums for permanent daylight savings). The Wikipedia page has been updated, though.

I'm not sure why they bother with any referendum in Western Australia. We've voted no on every one (including numerous ones to introduce daylight savings) except for the vote for federation (the vote to create a federal Australia rather than a country of separate, independent states).
posted by ianbanks at 10:55 PM on November 10

The only one I knew was the Minnesota/DC one, but this was still really neat. #6 was weirding me out for awhile (something is just not right here) but I finally figured it out - the answer to this one shouldn't be internet users, it should be "what the world would look like without Greenland."
posted by naoko at 8:08 AM on November 11