War on the moon

In some parts of France, World War I has never ended. These are the Zones rouges – an archipelago of former battlegrounds so pockmarked and polluted by war that, more than a century after the end of hostilities, they remain unfit to live on or even farm on.

WWI was the first industrial war, and a laboratory for all kinds of military innovations, including the first use of tanks and poison gas. Both the German and the Allied war machines belched out deadly explosives and lethal chemicals on a massive scale. It is estimated that around 60 million shells rained down near Verdun during the fierce battles over that city in 1916 – of which 15 million didn't explode upon impact.

Four years of war stripped a zone on either side of the largely immobile frontline of any sign of life. Roads and bridges, canals and railways were destroyed. Cities were pummelled into dust. Entire villages 'died for France' and were wiped off the map for good.

Bombardments were so thorough that even grass and trees disappeared. When the war ended in November 1918, a large swathe of northern to eastern France was so cratered up and chewed out that it looked like a moonscape. In all, about 7% of French territory was destroyed during the war, in a zone stretching over 4,000 municipalities across 13 departments, from the Nord at the coast to the Bas-Rhin on the Swiss border.

By 1919, the French Ministry for the Liberated Territories had divided the afflicted areas into three zones, depending on the degree of destruction:

• Zones vertes ('Green Zones'), with minimal damage;
• Zones jaunes ('Yellow Zones'), with heavy but limited damage; and
• Zones rouges ('Red Zones'), usually closest to the former front lines, which were completely destroyed.

The primary task was to clear the affected areas of ammunition and corpses. This involved the efforts of German PoWs, foreign workers from as far afield as China, and Quaker volunteers, among others.

Massive amounts of unidentified human remains were gathered in places like the Douaumont Ossuary, the last resting place of 130,000 German and French soldiers who fell at Verdun. Soldier bones continue to turn up. As recently as April 2012, authorities were able to identify the remains of a French soldier named Albert Dadure.

700 years to clear

The green and yellow zones were returned to civilian use relatively early. The red zones were different. They were, in the words of one official post-war report, "completely devastated. Damage to properties: 100%. Damage to agriculture: 100%. Impossible to clean. Human life impossible." Red zones were cleared only superficially, and mostly just closed off.

In 1919, these red zones covered around 690 square miles (1,800 km2). Here, the ground remained saturated with unexploded ordnance. High concentrations of heavy metals and chemicals in the soil further increased the risk to life and limb. For reasons of safety and sanitation, these areas were strictly off-limits for housing, farming and even forestry.

By 1927, the red zones had been reduced by 70% to around 190 square miles (490 km2), in part due to pressure from local farmers, who wanted to return their fields and pastures to productivity and profit.

Today, the red zone archipelago has shrunk to about 40 square miles (100 km2), about the size of Paris. Yet it's unlikely that these islands will disappear soon. They are the most tenacious residue of a long-lasting environmental problem.

Each year, farmers in former red zones plough up an 'iron harvest' of close to 900 tons of unexploded ordinance. Near Verdun, road signs point to dumping grounds where they can leave these shells for the authorities to collect.

France's Sécurité Civile, which is charged with removing them, estimates that at current rates, it could take up to 700 years to completely clear all remaining WWI shells and grenades from France's soil.

And then there are the gases, acids and other chemicals polluting the soil – in some parts, the ground still contains so much arsenic that nothing will grow. In less affected areas, biologists still note the lack of floral and faunal diversity related to the pollution, which some estimate may take about 10,000 years to clear.

The War to End All War

WWI was supposed to be the 'War to End All War'. That went… less well than could have been hoped for. One of the lessons not learned from that conflict is that modern wars have long-lasting impacts on health and the environment. The issue has remained largely dormant, resurfacing only in the 1990s, when more than 1 in 3 U.S. veterans of the First Gulf War reported a range of symptoms ascribed to exposure to toxic substances.

Even in France itself, not much thought is given to the lingering effects of WWI, or to the remaining Zones rouges – perhaps because so much of the affected areas were left to the trees, becoming so-called forêts de guerre (war forests), notably in the Champagne region. Yet the invisible environmental legacy of the Great War has very real consequences.

• In 2012, the consumption of locally sourced drinking water was prohibited in 544 municipalities, due to high levels of percholate, which was used to make WWI ammo. All of those municipalities are located close to former battlefield zones.
• Experts warn that mushrooms, game meat and even food cooked over wood collected in red zones or former red zones might be a source of toxins.
• It has been established that the livers of wild boars roaming the forests around Verdun contain abnormally high levels of lead.
• And the relatively elevated levels of lead in certain French wines may result from the wood of the barrels in which they matured, from oak harvested in former red zones.

Strange Maps #1069

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

We need to talk about Kevin. No, this is not about that book. This is about why areas of Germany and France with a lot of Kevins (and Justins, and other so-called 'Anglo-Saxon' first names, for that matter), tend to vote for extremist right-wing parties.

Take the two maps below. The one on the left shows where in Germany 'Kevin' is a popular first name. Quite clearly, Kevin is more prevalent in the former east, and especially so in Saxony, the southern state of the former GDR.

The map on the right shows the results of the so-called Zweitstimme ('second votes', or party list votes) in the German parliamentary elections of 24 September 2017. The right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) obtains its best score in Saxony, a.k.a. Kevin Country: 27%, more than double its national average (12.6%).

One caveat: the map on the left shows the popularity of the name Kevin for new-borns since 2006 – those kids were at most 11 years old at the time of the election on the other map. So it's not Kevins voting for AfD, but their parents.

Or take the next map pair. The one on the left shows French new-borns in 1993 with an 'Anglo-Saxon' name. The highest share of Ambers, Dwaynes and other new-born 'Anglos' are found in areas colored various shades of red: light (13%), medium (14%) or dark (15% and up). Those areas are predominantly in the north and centre of the country – but excluding Paris and environs.

And now take a look at the map on the right, showing the results of Marine Le Pen at the second round of the 2017 presidential elections, held on 7 May. The winner was Emmanuel Macron (66%), but Le Pen, candidate for the far-right National Front (2) obtained just shy of 34% of the overall vote.

Ms Le Pen obtained her highest scores, up to 60% of the total, mainly in the north of the country, in a zone largely contiguous with the 'Anglo-Saxon' one on the other map – both zones perforated by a non-compliant Paris.

In L' Archipel français, Jerôme Fourquet, an executive at IFOP, the famed polling institute, provides some background to the correlation. His sociological portrait of France paints a picture of three related evolutions: the obliteration of the traditional left-right divide in society, the 'archipelisation' of French culture into diverging subcultures, and the deepening alienation of working-class whites from the political mainstream.

Fourquet charts social changes by analysing the first names in French birth registries. Take for example the fate of Marie: its decline as the name of 20% of new-born girls in 1900 to no more than 2% since the 1970s marks the retreat of conservative Catholicism. In wartime, patriotic first names like France or Jeanne (i.e. Joan of Arc) see their fortunes rise.

One of the most remarkable trends in recent decades is the rise of 'Anglo' first names, from a mere 0.5% in the 1960s to 12% in 1993 – many of those names are taken from the music and movie stars of English-language pop culture. The phenomenon is mainly restricted to the lower classes. France's metropolitan elites wouldn't dream of naming their offspring Kevin or Justin, Cindy or Britney.

Fourquet notes the prevalence of 'Anglo' first names among the gilets jaunes, the yellow vest-clad protest movement that plagued Macron during his first years in office.

It is from the same source of disaffected lower-class whites that Le Pen draws most of her support, the pollster argues. Hence the overlap between France's 'Anglo' zones and the Le Pen-voting parts of the country – evidence of the 'archipelisation' of French society.

It can be argued that a similar conjuncture between identification with English-language pop culture and disaffection with mainstream politics is at work in Germany.

Maps found here and here on the twitter accounts of Doyen Mandelbrot and Guillaume Durocher.

Strange Maps #1067

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

(1) 'Kevin' is in fact a name of Irish origin - it is the anglicised form of 'caoimhín', which means 'of noble birth'. However, from the perspective of non-Anglophone cultures, it is an 'English' name.

(2) The Front National has since been renamed Rassemblement National, or 'National Rally'.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

Rabbit holes

Maps are rabbit holes. Where they lead depends on how you fall into them. In this case, the trap door was Portsea.

This is a map of Europe's 20 most populous islands. The largest ones are familiar, and not difficult to guess. Yes, Great Britain is Europe's most people-rich island. And many would have gotten number two right as well: Ireland.

