Maps. All the maps.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Provinces_of_Japan-Kawachi.svg

This is an outline map of the old provinces of Japan, before the Meiji Restoration and associated land and local government reforms, with Kawachi Province, in what's now the eastern part of Osaka, highlighted.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Available here, is a circa 1604 Japanese colored copy of 'Kunyu Wanguo Quantu', (坤輿萬國全圖, 'A Map of the Myriad Countries of the World'; pronounced 'Kon'yo Bankoku Zenzu' in Japanese; in Italian 'Carta Geografica Completa di tutti i Regni del Mondo', 'Complete Geographical Map of All the Kingdoms of the World'), a world map printed by the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci and his Chinese colleagues, Zhong Wentao and Li Zhizao, in 1602 on the sponsorship of the Wanli Ming Emperor. It is the earliest known East Asian world map in a European cartographic style.

Post edited by Torie to shorten the link so that its text does not unduly expand the width of the page on which this set of posts appears. Thanks.

Sorry, Torie! I didn't realize that would happen while I was making the post.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Northern Japan's Aoimori Railway (blue) and Iwate Galaxy Railway (purple) system. Two joint public (i.e. prefectural)-private ventures connected to but separate from the entirely privatized main JR system. Also shows connections to the JR Tōhoku Shinkansen (green), JR Ōminato Line (brown; the only JR line not directly connected to any other), and 'other rail lines' (dotted black).

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I wouldn't have expected West Virginia to be a hotbed of Orphan Black fans, or Vermont to be that into 24.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Found this on Nate Cohn's Twitter feed....the ugliest US map ever made:

That map is pretty bad, but that gif might be even worse.

The best/worst part is that the gif is from Spy Kids 2.