Stumbled across this Telstra map of their mobile network coverage of Australia which in turn shows how vast and isolated some of the country really is. For those not familiar Telstras network covers more area then any other Telco.

Green = 4g

Purple = 5g most likely overlapping 4g

Over 40,000+ respondents. The state's that made the cut were those in which 70% or more decided they were part of the South. Oklahoma just fell short and was 50/50.

https://www.vox.com/2016/9/30/12992066/south-analysis

Above is my US High-Speed Rail concept map. To avoid the desire to connect the dots of all the cities I created a gravity model for HSR connections based on a CityNerd video. This model evaluates the potential demand between city pairs based on population and distance. 

To base the map in reality I only included links between city pairs that had a higher HSR gravity score than Madrid to Murcia (64), which was one of the lowest scores I could find for an existing European HSR link. 

The second map shows the total gravity between each city pair if the whole system were to be built. For example, the Boston-Providence link also includes demand for Hartford-Boston, Bridgeport-Manchester, etc.

The dataset isn’t perfect so there are some mistakes in the HSR gravity score but I built a few tools to validate the planning process. The City Pair lookup tool gives the distance and HSR score for any two cities. The Line Evaluation tool lets you create and compare different routings and lines. 

I’m happy to answer any questions about the math, methodology, or assumptions. If anyone wants a copy of the Excel spreadsheets and associated tools to do their own analysis let me know and I’ll try to get you a copy!

Data Attributions: 

Base map of the United States: Alexandr Trubetskoy

Population Statistics: United States Census Bureau

Coordinates: simplemaps

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/transport/database

In 2020, Member of Parliament and former cabinet minister Erin O’toole shocked everyone by beating former Member parliament and co-founder of the Conservative Party Peter Mackey of leadership of the Conservative Party.

In the west the dominant ethnicity is Tajiks. The east is fractured between various pamiri east Iranian groups lumped into Tajiks by the government census.
The largest non Iranian minority in the west are Uzbeks and in the east Kyrgyz.
West is densely populated and Sunni majority. East is sparsely populated mountains and Shia majority

These are the first round results of the 2017 conservative leadership race which ended in MP and former speaker of the house, Andrew Scheer beating also MP and former cabinet minister Maxime Bernier for leader of the party. If you have any questions ask below, I’ll be more than happy to answer.

90% of taught human history

Data is the NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950 to 2025, lower 48 only. Each dot is where a tornado touched down. I dropped every year onto the same Jan to Dec calendar (Feb 29 counts as Mar 1), so each date shows 76 years of tornadoes at once.

The white dot is the average position of every tornado within a week either side of that date. Around Christmas it sits in central Mississippi, by late July it's up in northern Missouri. That's about 530 miles.

Few things I didn't expect:

- May 24 is the busiest date of the year, 702 tornadoes over the 76 years

- April, May and June are 54% of all tornadoes

- in Dec to Feb about 4 in 5 hit south of the Kentucky/Tennessee line

- in July half of them are north of 41°N. In January it's 2%

Disclaimer: I also run a free map site with live quakes, volcanoes and hurricanes if you like this kind of thing: https://www.liveatlas.earth/north-america/united-states-of-america/

Map one: Cultural Distance - Pellegrino, Spolaore & Wacziarg (2025)

Parameters are:

Perceptions of Life: Personal happiness, life satisfaction, and priorities in life

Environment: Attitudes towards environmental protection and economic trade-offs

Work: Importance of work, work ethic, and professional expectations

Family: Marriage, child-rearing, gender roles, and family responsibilities

Politics and Society: Democracy, interpersonal trust, social tolerance, and political attitudes

Religion and Morality: Religiosity, religious practices, and moral beliefs

National Identity: National pride, national belonging, and identification with one's country

Map two: Country Similarity Index - Culture

Parameters are:

Language: Native languages, language families, official languages, and common languages

Religion: Religious affiliations, denominations, and religious traditions

Writing Systems: Alphabets, scripts, and their historical origins

Behaviour: Personality traits, social behaviour, and violence

Traditions: Public holidays, marriage customs, and traditional practices

Diet: Consumption of meat, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and grains

Alcohol and Drugs: Alcohol consumption, drug use, and smoking habits

Sports: Popular team sports and Olympic sports