As the ranking continues, familiar islands alternate with less familiar ones, and it's interesting to see how some smaller or more obscure ones out-populate others, larger and better known. Spanish island Mallorca has the edge Cyprus, even though the latter is an entire nation unto itself. And Vendsyssel-Thy, arguably Denmark's least familiar larger island, may be a lot smaller than Iceland but it has slightly more inhabitants.

The kicker, though, is the island at the end of the ranking. Portsea. Never heard of. Is that some kind of magical place that appears only once every century? (No, that's Brigadoon). So we looked it up. But hunting for a single piece of information is like buying a single piece of candy. It can't be done.

Here you have it, then: a truckload of trivia, on Sardinia's black-clad female assassins, a gothic cathedral that faces Mecca, and the tragic fate of Corsica's first and last-but-one king.

Not that there's much else to do during lockdown, but in the time it took us to gather all this info, we could have learned a really easy language or acquired a fairly dumb skill. Thanks a lot, Portsea!

How Britain became ‘Great’

1. Great Britain: 61.5 million

• Great Britain is not just Europe's most populous island (and the third-most populous in the world, after Java, Indonesia and Honshu, Japan), it is also the continent's largest (and the world's ninth-largest).
• There are two explanations for how Britain got the prefix 'Great'. In his Almagest, second-century geographer Ptolemy differentiated between the islands of Great Britain and Little Britain, by which he meant Ireland. In his Historia Regum Britanniae however, 12th-century historian Geoffrey of Monmouth distinguished between Britannia major and Britannia minor, by which he meant Brittany, the now-French region on the European mainland.
• Although the terms are often used interchangeably, Great Britain is not the same as the United Kingdom (which consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). However, the terms were synonymous between the Acts of Union of 1707 (uniting England and Scotland) and of 1800 (between Great Britain and Ireland).
• The four countries of the British Isles are closely identified with their patron saints: St George for England, St David for Wales, St Andrew for Scotland and St Patrick for Ireland. Strangely, the island of Great Britain itself has no patron saint. In the past, St Alban – the first-recorded Christian martyr (a.k.a. protomartyr) on the island – had this role. More recently, St Aidan, an early Irish apostle to the Britons, has been proposed.

2. Ireland: 6.4 million

• The most iconic Irish beverage is Guinness, but the Irish are only the second-largest consumers of the famed Black Stuff; in first place are... the Brits. The next-biggest markets are Nigeria, the U.S. and Cameroon. In all, about 4 million of the 10 million glasses of Guinness consumed daily are downed in Africa.
• Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin contains a shrine with the relics of St Valentine, donated by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836. It's a popular destination for couples to ask the saint to bless their life together.

3. Sicily (Italy): 5 million

• Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean, and home to Europe's tallest active volcano, Mount Etna. That's the one hogging the limelight; there are at least 10 other volcanoes on or near Sicily, including two active ones – Stromboli and Vulcano (in English: Vulcan). Each is one of the Aeolian Islands, just north of Sicily. The Romans believed the fire-spewing mountain was the chimney of their fire god Vulcan's smithy, hence the latter island's name, which became the generic term for 'fire-spewing mountain'.
• Three Sicilian firsts: it was where pi was first calculated (in the 3rd century BC, by Archimedes), where the first sonnet was written (in the 13th century, by Giacomo da Lentini), and where ice cream was invented (in the 17th century, by Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli).

A canal planned by Nero

4. Zealand (Denmark): 2.3 million

• Zealand (in Danish: Sjælland) is the largest island of Denmark proper and the most populated, home to the capital Copenhagen and other major cities.
• It is home to the oldest and second-oldest amusement parks in the world still in operation, called Bakken and Tivoli, respectively.
• Despite the similarity, Zealand is not the toponymic parent of New Zealand; the antipodean nation was named after the Dutch province of Zeeland.

• Sardinia contains the first of five 'Blue Zones' discovered across the world, where life expectancy is exceptionally high. The area has about 10 times more centenarians per capita than the U.S. One village called Seulo (pop. 750) has had 20 centenarians in the 20 years preceding 2016, a world record.
• The island's penchant for longevity is actually quite surprising, considering another Sardinian tradition, the Femmina Accabadora, or 'Finishing Woman'. If someone suffered from an intolerably painful illness, they (or their family) could request a visit from one of these folk euthanizers. Dressed in black and with covered faces, they would dispatch their victims swiftly and painlessly by suffocating them with a pillow, hitting them over the head with a heavy wooden hammer, or strangling them with the victim's neck between their legs.
• The capital of Argentina was named after a hill in Sardinia. Bonaria (Italian for 'good air', or 'fair wind') is the name of a hill overlooking Cagliari, as it was free from the foul smell prevalent in the Sardinian capital's swamp-adjacent old town. On top of the hill stands an abbey dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who was venerated by sailors praying for fair winds. The first Spanish sailors to land where the Argentinian capital now stands, gave thanks to her, and Our Lady of Buen Ayre eventually gave her name to the city.

6. Peloponnese (Greece): 1.1 million

In 67 AD, the emperor Nero broke ground on a canal to connect the Ionian and Aegean seas. He wielded a pickaxe and personally carried away the first basket of soil. The mean fiddler then handed over to 6,000 Jewish prisoners of war, who managed to dig across one-tenth of the narrow Istmus of Corinth before the project was abandoned.

A wedding in Cyprus

8. Mallorca (Spain): 860,000

Palma de Mallorca's Gothic cathedral, known as La Seu, has one of the world's largest stained-glass windows. Famous architect Antoni Gaudí is responsible for some of the more recent restorations. The iconic building has one even more unique peculiarity. Whereas Christian churches generally face east, this one points towards Mecca. That's because it rises on the foundations of a mosque, which was built when the Moors also ruled this part of Spain.

9. Cyprus: 860,000

• Cyprus is the only place outside Britain ever to stage an English royal wedding. On 12 May 1191 in Limassol's Chapel of St George, king Richard I ('Lionheart') married princess Berengaria, daughter of king Sancho VI of Navarre. From there, the newlyweds proceeded to the Holy Land for a bit of light crusading.
• Present-day Cyprus is the only country in the world with a divided capital. The northern part of Nicosia is run by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a country recognised only by Turkey. The southern part of Nicosia is run by the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state. The two sides are separated by a UN-administered Green Line, which divides not just Nicosia, but the entire island.

10. Gran Canaria (Spain): 850,000

• Neither Gran Canaria nor the Canary Islands as a whole were named after canary birds. It's rather the other way around: the birds derive their names from the islands, where they are endemic.
• The islands were in fact named after dogs. Insulae canariae is Latin for 'Islands of the Dogs'. But it's rather unclear how the name came about.
  • One theory is that large dogs roamed the islands when the Ancients first visited (Pliny the Elder mentions this).
  • Another theory claims the 'dogs' are in fact 'sea dogs', i.e. seals.
  • Or: the native Guanche people worshipped and mummified dogs, a practice perhaps related to the cult of the dog-headed god Anubis in Egypt.
• Canarians have made their mark on the Americas. They founded the cities of San Antonio in Texas, and Sao Paulo in Brazil, among others. And they brought over the peppers, chillies and salsas familiar in Tex-Mex cuisine.
• In 1936, Francisco Franco was General Commandant of the Canaries, stationed in Las Palmas, on Gran Canaria. This is where he plotted his insurgency against the left-wing republican government. So you could say that the Spanish Civil War started on Gran Canaria.

11. Södertörn: 800,000

Södertörn is a vaguely triangular peninsula south of Stockholm, separated from the mainland by canals cut at Södertälje and Hammarby. Since 2014, it has been reclassified as an island and is now considered Sweden's third-largest island, after Gotland and Öland. The northern part of the island is a heavily populated southern extension of the Swedish capital region.

Famous Maltesers

12. Crete (Greece): 620,000

Cretans take their salads seriously. In 2010, the Guinness-attested world record for largest Greek salad ever was set in Ierapetra, Crete. The salad weighed in at 13 tons and 417 kg.

Unfortunately for Ierapetra, the record was broken in 2016, on Moscow's Red Square of all places, where no less than 1,200 volunteers prepared a Greek salad weighing 20 tons.

But if you can take the record-breaking salad out of Crete, you can't take the Cretans out of the record-breaking salad. So to speak. The Muscovite Greek salad was prepared under the direction of Petros Lambrinidis, a chef from Crete.

13. Fyn (Denmark): 450,000

Fyn, in between Zealand and Jutland, is Denmark's third-largest island. In English, it's known as Funen. (The Latin name is Fionia).

The New Little Belt Bridge (Ny Lillebæltsbro, 1970), connecting Fyn with Jutland, is Denmark's oldest suspension bridge.

