This map is a visual representation of the assumed fan-bases of NBA teams in the United States. It was created eight months ago and I found it on reddit.com. It was made by an interested fan with amateur knowledge and is not based on data collected from NOAA or the Library of Congress. In fact, it is rather arbitrary. No numbers were involved in the collection. This map is interesting to me as an NBA fan for several reasons. It excludes the lone Canadian team, the Toronto Raptors, from the map. The Minnesota Timberwolves looks as if it has an extraordinarily large fan-base, despite never selling out their arena in Minneapolis and performing quite poorly in the standings. In fact, most teams in the central United States have geographic representations that do not quite match their numbers, the Denver Nuggets being another example. Lastly, the Los Angels Lakers and the Boston Celtics are teams that have fan-bases that not only span across the entire United States but the entire surface of the Earth. Their small representations on this map underestimates the number of fans for these storied franchises.
This is a map of locations in the United States closed to travel for diplomats of Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania in 1967. I find it interesting that the city of Los Angeles is completely surrounded by red, meaning that any of the surrounding communities are off-limits. I feel bad that these diplomats visiting Los Angeles were unable to visit nearby Santa Ana, Ventura, or even day trip to San Diego. Some of the off-limit locations are reasonable, as they are near military or nuclear facilities (like Camp Pendleton and San Onofre by San Diego). Las Vegas, the perfect American representation of capitalism, was off limits to diplomats as well. Perhaps Sin City was not the image Americans wanted the diplomats to see. I also am surprised that diplomats were not allowed in South Florida. As a frequent visitor to Miami, I know what these diplomats were missing out on and I am sure they had none of it in Communist-era Eastern Europe.
This is a map of ethnic compositions in Central and South American countries, and Mexico. This map is interesting to me because I am of Nicaraguan descent. It is surprising to see how different the ethnic compositions of these countries are, especially if they are neighboring countries. For example, Nicaragua is a country made up of a majority Mestizo population. Neighboring Costa Rica is majority European, and the only Central American country to be majority European. Brazil has almost an even 50/50 split of the population between Europeans and Africans/Mulattos, and has the largest African population of any country in South America. These ethnic compositions make a lot more sense once colonial and post-Independence history is taken into account. Brazil was the last country in the world to abolish slavery. Argentina has a large European population that migrated in the late 19th Century and following the World Wars.
