It would be much tidier if all our names for Eastern European countries ended with "...ia"

If and when Kosovia ever comes into existence, that will slot in nicely.
Click to enlarge: Outline map from here.

Covid-19 deaths per million population (Europe)

Stat's from Worldometers, chart created using mapchart.net:

Make of it what you will. There seems to be a gradient between north-east (we can put Sweden to one side, they only did the mildest of lock downs) and south-west (reasons?).

What baffles me is the range - 7 deaths per million in Slovakia up to 857 deaths per million in Belgium? I accept that some countries fared better than others, but a ratio of hundred-to-one? Are these numbers even credible?

Click to enlarge:

Deutsche Bundesländer - vereinfachte Landkarte

Habe ich seit Jahren machen wollen:

Cars "Threaten horse-riding skills"

From the BBC

Horse-riding skills are under threat because of a growing reliance on cars, experts say.

The Royal Institute of Horse Riding (RIHR) said increasing dependence on technology means people are losing the ability to get around on a horse. The RIHR wants schools to encourage the teaching of basic horse-riding because few pupils can ride one. Its president, Roger McKinlay, said society is "sedated by steering wheels".

Mr McKinlay added: "It is concerning that young people are no longer routinely learning at home or school how to do anything more than press an accelerator pedal to get anywhere.

"Many cannot put on a saddle, canter, gallop or get to their destination with just a horse, let alone wonder at the amazing role straw plays in looking after horses.

"Instead, generations are now growing up utterly dependent on the internal combustion engine and petrolget around. The RIHR believes that horse-rising can develop character, independence and an appreciation of biology and shovelling shit.

"The wood that local people call Fagley Wood"

I was looking at the Google map of where I grew up, and was somewhat perturbed to see that what we all referred to as Fagley Wood or Fagley Woods is three separate woods, called called Bill Wood, Round Wood and Ravenscliffe Wood.

So Fagley Wood as such does not exist but everybody calls it that. I think that most people add the "s" to "Wood" because clearly the whole wood can be divided into three smaller areas, which are nonetheless contiguous. Notwithstanding that Fagley Wood is a daft name for it, because Fagley proper is way off the southern end, why on earth did they bother thinking up new official names?

Which reminds me that my Dad once wrote to the Ordnance Survey people to point out that their map had swapped over the names of two hills up north somewhere (I can't remember where they are or what they are called). So what local people called Hill A was labelled Hill B on the OS map and vice versa. The OS wrote back and told my Dad that it was the local people who had got the names the wrong way round, and they had no intention of changing their map.

All most puzzling.

Are Our Maps Upside Down?

I was watching a generic History of Britain - Viking Era documentary recently and one of the throw away lines was that the Norman Invasion changed Britain's orientation from North towards Scandinavia to South towards France.

For various strategic reasons the orientation has stayed that way for a very long time. But Britain, and more so in the best parts (i.e. the stabby northern parts from whence I hail), is not really like France and Spain towards which it is pointed on most maps. Britain is a lot more like the Netherlands (the last successful invader I guess) Germany (the last successful dynastic transplant) and Scandinavia.  

And if you turn the map upside down, the fit seems much more natural, with France and pensioner depository Spain much further away than as are consciously considered. 

I am not suggesting that a guerrilla army be formed to storm every school and turn around maps (hmmm, or am I?). But it is an interesting thought as to how something mundane and arbitrary can shape our perception of the world.

"There are more people living in this circle than outside it"

The Daily Mail published a load of fascinating maps this week.

My favourite was this one:

Included in the article is another map showing the average age at which people say (whether they are telling the truth or not) they first have sex; the average age is far higher in exactly that very populous region. Cause, effect, who knows?

Musing #2, the Philippines typhoon was a tragedy and 10,000 people died. Using the figures from here, about 6,000 babies are born every day in the Philippines.

Musing #3, a far worse natural town planning disaster was the Boxing Day tsunami which killed/drowned about 200,000 people in Indonesia. According to the UN, about 12,000 babies are born every day in Indonesia, which means that the population would have replenished itself within two or three weeks.

"Alan Partridge finally puts Norwich on the map"

From ITV News:

The nation's cartographers were celebrating this evening after fictional DJ Alan Partridge finally put Norwich on the map.

Hitherto, larger scale maps indicated the approximate location of the semi-mythical settlement but it was absent from local maps. Ordnance Survey maps will now be hastily updated to show the town's precise location.

Norfolk Broads

TomTom and Garmin are expected to follow shortly.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency confirmed that they held a stockpile of road signs showing distances to Norwich of ten miles or less in a warehouse at an undisclosed location.

"After the Worboys Committee, we ordered all the signs necessary, but we only actually used the ones saying that Norwich was at least ten or fifteen miles away," he added.

Las Vegas showgirls

"We simply didn't know where to stick the ones saying 'Norwich 1 mile' or 'You are now entering Norwich'. So we cheated a bit and set them up so as to send drivers on a meaningless circuitous route between Lowestoft, Thetford and Cromer, in the vague hope that motorists would get bored after a few hours and go home again.

"So far, it seems to have worked."

Branches of McDonalds and Burger King in East Anglia are competing to offer their own take on the traditional 'spine in a bap' recipe as soon as their master chefs have made their way to Norwich and uncovered the secret recipe.

Shangri-Las

The insurance giant Aviva changed its name from "Norwich Union" four years ago after branding consultants convinced the board of directors that calling a company after a town which possibly did not even exist would make it look lightweight.

Sector analysts confirmed that a return to the old company name was thought likely. "But if they dropped 'Norwich' so that people took them seriously, why did they go for 'Aviva'? It sounds like some sort of women's product."

'Atomic' by Blondie

The Ministry of Defence refused to comment on rumours that a top-secret nuclear bunker had been built there in the 1950s on the basis that the Russians were hardly likely to bomb a place which they could not locate and were not even sure existed.

Their spokesman would only confirm that the 12" version was really good, because the B-side is a live version of 'Heroes' with Robert Fripp on guitar.

Highway to Hell

Printing salesman Martin Kirkby, 50, of Huddersfield reminisced:

"When I was younger and felt suicidal, I talked myself out of it by asking whether I wouldn't rather move to Norwich. Firstly because I'd be able to change my mind and move back home again.

"And secondly, because wherever I was and however bad things seemed, remaining alive seemed preferable.

"As to where Norwich is? I have Norfolking idea."

I'm surprised they didn't blame "catastrophic sea level rises"

From the BBC:

A South Pacific island, shown on marine charts and world maps as well as on Google Earth and Google Maps, does not exist, Australian scientists say.

The supposedly sizeable strip of land, named Sandy Island on Google maps, was positioned midway between Australia and French-governed New Caledonia.

But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea. The phantom island has featured in publications for at least a decade.

You can still see it on Google Maps, go to New Caledonia and head north-west, but no doubt in a few days' time it will disappear for ever.
All a bit sad really. No doubt the nearby Katrina Shoals will be deleted shortly as well. It's like when they decided that Pluto was no longer a planet.

More people live in densely populated areas: shock.

The Daily Mail have published a paedophile map of Britain (there's no such place of course, the map is of England and Wales), showing how many cases were reported to each of 43 police forces in 2011.

Rather unsurprisingly, the number of reports is fairly proportional to the number of people who live in each of those 43 areas.