Andorra posted:

I'm just wondering, what would those stats be if Alaska wasn't included at all, neither its land or population?

Atlas Obscrura posted:

During World War II, the painter, illustrator, and cartoonist William Gropper offered his services to the U.S. Treasury Department and the White House’s Office of War Information. He received a “Citation in recognition of fine assistance” from the Treasury Department and personal thanks from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for “giving pictorial form to specific war information objectives” through propaganda posters and paintings. It seemed logical that after the war, the State Department, too, would find value in the famous artist’s social-realist portrayal of American culture—a logic that would soon find Gropper trapped within the surrealist labyrinth of McCarthyism.

Between 1946 and 1953, the State Department’s Overseas Library Program collected and distributed some 1,744 copies of William Gropper’s America: Its Folklore, a colorful depiction of 61 legends, tall tales, and literary heroes—characters like super-sized cowboy Pecos Bill in New Mexico, steel-driving phenom John Henry in Alabama, and witty trickster Br’er Rabbit in Georgia—superimposed over a familiar projection of the Lower 48.

The purchase was part of postwar efforts to disseminate “facts and solidly documented explanations of the United States.” Based on a painting Gropper completed in 1945, the 34-by-23-inch pictorial map was published by Associated American Artists, and sold by mail order—$5.00 unframed, $14.50 mounted—in the New York Times, Life, and other popular publications. An accompanying 16-page brochure told viewers more about Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, and their folkloric ilk...

But the cartographic darling fell from grace in the spring of 1953, when attorney Roy Cohn toured State Department libraries around the world as part of his and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s crusade against Communism. Cohn identified William Gropper as one of the “fringe supporters and sympathizers” whose supposedly Communist-directed works had infiltrated the Overseas Library Program. Gropper was promptly subpoenaed to appear before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—and earned the dubious distinction of being among the first blacklisted artists in McCarthy-era America.

No matter that Gropper had, in fact, tried his hand at mapmaking; no matter that Gropper was not, in fact, a Communist. The damage was done. The next day, the left-leaning, 55-year-old Jewish artist from Brooklyn found his name on the front page of national and local newspapers. The message sent down from McCarthy’s perch in the Senate was clear: William Gropper was a Red. His map was un-American.

Count Roland posted:

Oil basins = Green
Gas basins = pink

The lines are pipelines.




Not sure why the image doesn't have labels, here's the original:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/united-states-of-oil/


I had no idea there were such reserves in Appalachia.

Count Roland posted:

Oil basins = Green
Gas basins = pink

The lines are pipelines.




Not sure why the image doesn't have labels, here's the original:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/national/united-states-of-oil/


I had no idea there were such reserves in Appalachia.

Ron Jeremy posted:

Pennsylvania *could* have been saudia Arabia has there been any sense of planning or management of the resource.

Count Roland posted:

I had no idea there were such reserves in Appalachia.

Baka-nin posted:

https://twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/847026878078627840

Duckbag posted:

Did Turkey just straight up invade that area so that the Kurds couldn't unify Rojava, or is more just them supporting local Turkmen militias?

Duckbag posted:

Did Turkey just straight up invade that area so that the Kurds couldn't unify Rojava, or is more just them supporting local Turkmen militias?

fishmech posted:

TinTower posted:

More accurately, "Country people".

Yeah, Wales's name in Welsh is basically "Country".

Baka-nin posted:

https://twitter.com/sayed_ridha/status/847026878078627840

Phlegmish posted:

Germanic tribes did that poo poo everywhere. There's Wallonia, Wallachia and I'm pretty sure there's one in Switzerland, though I can't remember the specific name right now.

Baron Corbyn posted:

Valais/Wallis

Baron Corbyn posted:

Valais/Wallis

fishmech posted:

Echo Chamber posted:

I know we already moved beyond the discussion of world map projections, but I only just discovered this image, and I gotta share.

Screw the Mercator haters.


source

ekuNNN posted:

Just read The man in the high castle

galagazombie posted:

I've always liked/hated how all these fractured United States alt-histories always keep the Mexican and Canadian borders the same like nothing happened. You can't possibly think that Canada wouldn't carve off Maine or Mexico wouldn't take a bite off the southwest if they were reduced to tiny rump states with no Federal Military to protect them. How would 1800's Washington State with it's population of six lumberjacks avoid being annexed by British backed Canada?

Peanut President posted:

So how come canada didn't get conquered?

Peanut President posted:

So how come canada didn't get conquered?

quote:

In Philip K. Dick's original novel, the references to geography are deliberately, tantalizingly scant. Can a map —especially a fictional one — be too precise?

quote:

Most of the story is set in the Pacific States of America, a Japanese puppet state on the West Coast. The exact nature of Japanese domination is never discussed, and there is just one reference to the extent of the PSA's territory:

If he failed to get justification there, he would make his way to one of the Import-Export Trade Missions which operated out of Tokyo, and which had offices throughout California, Oregon, Washington, and the parts of Nevada included in the Pacific States of America. But if he failed successfully to plead there... Plans roamed his mind as he lay in bed gazing up at the ancient light fixture in the ceiling. He could for instance slip across into the Rocky Mountain States.

The Pacific States of America are mentioned only three times in the book (and referenced another 15 times as "PSA"). The quote above is as precise as its geography gets.

The Rocky Mountain States get only two mentions in full, one of which in the quote above, and only three times as "RMS." We know that Canon City, Colorado, lies in the RMS, and that the Nazi rockets flying to the West Coast have no interest in "Utah, Wyoming or the eastern part of Nevada," presumably meaning these lands are part of the RMS. Of their political makeup, we only know, again mentioned only in passing, that they are "loosely banded to the PSA."

The book mentions a separate entity for the South (the former Confederate States of America). This would make sense from a divide-and-conquer point of view, but little if any mention is made as to the actual status of the South within (or outside) the "new" US. The world outside North America is described with an even broader brush, but the few elements we hear paint a terrifying picture of the effect of a worldwide Axis victory. The Germans have drained the Mediterranean and turned the seabed into farmland. It also says they have landed on both the moon and Mars. German ally Italy has been "rewarded" with its own “little empire in the Middle East.” The Japanese are clearing rainforest in South America to build cities. They also control large swathes of the Asia-Pacific area, including Australia and New Zealand.

Echo Chamber posted:

I know we already moved beyond the discussion of world map projections, but I only just discovered this image, and I gotta share.

Screw the Mercator haters.


source

HookShot posted:

You can tell it's fantasy because Italy has something remotely resembling an actual empire.

Duckbag posted:

Also draining the Mediterranean would probably create hundred of miles of salt flats and brackish malaria swamps rather than farmland. Plus it might reroute the gulf stream and freeze half of Europe.