Since 1997, Fyn and Zealand are linked via the Great Belt Fixed Link (Storebæltsforbindelsen), a combination of road bridge and rail tunnel and bridge. The eastern part of the bridge is formed by a 2,694 m long suspension bridge, the longest such bridge in Europe (and the third-longest in the world).

14. Malta: 400,000

On the campaign trail last year, Pete Buttigieg joked that he was the only "left-handed Maltese-American, Episcopalian, gay, millennial war veteran in the race." A pretty impressive rainbow coalition, but not one broad enough to earn him the Democratic nomination.

Nevermind: as Joe Biden's pick for U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Buttigieg may yet remain the nation's most prominent public figure of Maltese descent. Unless Britney Spears makes a comeback, that is.

Yes, the Princess of Pop – a month and a half older than Buttigieg, by the way – also has Maltese ancestry, albeit only one-eighth, via her mother. But that's okay: the Maltese are an inclusive people, happy to celebrate anyone with as much as a drop of Maltese blood.

Other prominent Maltesers? Actor Jason Bateman, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, U.S.-British royal Meghan Markle, and Scottish singer Sharleen Spiteri.

15. Vendsyssel-Thy (Denmark): 300,000

What's the northernmost island of Denmark proper, and the second-largest Danish island after Greenland? Quite a few Danes won't know the right answer either. It's Vendsyssel-Thy, the northernmost part of Jutland.

It doesn't feel like an island, perhaps because it consists of distinct regions (Vendsyssel, Thy and Hanherred), and its name derives from those parts rather than reflects its geographic distinctiveness (see also the Delmarva Peninsula in the U.S., the name of which derives from DELaware, MARyland and VirginiA).

Or perhaps because it hasn't been one for very long. Only after the disastrous Great Hallig Flood of February 1825 breached Agger Tange, the land link that separated the North Sea from the Limfjord, did it become entirely detached from the rest of Jutland.

The first part of the name Vendsyssel, by the way, may refer to the Germanic tribe of the Vandals.

16. Iceland: 300,000

Iceland is a country of extremes. Of, if you're into lists, 'Best Ofs'. Here's our personal Top 10.

• Reykjavik is the northernmost national capital in the world.
• Around 11% of the country is covered by glaciers, 8% alone by Vatnajökull, the world's largest glacier outside the polar regions.
• Iceland's parliament is called the Althingi. It was founded in 930, making it the oldest one in the world.
• About two-thirds of children in Iceland are born outside of marriage, the highest rate in the world.
• In 2009, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir became Iceland's first female Prime Minister and the world's first openly lesbian head of government.
• About 30% of Iceland's electricity is of geothermal origin, the highest percentage in the world.
• Iceland is the only country in the world without mosquitoes.
• According to the Global Peace Index, Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world.
• Iceland has the world's smallest overall gender gap, a position it has held since 2009. The pay gap is decreasing, but so slow that parity would be reached only in 2068.
• In a recent survey of 35 countries worldwide, Iceland came out as the best place in the world to raise a family. The U.S., incidentally, finished 34th.

Part of Portsmouth

17. Corsica (France): 300,000

The first king of Corsica is buried in the churchyard of St Anne's in Soho, London. Theodor von Neuhoff (1694-1756) was a German-born adventurer who helped Corsican rebels rid the island of the Genoese, but only for about eight months in 1736. The last 20 years of his life, he vainly tried to regain his throne. 'Theodor the First' was got out of debtors' prison in London, by signing over his elusive kingdom to his creditors. His epitaph, written by his friend Sir Horace Walpole, reads:

The grave, great teacher, to a level brings

Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings.

But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead:

Fate poured its lessons on his living head,

Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread.

In 1768, Genoa sold the rebellious island to France. In 1794, the British conquered the island and established a short-lived Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, making George III the second (and last) king of Corsica. Two years later, the French were back – for good, for now.

18. Madeira (Portugal): 270,000

• The Portuguese island of Madeira – closer to Africa than to Europe – is famous for the fortified wine that carries its name. The Founding Fathers in particular were big fans. Madeira wine was used to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the inauguration of George Washington, the launch of the U.S.S. Constitution and the signing of the Louisiana Purchase.
• Madeira's second-most consequential contribution to global culture is the ukulele. Although now entirely associated with Hawaiian music, the instrument (whose name means 'jumping flea' in Hawaiian) was introduced to the islands only in 1879, by Madeiran sugar cane cutters. It is based on similar small guitar-like instruments they knew from home, such as the cavaquinho and the rajao.
• Soccer fans will beg to differ. They would argue that Madeira's most famous export is Cristiano Ronaldo, hailed by many as the greatest soccer player of his generation. Local authorities seem to agree. In 2017, the capital Funchal's airport was renamed Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport.

19. Euboea (Greece): 220,000

'Euboea' means 'land of the well-fed oxen', but throughout history, it's had more aliases than that shifty-looking character on the next street corner.

In ancient times, it was known as Dolicche or Macris (because it is so narrow), and Aonia, Ellopia or Abantis (after the tribes that called it home). The Byzantines called it Chalcis (the name of its capital) or Euripios (after the strait that separates it from the mainland). Under Venetian rule, it was known as Negroponte (a folk etymology, after the 'black bridge' across the strait).

One of the most notable natives of the island is St Porphyrios (1906-91), a Greek Orthodox monk famous for his gift of clairvoyance, which he called 'spiritual television'.

20. Portsea Island (UK): 210,000

Portsea is the third most populated of the British Isles, after Great Britain and Ireland. And the most densely populated one. Yet you've probably never heard of it. That's because Portsea is subsumed by the city of Portsmouth, which covers the entire island.

Portsmouth often calls itself the only island city in Britain. But that's not entirely true, as the city also covers an adjacent part of the mainland, on the southern coast of England.

Map seen here on Reddit. Reproduced with kind permission.

Strange Maps #1066

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

Speeding towards the Serpent-bearer

What's the farthest place that humanity has gone? For a practical answer to that question rather than a philosophical one, direct your gaze to Ophiuchus, an equatorial constellation also known as Serpentarius.

Speeding towards Rasalhague and the other stars that make up the 'Serpent-bearer' is Voyager 1, the furthest human-made object in the Universe. It's currently 14.1 billion miles (22.8 billion km) from the Sun and speeding away at roughly 38,000 mph (61,000 km/h).

That's too far to observe Voyager 1 twinkle in the night sky. But you can turn the tables and see what it sees, as it looks back at us. Via NASA's Eyes website (and app), you can pay a virtual visit to where the spacecraft is now and explore its vantage as it hurtles towards the edge of the solar system.

There's Jupiter and Saturn, so seemingly close together; and Uranus, Pluto and Neptune, their orbits farther away. At the center of it all, the Sun. Nearby, the inner planets, including Earth: so close to it that they don't even get a name-tag. Those planets and their trajectories are so familiar yet now so distant, it's enough to make you homesick by proxy!

You can click and drag your way around Voyager 1, shifting your perspective to explore the region – spotting Sedna, Halley's Comet and a few other less familiar members of our solar family.

67 MB of data

Although it's still sending back data to Earth, most of Voyager 1's instruments have now been powered down, and the craft is expected to go entirely dead by 2030 at the latest; but its incredible journey isn't over. In fact, it will most likely continue long after you, I and everything we know will have disappeared. Here's how it all started.

The year is 1977. Jimmy Carter's first year as president. Elvis Presley's last year alive. Star Wars hits the big screens. On 10 September, Hamida Djandoubi becomes the last person ever to be guillotined in France. Five days earlier, Voyager 1 takes off from Cape Canaveral.

Voyager 1 is a small craft, weighing barely 1,820 lb. (825.5 kg). Its most prominent feature is a 12-ft (3.7-m) wide dish antenna, for talking with Earth – when there's no straight line of communication, a Digital Tape Recorder kicks in, able to hold up to 67 MB of data for later transmission. In all, Voyager 1 carries 11 different instruments to study the heavens.

Termination shock

The idea for the Voyagers, 1 and 2, grew out of the Mariner program's focus on the outer planets. The Voyagers got their own name as their field of study started to diverge towards the outer heliosphere and beyond.

The heliosphere is the 'solar bubble' created by the solar wind, i.e. the plasma emitted by the Sun. The region where solar wind slows down to below the speed of sound is called the termination shock. The heliopause is the outer limit of this bubble, where outward movement of solar plasma is nullified by interstellar plasma from the rest of the Milky Way. Beyond lies interstellar space.

The Voyagers were built to withstand the intense radiation in those far reaches of space – in part by applying a protective layer of kitchen-grade aluminum foil.

