.
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Flat as the table
it’s placed on.
Nothing moves beneath it
and it seeks no outlet.
Above -- my human breath
creates no stirring air
and leaves its total surface
undisturbed.
Its plains, valleys are always green,
uplands, mountains are yellow and brown,
while seas, oceans remain a kindly blue
beside the tattered shores.
Everything here is small, near, accessible.
I can press volcanoes with my fingertip,
stroke the poles without thick mittens,
I can with a single glance
encompass every desert
with the river lying just beside it.
A few trees stand for ancient forests,
you couldn’t lose your way among them.
In the east and west,
above and below the equator --
quiet like pins dropping,
and in every black pinprick
people keep on living.
Mass graves and sudden ruins
are out of the picture.
Nations’ borders are barely visible
as if they wavered -- to be or not.
I like maps, because they lie.
Because they give no access to the vicious truth.
Because great-heartedly, good-naturedly
they spread before me a world
not of this world.
Wislawa Szymborska: Map, 2012, translated by Clare Cavanagh in Map: Collected and Last Poems, 2015
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Heart-shaped Map: Oronce Finé, 1536, engraving, watercolour, 51 x 57 cm (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris) ![Embedded image permalink]()
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World Map: Benedetto Bordone, 1528, woodcut, 325 x 165 mm (British Library, London)
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Leo Belgicus: Hendrik Floris van Langren, before 1609, hand coloured engraving and etching, 368 x 450 mm (National Széchényi Library, Budapest) ![]()
Lion Map (Leo Belgicus): Claes Jansz Visscher the Younger, 1609, coloured etching and engraving, 470 x 572 mm (Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam)
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Lion Map (Leo Belgicus) (detail): Claes Jansz Visscher the Younger, 1609, coloured etching and engraving (Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam)
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Map of Tuscany and the Chiana Valley: Leonardo da Vinci, c.1502, black chalk, pen, ink and colour on paper, 338 x 488 mm (Royal Library, Windsor) ![]()
Image of the Pilgrimage of St Paul: Abraham Ortelius, 1579, engraving
![[synthetica.jpg]]()
Synthetica: A New Continent of Plastic: Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation advertisement for plastics, Fortune, October 1940
![File:Accurata Utopiae Tabula.jpg]()
Accurata Utopia Tabula (Karte des Schlaraffenlandes): Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757), via Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps; image by Goustien, 19 February 2009 ![]()
The Island of Utopia: Ambrosius Holbein, 1518, woodcut, 17.8 x 11.8 cm (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel)
![File:Verne-Dv-full.jpg]()
Île Chairman: illustration by Léon Benett, in Deux Ans en vacances: Jules Verne, 1888
![INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS TIME 10/04/1963 p. 9]()
Celanese Plastics advertisement: Time, 4 October 1963 (via Gallery of Graphic Design)
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Some military instructions in Hebrew and a map of a school are seen on a blackboard after Israeli soldiers withdrew from the Beit Hanun High school for girls which was reportedly used as an advance base during Israel's military offensive against the Gaza Strip: photo by Marco Longari/AFP, 5 August 2014
![Embedded image permalink]()
![File:Athabasca Oil Sands map.png]()
Map showing the extent of the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. The three oil sand deposits are known as the Athabasca Oil Sands, the Cold Lake Oil Sands, and the Peace River Oil Sands: image by Norman Einstein, 10 May 2006
![File:Keystone-pipeline-route.png]()
Operational and proposed route of the Keystone Pipeline System (data source: TransCanada): image by Meclee, 21 July 2012
![File:Ogallala Aquifer - Keystone XL.png]()
![File:Trans-Alaska Pipeline map.svg]()
Trans-Alaska Pipeline map. A map of the route of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, showing pump stations, cities, roads, mountain ranges and passes, and bodies of water.: image by JKBrooks85, 23 July 2009
![File:Trans-Alaska Pipeline work camps.svg]()
Trans-Alaska Pipeline work camps map. A map of the route of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, with pump stations and construction camps identified: image by JKBrooks85, 24 July 2009
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Map of Dalton Highway (built as Trans-Alaska Pipeline North Slope haul road), Alaska: image by U.S. Bureau of Land Management, n.d.; image by Aconcagua, 8 July 2008
![DW104445]( "DW104445")
Standard time zones of the world: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 5 August 2016
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World map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
Map of which countries are the butt of the most jokes around Europe: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 7 August 2015
Average monthly disposable salary in USD: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 17 July 2015
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European detail map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
Percentage of non religious people in Europe that agreed to the statement "there is some sort of spirit life force": image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 21 August 2015
Heavy metal bands per 100,000 people: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 8 October 2013
Where countries import the most from: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 7 August 2015
Cigarette consumption by country: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 30 July 2015
Novissima et Accuratissima Totius Americae Descriptio: Johannnes de Ram, c. 1685, engraving
Flat as the table
it’s placed on.
Nothing moves beneath it
and it seeks no outlet.
Above -- my human breath
creates no stirring air
and leaves its total surface
undisturbed.
Its plains, valleys are always green,
uplands, mountains are yellow and brown,
while seas, oceans remain a kindly blue
beside the tattered shores.