Humanity's farthest probe into the Universe was launched on September 5, 1977, confusingly 16 days after Voyager 2. More than 43 years later, the craft is still sending data back to Earth – but not for very much longer. Here are a few snapshots for the family album:

• 19 December 1977: Voyager 1 overtakes Voyager 2. Voyager 1 is travelling at a speed of 3.6 AU per year, while Voyager 2 is only going at 3.3 AU. So, Voyager 1 is constantly increasing its lead over its slower brother.
• Early 1979: Voyager 1 flies by Jupiter and its moons, taking close-ups of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and spotting volcanic activity on the moon Io – the first time ever this was observed outside Earth.
• Late 1980: flyby of Saturn and its moons, especially Titan. The flybys of the two gas giants gave 'gravity assists' that helped Voyager 1 continue its journey.
• 14 February 1990: Voyager takes a 'Solar System Family Portrait', its final picture and the first one of the solar system from the outside. It included an image of the Earth from 6 billion km (3.7 billion mi) away, as a 'Pale Blue Dot'.
• 17 February 1998: Voyager 1 reaches 69.4 AU from the Sun, overtaking Pioneer 10 and becoming the most distant spacecraft sent from Earth.
• 2004: Voyager 1 becomes the first craft to reach termination shock, at about 94 AU from the Sun. The Astronomic Unit (AU) is the average distance from Sun to Earth (about 93 million mi, 150 million km or 8 light minutes).
• 25 August 2012: after a few months of 'cosmic purgatory' and 10 days before the 35th anniversary of its launch, Voyager 1 became the first human-made vessel to cross the heliopause, at 121 AU, thus entering interstellar space.
• Soon after, Voyager 1 entered a region still under some influence of the Sun, which scientists dubbed the 'magnetic highway'.
• 28 November 2017: all four of Voyager 1's trajectory correction maneuver (TCM) thrusters are used for the first time since November 1980. This will allow Voyager 1 to continue to transmit data for longer.
• 5 November 2018: Voyager 2 crosses the heliopause, departing the heliosphere. Both Voyagers are now in interstellar space.

Eternal wanderers

While both Voyagers have now left the heliosphere, that doesn't mean they're outside the solar system yet. The latter is defined as the vastly larger region of space, populated by all the bodies that orbit the Sun. The limit of the Solar system is the outer edge of the Oort cloud.

As available power declined, more and more of the Voyager 1's instruments and systems have been turned off – prioritising the instruments that send back data on the heliosphere and interstellar space. It is expected that the last instruments will cease operation sometime between 2025 and 2030.

Travelling at just about 61,200 km/h (38,000 mph) relative to the Sun, the craft will need 17 and a half millennia to cover the distance of a single light year. Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, is 4.2 light-years away. If Voyager 1 were going in that direction, it would need almost 74 millennia to get there. But it isn't. So, what is next?

• In 2024, NASA plans to launch the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), which will build on Voyager's observations of the heliopause and interstellar space.
• In about 300 years, Voyager 1 will reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud.
• In about 30,000 years, it will exit the Oort Cloud – finally leaving the solar system altogether.
• In about 40,000 years, it will pass within 1.6 light-years of Gliese 445, a star in the constellation Camelopardalis.
• In about 300,000 years, it will pass within less than 1 light-year of the star TYC 3135-52-1.
• According to NASA, Voyagers 1 and 2 "are destined – perhaps eternally – to wander the Milky Way."

Blind Willie in space

Both Voyager 1 and 2 carry a Golden Record that contains pictures, scientific data, spoken greetings, a sampling of whale song and other Earth sounds, and a mixtape of musical favorites, from Mozart to Chuck Berry.

Perhaps in a distant future and place, some alien intelligence with a record player will have a listen to Blind Willie Johnson hum Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground, and think of us: "What a strange old planet that must have been."

Image taken from the Voyager 1 page at NASA's Eyes.

Strange Maps #1065

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

Moving at fingernail speed

For things so massive and seemingly immovable, continents are pretty hard to pin down. Of course, that's because they do move, if only at the speed at which your fingernails grow: about two inches (5 cm) per year.

Accelerate the film of Earth's geology, and you see the landmasses dance across the globe like islands of foam on a running bath. One peculiarity of our drifting continents is that they tend to combine, over massive amounts of time, into one single supercontinent. It helps that the Earth is round, unlike your bath.

Then, millions of years later, tectonic forces cause the supercontinent to break up again – only for the individual continents to recombine much, much later. All at fingernail speed.

The usual suspects

Here's one question with an un-pin-downable answer: How many supercontinents have there been in Earth's deep past? At least three or at least seven; as many as 11 or perhaps even a few more: like the continents themselves, scientific theories diverge. Here are some of the usual suspects (most recent first, ages are approximate):

• Pangea (300-180 million years ago)
• Gondwana (600-180 mya)
• Pannotia (630-540 mya)
• Rodinia (1.1 bya-750 mya)
• Columbia, a.k.a. Nuna (1.8-1.5 bya)
• Kenorland (2.7-2.1 bya)
• Ur (2.8-2.4 mya)
• Vaalbara (3.6-2.8 bya)

That's if we spool back the tape. What happens if we fast-forward? Even though Pangea, the last supercontinent, broke up almost 200 million years ago, geologists are pretty sure there'll be another one, but not for some time to come. Right now, we're about halfway through a 'supercontinent cycle'. The next one will be around between 200 and 300 million years from now.

Wilson cycles

That brings us to the next question with an answer that's hard to pin down: What will that next supercontinent look like? That is, of course, unknowable, as no one alive today will be around to check. But one can speculate. Using what we know about the tectonic forces that power the movements of continental plates, three scientists line up four plausible scenarios for the formation of the next supercontinent.

In Back to the future: Testing different scenarios for the next supercontinent gathering, Hannah S. Davies, J.A. Mattias Green and Joāo C. Duarte present four supercontinents, each the outcome of a different tectonic what-if.

Each scenario is a different combination of two basic drivers of continental conglomeration (and fragmentation): the supercontinent cycle itself, and the so-called Wilson cycle.

In 1966, Canadian geologist John Tuzo Wilson proposed that the Atlantic had opened up along a zone where another ocean had previously existed. A 'Wilson cycle' therefore describes the cyclical opening and closing of ocean basins. Since those aren't necessarily in sync with supercontinent cycles, they can lead to various outcomes – supercontinents of different shapes and at different types.

The next supercontinent will take shape when at least one ocean closes. That can happen in one of two ways:

• Introversion: the 'external', expanding ocean starts to contract and closes up again; or
• Extroversion: the 'external' ocean keeps expanding, closing an 'internal' ocean elsewhere.

In the first option, the Wilson cycle and the supercontinent cycle coincide, creating the possibility that the new supercontinent will have more or less the same dimensions as the old one. In the second option, the Wilson and supercontinent cycles do not coincide.

• The closure of the Atlantic Ocean, leading to Pangea Ultima;
• The closure of the Pacific Ocean, giving rise to Novopangea;
• The closure of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, creating Aurica; and
• The closure of the Arctic Ocean, forming Amasia.

Pangea Ultima: keystone Africa

'Ultimate Pangea' will come about via an introversion scenario, with the closing of the Atlantic and the re-formation of the 'old' Pangea – sort of. Introversion is the 'classic' scenario for supercontinent formation; in fact, Pangea itself was likely formed by introversion, with the closing of the Rheic and Iapetus Oceans.

Africa is the key continent here; first by colliding with Europe to form the new continent of Eurafrica, and ultimately as the keystone tying South and North America, Europe and Asia together. Remnants of the Atlantic and Indian oceans reincarnate as the 'ultimate' Mediterranean, closed off from the world ocean by East Antarctica.

Novopangea: Rift becomes Ocean 

A 'classic' extroversion scenario leads to the closure of the Pacific Ocean, and to a 'new' Pangea – not just a re-forming of the old one. The East African Rift keeps growing, developing into a new ocean, replacing the Indian one. East Africa gets stuck against India's west coast.

Aurica: America in the middle

The Aurica scenario presupposes two Wilson cycles in sync with the supercontinent cycle. Both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans close, helping to form the supercontinent of Aurica, with the Americas in the middle.

This requires the opening-up of at least one new ocean – for example, at a large rift along the present-day border between India and Pakistan. This new Pan-Asian Ocean, merged with the Indian Ocean, pushes these areas apart, turning them from next-door neighbors into lands on either side of Aurica.

Australia is now entirely landlocked, between Antarctica, East Asia and North America. Europe and Africa have collided with the Americas from the other side. To the south, Madagascar stubbornly continues its separate course.

Amasia, the Arctic supercontinent

The Arctic Ocean closes. Almost all continents are joined at the 'top of the world', with the exception of Antarctica, the only one not drifting northward. It'll be a short hop from North America to North Africa, with Southern Europe acting as a land bridge in between. South America has repositioned itself, with its western edge against the eastern flank of North America.

These images produced by Pilgrim-Ivanhoe, reproduced with kind permission. Original context here. Images based on the aforementioned article: Back to the future: Testing different scenarios for the next supercontinent gathering, by Hannah S. Davies, J.A. Mattias Green and João C. Duarte, published in Global and Planetary Change (Vol. 169, October 2018).

Strange Maps #1064

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

Forgotten, but not gone

The GDR may be forgotten, but it's not gone. Apart from a shrinking handful of diehard nostalgics, nobody mourns the passing of the German Democratic Republic, as communist East Germany (1949-1990) was officially known.

It became such an exemplar of the chasm between the high ideals and grim reality of Soviet-style socialism that the regime literally had to fence in its citizens to keep them from running away. Up until the building of the Berlin Wall (1961), hundreds of East Germans each day 'voted with their feet', defecting to West Germany – decadent and capitalist, yes; hence also a lot more fun.

Inevitably, the fall of the Wall in 1989 was the death-knell for East Germany. We've just passed the 30th anniversary of German reunification, which came into effect on 3 October 1990. But after three decades of painful economic, political and cultural adjustments, the ghost of East Germany lingers on the map.

Like secret messages that become visible under UV light, the contours of the GDR come out when you apply the right data filters. And not just once or twice. Again and again, we see the old (and to some, familiar) borders emerge. In other words, the German Democratic Republic is a map zombie. That's because life continues to be different in former East Germany – even if it's now just the east of Germany.

Below are some examples, selected from the Facebook group with the self-explanatory name: East Germany is discernibly visible on this relatable map.

The unhappy east

East Germans are less happy than their western compatriots. Out of a maximum of 10 on the happiness scale, most of the former GDR colors red (below 7.2), the rest orange (between 7.2 and 7.4).

In the west, few areas are orange and none are red. Most areas are yellow-happy (7.4 to 7.6), and light-green-happy (7.6 to 7.7). Southern Bavaria (dark green; 7.7 and up) is the happiest corner of Germany.

Too bourgeois for the GDR?

In the old Soviet bloc, sports was a propaganda tool, and athletic excellence a way to prove the regime's supremacy on the world stage.

But apparently, tennis was not the right vehicle – perhaps the East German communists thought it too bourgeois. That would explain why there is such a marked difference between east and west when it comes to the distribution of tennis courts.

Lower wages

Thirty years after reunification, Germany's economy remains unbalanced along familiar lines. This map shows the averages for gross monthly wages: below €3000 in red areas (below €2500 in dark red zones). Almost all of the light red areas are in the east, none of the dark red ones are in the west.

Tantalizingly, Germany's highest-earning area (Wolfsburg, €5089) is right on the former East German border, next to an area with half the average wages. Car aficionados will recognise the name of the city as the home of the Volkswagen HQ and the world's largest car plant.

Too many Ronnies

Older British tv viewers will remember a comic duo called The Two Ronnies. If they had been German comedians, their names would have immediately pegged them as Ossis (eastern Germans).

'Ronny' is as popular in the east as it isn't in the west. In the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt (the dark-blue area on the map), between 66 and 78 out of 10,000 Facebook users carry that first name. In the rest of the former GDR (the middle-blue area), it's 54 to 66. In almost all of western Germany, the rate is below 18.

More public childcare

The legacy of the communist past isn't all bad, it seems. Some collectivist traditions and provisions survive. Like more public childcare. This map shows the share of under-threes going to publicly-funded daycare centers: over 50% in most of the former GDR.

​Mosques vs. hazelnut spread

Like one of those sets of twins separated at birth, East and West Germany are a fascinating study in similarities and differences – some large, some small. The economic powerhouse that West Germany became needed foreign workers. Many came from Turkey, as evidenced by this map of mosques in Germany: only a handful are in the east.

In its decades alone, East Germany developed a range of household products, often barely disguised copies of western consumer goods. Many are on display in Berlin's DDR Museum. Nudossi, often dismissively called 'Ost-Nutella', is one of the rare brands that survived reunification. Perhaps that's because the spread contains 36% hazelnuts, almost three times the amount of actual Nutella (13%). Still, Wessis (western Germans) are clearly less keen on the stuff.

​Far left, far right

Voting patterns in the east tend to be more eccentric in the east. The map on the left shows the results for the 2013 federal elections of Die Linke (the Left Party), which positions itself firmly to the left of the SPD, the mainstream social-democratic party. Die Linke garnered between 20% and a quarter of the votes right across the former GDR, and was nowhere near as successful anywhere else in Germany.

More recently, the right-wing populists of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have found a lot of support in the east. The undated map shows voting intentions for recent upcoming state elections. AfD is particularly strong in the south of the former GDR (26% in Saxony, 22% in Thuringia). Its highest score in the west is 11.6% in Baden-Württemberg.

Catholic, Protestant and None

Confessionally, Germany also remains a divided nation. This map shows which religion dominates where. Catholics predominate in the south and west (dark red: majority, light red: plurality). Protestants are a majority in the north and middle (dark blue), a plurality in the southwest (light blue).

East Germany is easily discernible: it's the part where the main religious affiliation is 'none'. That also includes the whole of Berlin (including the western half), plus the western cities of Hamburg and Frankfurt.

​Poor overall, but not poorest overall

The former GDR has a consistently high poverty rate: an average of 17.5% throughout all six Länder (states). But there's a silver lining, of sorts: the poverty rate is even higher in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (18.1%), which contains the Ruhrgebiet, a.k.a. Germany's Rust Belt.

​Slavic haplogroup

The former border between East and West Germany mirrors a much older one: the western extent of the Slavic zone around the year 1000. This map shows the spread of the R1a haplogroup among locals.

This genetic marker is associated with Slavic populations. It is prevalent throughout the former GDR, particularly the south – and in eastern Austria, by the way. R1a 'islands' further west may be the result of more recent immigration waves, by Polish guest workers for example.

Streetcars and streetlights

And finally, two images that zoom in on Berlin. Now the reunified capital of a reunified country, before 1990 it was as divided as Germany itself. And that is still visible, if you know where to look.

At the map of Berlin's streetcars (top), for example. West Berlin never took the step to restore the pre-war streetcar network on its territory. East Berlin did. And that's still the case – with one exception: a single line was extended from the east to the west, a rare example of the west adopting anything 'eastern'.

When night falls, the division between east and west can still be seen from the sky. In the east, street lights use sodium vapor lamps, providing a warm orange glow. In the west, the lamps are fluorescent, resulting in a brighter yellow light.

All maps taken from the Facebook group East Germany is clearly visible on this relatable map. Where possible, credit was given to the original content provider.

Strange Maps #1063

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

Oldest drinking establishment

​What's the difference between a European and an American? Well, there are many, but here's a good one: for a European, 100 miles is far; for an American, 100 years is old.

It's a cliché with some truth to it. In Europe's political and cultural mosaic, 100 miles may put you in a different country, among people with whom you don't even share a language. Consequently, most Europeans are not keen to move too far away from home.

America, on the other hand, was built by and for people with the moving itch. In 2018, 1 in 10 Americans moved home. Of those, 15% moved to another state.

However, what Europe's human geography lacks in long distances, it makes up for in longevity. In Ireland, for example, you can drink at Sean's Bar, which has stood near the banks of the Shannon since the year 900 (for more 'oldest companies', see #1042).

By comparison, the oldest drinking establishment in the United States, the White Horse Tavern in Newport, has only just opened its doors: it's from the late 18th century, and it's not even three and a half centuries old.

As demonstrated by this map of the oldest buildings for each U.S. state (plus Puerto Rico), most of the nation's ancient real estate is even younger: 15 buildings are from the 19th century, 18 are from the 18th century. A further dozen places on the map were built by conquerors and colonizers after the European arrival in the Americas, clocking in at half a millennium or less.

The really old stuff is of Native origin – the oldest even predates the Irish drinking establishment by a century and a half. What's remarkable, however, is that there is so little of it. Only six states have Native American (or Hawaiian) structures as their oldest buildings.

A few non-sinister reasons can be adduced. Many Native tribes led itinerant lives, without the need for permanent dwellings; and those that did settle down often built houses out of wattle, wood and other matters that easily decay.

However, the preponderance of 'European' buildings also masks a grimmer truth. Many Native structures were abandoned and fell into disrepair or oblivion when the Europeans arrived, or were destroyed outright.