Everything here is small, near, accessible.
I can press volcanoes with my fingertip,
stroke the poles without thick mittens,
I can with a single glance
encompass every desert
with the river lying just beside it.
A few trees stand for ancient forests,
you couldn’t lose your way among them.
In the east and west,
above and below the equator --
quiet like pins dropping,
and in every black pinprick
people keep on living.
Mass graves and sudden ruins
are out of the picture.
Nations’ borders are barely visible
as if they wavered -- to be or not.
I like maps, because they lie.
Because they give no access to the vicious truth.
Because great-heartedly, good-naturedly
they spread before me a world
not of this world.
Wislawa Szymborska: Map, 2012, translated by Clare Cavanagh in Map: Collected and Last Poems, 2015
First Ottoman map of the United States): image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 22 July 2015
World Map: Benedetto Bordone, 1528, woodcut, 325 x 165 mm (British Library, London)
Lion Map (Leo Belgicus): Claes Jansz Visscher the Younger, 1609, coloured etching and engraving, 470 x 572 mm (Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam)
Lion Map (Leo Belgicus) (detail): Claes Jansz Visscher the Younger, 1609, coloured etching and engraving (Stichting Atlas van Stolk, Rotterdam)
![[synthetica.jpg]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_fdAsVFXbwvk/Su8JheOMZ-I/AAAAAAAAAyA/PHdXHvviJnU/s1600/synthetica.jpg)
The world as New Yorkers see it: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 1 August 2015
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New York: map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
New York: map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
German propaganda map showing the Allies' colonial empires (c1916): image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 24 July 2015
Accurata Utopia Tabula (Karte des Schlaraffenlandes): Matthäus Seutter (1678-1757), via Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps; image by Goustien, 19 February 2009
The Island of Utopia: Ambrosius Holbein, 1518, woodcut, 17.8 x 11.8 cm (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel)
Île Chairman: illustration by Léon Benett, in Deux Ans en vacances: Jules Verne, 1888
Celanese Plastics advertisement: Time, 4 October 1963 (via Gallery of Graphic Design)
”RT @Mr_Bata: The South African map of Africa. @zapiro at his best! #Xenophobia: image via Rachael Akidi @rakidi, 20 April 2015
Some military instructions in Hebrew and a map of a school are seen on a blackboard after Israeli soldiers withdrew from the Beit Hanun High school for girls which was reportedly used as an advance base during Israel's military offensive against the Gaza Strip: photo by Marco Longari/AFP, 5 August 2014
The only countries that don't use the metric system are Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States: image via Belal Dabour - Gaza @Belalmd12, 29 September 2014
Map showing the extent of the oil sands in Alberta, Canada. The three oil sand deposits are known as the Athabasca Oil Sands, the Cold Lake Oil Sands, and the Peace River Oil Sands: image by Norman Einstein, 10 May 2006
Operational and proposed route of the Keystone Pipeline System (data source: TransCanada): image by Meclee, 21 July 2012
Saturated thickness map of Ogallala Aquifer with Keystone XL route layered: image by 570ajk, 17 November 2011, using aquifer map by kbh3rd
Trans-Alaska Pipeline map. A map of the route of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, showing pump stations, cities, roads, mountain ranges and passes, and bodies of water.: image by JKBrooks85, 23 July 2009
Trans-Alaska Pipeline work camps map. A map of the route of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, with pump stations and construction camps identified: image by JKBrooks85, 24 July 2009
Map of Dalton Highway (built as Trans-Alaska Pipeline North Slope haul road), Alaska: image by U.S. Bureau of Land Management, n.d.; image by Aconcagua, 8 July 2008
From October 1999 through March 2012, 2,269 deaths were recorded at the Arizona-Mexico border. Water stations, placed by the nonprofit Humane Borders, are intended to mitigate the deaths. Source: Migrant death map provided courtesy of Humane Borders, Inc. Data development by John F. Chamblee, Michael Malone, and Mathew Reynolds: image via Newsweek, 10 July 2013
Colours of passports around the world: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 4 August 2015
Standard time zones of the world: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 5 August 2016
World map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
A map made entirely from Facebook connections : image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 9 August 2015
Greater Tokyo area superimposed over Great Britain: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 14 August 2015
Map of which countries are the butt of the most jokes around Europe: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 7 August 2015
Average monthly disposable salary in USD: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 17 July 2015
European detail map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
Percentage of non religious people in Europe that agreed to the statement "there is some sort of spirit life force": image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 21 August 2015
Heavy metal bands per 100,000 people: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 8 October 2013
Where countries import the most from: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 7 August 2015
Cigarette consumption by country: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 30 July 2015
Most popular word used in online dating profiles by state: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 9 August 2015
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North American detail map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
North American detail map of Flickr and Twitter locations. Red dots are locations of Flickr pictures. Blue dots are locations of Twitter tweets. White dots are locations that have been posted to both: image by Eric Fischer (See something or say something), 7 July 2011
Most common job held by immigrants in the USA: image via Amazing Maps @Amazing_Maps, 18 August 2015