Mounds not included

An argument may be had about the criteria for inclusion. It defines a 'building' as a free-standing, human-made structure used at least at some point for residential purposes, and still standing today.

That excludes a lot of older mounds of Native origin, such as the Etowah Indian Mounds (near Atlanta) and Monks' Mound (near St Louis). However, it is unclear why the list should include a number of churches, which never had an appreciable residential function.

Finally, this list, culled from the National Register of Historic Places and – gulp – Wikipedia is not without its problems. Some of the datings are disputed, and in several cases, states have competing candidates for 'oldest building'.

All that being said, the map does present a clear lesson. Leave the states with Native buildings out of the equation, and a familiar pattern becomes visible. The oldest structures are on the Eastern Seaboard, next up are what is now the Midwest and the Pacific coast. Then comes the 'Wild' west, the last frontier. This is the story of westward expansion and fulfilment of Manifest Destiny.

But the map also reveals traces of an older, less familiar narrative. The Ancestral Puebloans were already carving out their desert mansions around 750 CE, before there even was an England. We know little of the culture that built the Ocmulgee Earthlodge in Georgia around the year 1000. The Malae Heiau barely escaped bulldozing, despite being at least 800 years old. These Native structures, what few remain, contradict the well-worn story – or complete it, if you will.

Here's an overview of all the places on the map, from youngest to oldest.

The 'youngest' oldest building

1864 - South Dakota: Fort Sisseton, Lake City

The 'youngest' oldest building of any state. Named after a local Indian tribe, this fort is located atop the Coteau des Prairies, an excellent defensive position.

1855 - Nevada: Old Mormon Fort, Las Vegas

The first permanent structure in what is now Las Vegas was an adobe fort built by Mormons, sent out from Utah to set up a new stronghold for the Latter-Day Saints. That didn't quite go as planned…

1853 - Idaho: Cataldo Mission, Cataldo

The Mission of the Sacred Heart in Cataldo was built by Catholic missionaries to the tribe of the Cœur d'Alene tribe. A picture of this mission hangs in the Brumidi Corridors of the US Capitol.

1849 - Wyoming: Fort Laramie, Goshen

Founded as a private fur trading station, later repurposed as a military fort.

1844 - Montana: Old Fort Benton Blockhouse, Fort Benton

Once the terminus of the Mullan Road, which linked the Missouri and Columbia rivers, and the last fur trading post on the Upper Missouri River.

1843 - North Dakota: Kittson Trading Post, Walhalla

This is the only surviving of three trading posts built by, Norman W. Kittson, trader for the American Fur Company. It was later used as stables for a local hotel.

1843 - Washington: Fort Nisqually granary, Tacoma

Founded in 1833 and currently located in Point Defiance Park, Fort Nisqually is the oldest European settlement on Puget Sound. The granary is its oldest surviving building.

1840 - Oklahoma: Fort Gibson Barracks, Fort Gibson

In competition for the title of oldest building in the state with the Cherokee National Supreme Court Building in Tahlequah.

1835 - Nebraska: log cabin, Bellevue

According to legend, this log cabin was built as an outpost of John Jacob Astor's legendary American Fur Company. Due to a cholera outbreak, it was moved away from the Missouri River, and in 1850 it was relocated to its present position, near the Old Presbyterian Church.

1833 - Iowa: Louis Arriandeaux Log House, Dubuque

The log cabin originally stood at 2nd and Locust Streets in Dubuque but has since been moved twice. The oldest building in Iowa, once home to pioneer settler William Newman, can now be found on the grounds of the Mathias Ham House.

Grouseland, fit for a president

1824 - Arkansas: Woodruff Print Shop, Little Rock

In the late 1810s, New Yorker Andrew Woodruff moved to Arkansas, where he would publish the Arkansas Gazette. From1824, he lived and worked in the print shop that is now part of the Historic Arkansas Museum.

1820 - Minnesota: Fort Snelling Round Tower, St Paul

When Fort Snelling was completed in 1825, this tower – built at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers – was already five years old. The Fort's aim was to keep British influence out of what was then the Northwestern United States and it was in service until 1858.

1810 - Alaska: Baranov Museum, Kodiak

Originally built as a warehouse for the Russian-American Trading Company in Kodiak, the oldest Russian settlement in Alaska. The building housed workers in the 19th century, was the site of a murder in 1886 and is supposedly haunted.

1808 - Alabama: Joel Eddins House, Huntsville

Originally built in Ardmore, this log cabin was moved to its current location in 2007.

1804 - Indiana: Grouseland, Vincennes

William Henry Harrison was not only the 9th president of the United States, but also the builder of what has turned out to be the oldest building in Indiana. He built Grouseland, a brick mansion, in 1804, when he was governor of the Indiana Territory. He lived there until 1812, when he took command of American forces in the Northwest Territory in the war with the British.

1799 - Oregon: Molalla Log House, Molalla

Built by fur traders of French-Canadian and/or Native American origin.

1792 - Missouri: Louis Bolduc House, Sainte Genevieve

Ste Genevieve is Missouri's oldest European settlement, founded by the French and named after the patron saint of Paris. The oldest house in town was built by Louis Bolduc, trader, miner, planter, and a descendant of Louis XIV's apothecary.

1790 - Kentucky: Historic Locust Grove, Louisville

In the running for oldest building in Kentucky, in close competition with the Old Providence Church in Winchester, John Andrew Miller House near Georgetown, and others. Lewis and Clark were officially welcomed back here in November 1809, after their western expedition.

1788 - Ohio: General Rufus Putnam House, Rutland

Named after Rufus Putnam, a Revolutionary War general who helped found Marietta, Ohio. Now a B&B.

The convent saved by prayer

1785 - West Virginia: Rehoboth Church, Monroe County

A log cabin outside the town of Union, built as a Methodist church, now a National Methodist Shrine.

1780 - Michigan: Officers' Stone Quarters, Mackinac Island

The Officers' Stone Quarters are the oldest part of Fort Mackinac, an originally British fort on Mackinac Island that was turned over to the Americans in 1796.

1778 - Tennessee: Christopher Taylor House, Jonesborough

Built by Christopher Taylor, a veteran of the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Andrew Jackson lived in it in 1788-9 while practising law in Jonesborough. Possibly the oldest house in the state; another candidate is the Carter Mansion in Elizabethton.

1776 - Wisconsin: Tank Cottage, Green Bay

Built by French-Canadian fur trader Joseph Roi on the Fox River, purchased in 1850 by Nils Otto Tank, a Norwegian missionary.

1776 - California: Mission San Juan Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano

The mission survived dereliction, earthquakes, revolution and expropriation. In 1910, it was the backdrop for 'The Two Brothers' by D.W. Griffith, the first movie shot in Orange County. The mission of San Juan Capistrano is famous for the swallows that return here each spring. Mission San Diego de Alcalá (est. 1769) was the first in California and is thus older; but none of the original buildings survive.

1769 - Vermont: William Henry House, Bennington

Built for Elnathan Hubbell and reworked in 1797-8 for William Henry, a locally prominent politician whose son went on to become a U.S. Congressman. Now operating as a B&B.

1765 - Washington DC: Old Stone House

When it was built, the Old Stone House stood in the British colony of Maryland. The building was preserved out of reverence for the city's founders – by accident. It was thought this was where George Washington met with Pierre L'Enfant, who designed the DC street grid. But it turns out this was not Suter's Tavern. At the time, this was a clock shop, owned by the tavern holder's son, John Suter Jr.

1757 - Mississippi: LaPointe-Krebs House, Pascagoula

Also known as the Old Spanish Fort, this house is the oldest structure in the entire Mississippi Valley.

1748 - Louisiana: Old Ursuline Convent, New Orleans

The convent was spared destruction by a city-wide fire, which stopped just a street short of the building, perhaps thanks to the nuns' prayers to Our Lady of Prompt Succor. Prayers are still addressed to her when hurricanes and other disasters threaten the city.

1740 - Illinois: Old Cahokia Courthouse, Cahokia

Built in the 1730s by the French as a house, used as a courthouse since 1793 and most famous as the headquarters for Lewis and Clark in 1803-04, when planning their expedition.

America’s oldest masonry fortress

1724 - Texas: Alamo Mission Long Barracks, San Antonio

The oldest extant part of the Alamo, which was founded as a Spanish mission but is best remembered for the Battle of the Alamo (1836), which played an important role in Texan independence from Mexico.

1718 - North Carolina: Lane House, Edenton

Steve and Linda Lane didn't know how old their house was until they had it renovated. Behind the cheap wall paneling, the workers found 18th-century timber structures.

1694 - South Carolina: Middleburg Plantation, Berkeley County

This two-story frame house was built by Benjamin Simons, a French Huguenot planter, and is still owned by his descendants.

1675 - Maryland: Old Trinity Church, Church Creek

An Anglican church since 1692, the building has been Protestant Episcopal since the Revolution. The cemetery holds the remains of several revolutionary war heroes.

1673 - Rhode Island: White Horse Tavern, Newport

Not just the oldest building in the state, also the oldest bar in the entire country. In the spirit of its age, the tavern is still lit by oil lamps and candles.

1672 - Florida: Castillo de San Marcos, St Augustine

The Spanish-built Caste of St Mark is the only surviving 17th-century military structure in the United States. It is also the country's oldest masonry fortress. It is located in St Augustine, the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the continental United States.

1665 - Delaware: Ryves Holt House, Lewes

Built by Dutch settlers but named after the first Chief Justice of Delaware, who bought it in 1723.

1660 - Maine: William Whipple House, Kittery

Birthplace of General William Whipple, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

1650 - Kansas: El Quartelejo ruins, Lake Scott S.P.

The northernmost Native American pueblo and the only one in Kansas, established by a group that left New Mexico. In 1706, the Spanish conquered the area and forced the inhabitants back. The structure was rediscovered in 1898 and is now part of a State Park.

1650 - Pennsylvania: Lower Swedish Cabin, Drexel Hill

Now on the outskirts of Philadelphia, this cabin was built by Swedish immigrants as a trading post. It has since served various purposes, including film set and girl scout meeting house.

Ancestral dwellings

1647 - Virginia: Jamestown church, Jamestown

Only the tower dates from the 16th century, the rest of this building in Historic Jamestowne park is actually the sixth version of the original. In one of those, Pocahontas and John Rolfe got married.

1641 - Massachusetts: Fairbanks House, Dedham

Fairbanks House is the oldest still standing wooden structure in North America. It was built for Jonathan Fairbanks, a tradesman, and his family. His descendants continued to live in the house well into the 20th century.

1640 - Connecticut: Henry Whitfield House, Guilford

Built for the Reverend Henry Whitfield, a Puritan leader and the founder of Guilford. This is the oldest stone house in all New England.

1639 - New York: Gardiners Island shed, Gardiners Island

A wooden shed purportedly built when Lion Gardiner bought the island from Montaukett chief Wyandanch. Located off the tip of Long Island, Gardiners Island is still owned by Gardiner's descendants. It is one of the largest private islands in the U.S. In June 1699, Captain Kidd buried treasure here (it has since been retrieved – you're too late).

1600 - New Hampshire: Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth

Not a single building but an entire historic district, featuring around 40 restored buildings. Saved from redevelopment in the 1950s, the area opened as a museum in 1965.

1521 - Puerto Rico: Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, San Juan

Extensively added to and renovated since its inauguration almost five centuries ago, this is the oldest church in the United States and its territories.

1200 - Hawaii: Malae Heiau, Wailua River S.P.

The largest heiau (Hawaiian temple) on Kauai, one of the largest surviving temple platforms in all of Hawaii, as well as the oldest building still in existence in the state.

1015 - Georgia: Ocmulgee Earth Lodge, Macon

A reconstructed ceremonial lodge originally built a millennium ago by the South Appalachian Mississippian culture on a site with evidence of 17,000 years of continuous human habitation. It is now part of the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park.

Ca. 750 - Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico Utah: ancestral Puebloan dwellings

Hundreds of stone and adobe dwellings, often constructed in canyon walls, scattered throughout the Four Corners states, most abandoned around 1300 due to climate change.

Map by Malcolm Tunnell, reproduced with kind permission. See the original context here.

Strange Maps #1062

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

Remarkable variation

Europeans are falling out of love with marriage. Back in 1965, the crude marriage rate in the 27 countries now constituting the EU was 7.8 (per 1,000 persons). By 2017, that figure had almost halved, to 4.4. Over the same period, the crude divorce rate more than doubled, from 0.8 to 2.

Still, that means that in 2017, 3.8 million Europeans got married. Tied the knot. Put a ring on it. Which brings us to the question answered by this map: on which finger? The ring finger, of course. But on which hand? In the U.S., the consensus is: on the left. However, as this map shows, there is a remarkable variation in ring-wearing traditions across Europe.

According to this map, Europe is fairly evenly divided between countries where the wedding ring is worn on the left (in green), and those where the matrimonial band is worn on the right (in red).

Major left-wearing countries are the UK, France and Italy.

• Left-hand wedding rings are also de rigueur across the Nordics (Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia),
• in Central Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova),
• in the north-western Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia)
• and in a few other countries (Ireland, Portugal, Turkey, Switzerland, Kazakhstan).

Russia, Germany, Poland and Ukraine are the largest right-wearing countries.

• There's also a smattering of similarly minded countries in the west (Belgium, Denmark, Norway,
• a corridor or right-wearers stretching from Germany to Cyprus (via Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Greece),
• and a few former Soviet states continuing their alignment with Mother Russia (Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Georgia).

Finally, Spain and the Netherlands have no uniform tradition, with left-wearers and right-wearers according to region or religion.

The vein of love

Before we examine the difference, let's pause a while to contemplate a concordance so remarkable – that the ring goes on the finger next to the pinkie – that we've even named the digit after it.

Wearing a ring as a visible sign of the wearer's married status is a tradition that goes back to the ancient Egyptians. They believed a 'vein of love' connected the pinkie's neighbor straight to the heart. That belief was taken over by the Greeks and the Romans (who called that it the vena amoris). Hence the tradition for wearing the wedding ring on the 'ring finger'. (1)

That tradition was not uniform, though: some early Celtic peoples wore their wedding ring on the middle finger, while in 17th-century England it was not uncommon to wear it on the thumb.

Also non-traditional: men wearing wedding rings. In many cultures, only women wore wedding rings. In Germany, for example, the custom for both parties to wear one only became general in the second half of the 19th century. The custom became general in the UK and other English-speaking countries only during (and because of) the First and Second World Wars, when men away on military duty started wearing rings to remind them of their wife at home.

Yet, even as weddings themselves are on a slow decline, the wearing of wedding rings has become a standardised aspect of the married state. Except for that difference between the left and right hand.

That difference is more difficult to explain, apparently quite resistant to standardisation and, as evidenced by the reaction generated by this map, also more subtle than the various shadings it proposes.

Closer to the heart

Why wear the wedding ring left or right? The difference seems to be merely based on precedent – although some arguments can be found for either.

• Wearing the ring on the left means it's closer to the heart. Also, this has slight advantages in terms of safety and convenience, if the wearer belongs to the right-handed majority.
• Wearing the ring on the right is relevant because it's the side you shake hands with, so people will be able to tell whether the other party is married. Also, the right hand is the more important hand, because it's the one you swear with.

In some European traditions, including many Orthodox ones, the wedding ring is worn on the left hand before marriage, then transferred to the right hand during the ceremony. In Turkey, it's generally the other way around.

In others, a relatively plain engagement ring is worn on one hand before marriage, replaced by a more ornate wedding ring on the other hand after marriage. However, in the UK (and possibly elsewhere), some people 'stack' them, wearing the engagement ring over the wedding ring, both on the left ring finger.

As for the mixed countries: in Spain, the difference is regional, while in the Netherlands it's religious.

• In Spain, wedding rings are generally worn on the right, except in Catalonia and adjacent regions, such as Valencia and the Balearic Islands.
• In the Netherlands, Protestants wear their wedding ring on the right, while Catholics wear it on their left. However, engaged Protestants would have a ring on the left hand, moving it to the right when marrying. Prompting one commenter on Reddit to exasperate: "Then how do you tell an engaged Protestant from a married Catholic? Holy hell. The taste?"

A few other countries should have been shaded as well, other commenters pointed out, at least Austria, Belgium and Bosnia.

• While many Belgian married couples wear their ring on the left, in some regions (including Antwerp and Brabant provinces) it's worn on the right, while in others the custom varies from town to town.
• Contrary to the rest of Austria, in the state of Tyrol, engagement rings are worn on the right, wedding rings on the left.

Map found here at MapPorn on Reddit.

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

(1) Curiously, the ring finger is known as the 'unnamed' one in languages as diverse as Sanskrit (anamika), Chinese (wúmíng zhǐ), Finnish (nimetön sormi) and Russian (bezimyanniy palets), which may refer to ancient beliefs that it is a magical finger. However, the name 'ring finger' goes back at least until the Romans (digitus annularis). In German, because of its association with golden wedding bands, it is also called Goldfinger.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

Bee diversity

How many bee species are there? Wait a minute: honeybee, bumble bee, erhm… five? Five hundred? Five thousand? Not even close: the total is well over 20,000 – which means there are more species of bees than of birds and mammals combined.

There's no shame (nor surprise) for bee civilians like you or me in not knowing that. What is surprising, is that even those scientists who specialise in bees didn't quite know how those species are distributed all over the world. Until now.

By combining and filtering more than 5.8 million public records of bee occurrences, a team of researchers from China, the U.S. and Singapore have built up the very first comprehensive picture of bee diversity worldwide. And that picture presents a few surprises, both for laypersons and specialists.

Bee ignoramuses will be surprised to learn that the United States is the throbbing heart of bee diversity. The U.S. has far more bee species than any other region on earth. And by the fact that large tracts of Africa and the Middle East remain terra incognita, in terms of apiary diversity.

Counter-intuitive distribution

In general, there are more bee species in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern and – confirming previous hypotheses – more in arid and temperate climates than in the tropics.

That goes against the common pattern in biology known as the 'latitudinal gradient', which predicts that species diversity (of most plants and animals) increases towards the tropics and decreases towards the poles. Bees are an exception, with a higher species concentration away from the poles (in what scientists call a 'bimodal latitudinal gradient').

To give that difference some visual immediacy, imagine a graph with one hump in the middle (i.e. the latitudinal gradient) versus one with two humps, one on either side of the middle (i.e. the bimodal latitudinal gradient). In other words: dromedary (one-hump) versus camel (two-hump).

It seems counter-intuitive that bees would thrive better in arid deserts than in lush tropical jungles; but that's because trees – the dominant vegetation type in the tropics – provide less bee food than the plants and flowers that grow elsewhere.

Much-needed baseline

Also, bees don't like it too wet, unlike their cousins the ants, whose populations peak in the humid tropics. The researchers think humidity may play a role in limiting bee distribution by spoiling pollen resources.

The relative absence of bees from the tropics has consequences for pollination, which in those regions is performed by a wide variety of alternative species: wasps, moths and even cockroaches.

Previous datasets of global bee distribution were either inaccurate, incomplete or difficult to interpret. This world map clearly establishes that bees prefer dry and temperate zones to wet and tropical ones. For bee scientists, it provides a much-needed baseline to predict the geographic distribution of bees and interpret the relative richness of species.

While much work needs to be done to fill additional knowledge gaps, this baseline is an excellent starting point, not just for greater understanding, also for better conservation. Because bees are not just for making honey. In many countries, they're the top pollinator species. And they typically visit 90% of the leading crop types.

Yet over the past decades, bee populations have been crashing. In the U.S., honeybee populations have declined by 60% between 1948 and 2008. In Europe, 12 wild bee species are critically endangered.

That trend is potentially disastrous for agriculture. More than $550 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss. The loss of bees as pollinators would lead to a collapse in crop yields and even entire ecosystems.

Better understanding bees increases our options for protecting them. This study will help pinpoint bee diversity hotspots in otherwise poorly examined parts of the world and help predict how bees will react to climate change – for example when certain regions will get wetter weather.

Protecting bee diversity is especially important and urgent in developing countries, where many of the knowledge gaps are located, and where many crops rely on native bee species for pollination.

Michael C. Orr et al.: 'Global Patterns and Drivers of Bee Distribution' is published in Current Biology.

Strange Maps #1060

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

This story originally appeared on: Big Think - Author:Frank Jacobs

A familiar canvas

The map of America is a familiar canvas for a multitude of stories – soil types and weather fronts, road trips and election results. But sometimes geographical acquaintance intersects with narrative quaintness, especially when the topic is very specific. As in this beautifully detailed map of Medical Events in North America, as bizarre as it is instructive.

In the manner of a medieval miniature, it illuminates the topography of America with simplified, symbolic representations of the persons, institutions and events that have shaped medical history. That makes for some interesting discoveries.

For example, whatever our feelings about Columbus, we are familiar with him via his signature achievement. However, few will have heard of Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca of Seville, physician to the king and queen of Spain, and here seen accompanying the intrepid and/or invidious Genovese on his second voyage to America (on the ship painted in the bottom left corner).

Medical progress

While on Hispaniola in 1493, Chanca cured Columbus from an attack of malaria – quite probably the first application of western medicine in the western hemisphere.

For a good while, Spain remains the motor of medical progress in North America, with the publication in Mexico of Opera Medicinalia, the first medical book printed in the Americas (1570), and just 10 years later, the establishment of the first university chair of medicine in the New World, also in Mexico.

Circa 1760, Junipero Serra prevented and controlled an outbreak of scurvy in California with the use of citrus juice – doing so 34 years before the British Navy struck upon the same idea. The Spanish padre is shown holding up oversized slices of oranges, dripping with healing sap.

Soon thereafter, the initiative – medical and otherwise – is seized by the Anglos on the East Coast.

Remembering the pioneers

Many of the achievements detailed on this map were truly revolutionary, helping to elevate the state of medical science to the heights it has reached today. But, as the legend of the map says, "(t)he names of the prime-movers of science disappear gradually in a general fusion, and the more a science advances, the more impersonal and detached it becomes."

So it's nice to see remembered here, among other pioneers:

• Dr. Howard Taylor Ricketts (1871-1910), from near Missoula, who demonstrated the tick-transmission of Rocky Mountain spotted fever and died of Mexican typhus during the investigation and demonstration of the disease.
• Dr. J.C. Otto (1774-1844), from Philadelphia, who established haemophilia as a clinical entity.
• Sir Frederick Banting, working at Toronto University Medical School, who assisted by Charles Best managed to isolate insulin and succeeded in manufacturing it in 1922. Together with J.R.R. MacLeod, he received the Nobel Prize in 1923.

Quarantine Enforcement Act

Several institutions are singled out as beacons of medical progress, notably

• hospitals like Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Mayo Clinic;
• educational centers of excellence such as Harvard Medical School, the Transylvania University Medical School and Jefferson Medical College; and
• associations such as the State Boards of Health (first one established in 1869 in Massachusetts) and the American Medical Association (founded in Chicago).

Among the achievements mentioned on the map with resonance for our own pandemic times are the Quarantine Enforcement Act, passed by Congress as early as 1799, and the stamping out, in 1905 in New Orleans of an "epidemic of yellow fever (…) by U.S. Public Health Service."Produced in 1950 and reflecting on earlier times, the map is dominated by white males.

• Dr. Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928), who was associated with the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and who in 1911 discovered the agent of syphilis as the cause of progressive paralytic disease;
• Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910), the first woman in America to receive the degree of doctor in medicine, who together with Marie Zakrzewska established the first training school for nurses in America; and
• a procession of slaves owned by Washington and Jefferson, standing in line to get inoculated for smallpox.

Curious cases

Few of the events and achievement mentioned on this map have made it into general public knowledge, with two possible exceptions.

One is "the American Crowbar Case", an 'extraordinary medical incident' mentioned in a note stuck to the East Coast: "In 1848, an explosion propelled a 3 ½ ft. crowbar through the head of Phineas T. Gage and up into the air. The patient recovered completely except for loss of sight in one eye…"

The other, the curious case contained within Dr. William Beaumont's book, Experiments & Observations of Gastric Juices. On June 6th, 1822, a man named Alexis St. Martin was accidentally wounded by gunshot at Fort Mackinac. The wound healed, leaving a gastric fistula, through which Dr. Beaumont was able to make observations. But Mr. St. Martin "is a difficult subject (and) runs away repeatedly."

Commissioned as sergeant

Really? Who doesn't want a doctor poking into their stomach through a hole in their belly? But eventually the situation is resolved to the satisfaction of both parties: "Beaumont gets (Mr. St. Martin) commissioned as sergeant to keep him during experiments."

One of the more familiar names on the map is that of Dr. Walter Reed, but mainly because he is now synonymous for the Army Medical Center named after him. The map reveals why he became famous enough for that honor:

In Cuba, Dr. Walter Reed (1851-1902) proved, together with Dr. Jesse W. Lazear, Dr. James Carroll and Dr. Aristide Agramonte, that mosquitoes were the carrier of yellow fever. Dr. Lazear & Dr. Carroll allowed themselves to be bitten by infected mosquitoes. Lazear died of the fever, Carroll's health was permanently impaired.

Walter Reed in Cuba

Although they are scant remembered today, their selfless sacrifice has doubtlessly saved the lives of many in the 120 years since.

Map produced in 1950 by Abbott Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company. A copy was recently sold by Boston Rare Maps. Image kindly provided by Mike Buehler at Boston Rare Maps.

Strange Maps #1059

Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.

Author:Frank Jacobs - Source: Big Think