Interesting Maps

minggatu

Eligible electors by region for the next Pope

https://x.com/onlmaps/status/1914594333254132165

Capt'n Midnight

Empires.

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123378402#Comment_123378402

a month ago https://taaf.fr/actualite/incendie-sur-lile-amsterdam-point-de-situation/

The ship visits the island monthly, next update due soon - the Floréal, a surveillance frigate of the French Navy

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123378402#Comment_123378402

It seems unlikely that this is simply down to the culling of the cattle herd. If that were the case, we'd expect the island to have been affected by regular fires until the cattle were introduced in 1871, and fire would be part of the natural ecosystem of the island (as it is in other places). But seemingly this isn't so.

So we're looking at something more than just the culling of the cattle. It could be climate change — has the rainfall on the island reduced from what it was in pre-cattle days? That might explain a build-up of dry vegetation of a kind that didn't occur in pre-cattle days. Or, it could be the consequence of some other human intervention on the island. (It has been continuously inhabited since 1949, and the cattle are probably not the only change that human settlement has effected.) Or it could be a combination of several factors.

And we shouldn't rule out the possiblity of coincidence. By all accounts this is a peat fire; peat fires don't require a build-up of dry vegetation; just a spell of dry weather (and a fire source).

Victor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123382032#Comment_123382032

It's quite possible that the cattle displaced other fauna that was managing the flora.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123382139#Comment_123382139

There are no native mammals on the island, except for some seals which breed there, and seals don't graze on vegetation. All other mammal species now on the island are introduced; mice, rats, feral cats. There are plenty of birds, but they are all seabirds of one kind or another.

According to the wikipedia article, the island did use to have extensive areas of Island Cape myrtle, a low growing tree, but these were largely burnt off in the early 19th century by sealers. Cows don't eat myrtle but their hooves do chew up the ground and could well have prevented the recovering of the myrtle forests. It's possible that with the removal of the cows the myrtle began to spread again. But, if the renewed prevalence of myrtle does account for the fire, we still have to ask why there weren't regular fires before the myrtle was first burnt off and the cattle were introduced.

(Of course, we shouldn't discount the possibility that maybe there were regular fires, and that the fire we are seeing now is simply evidence of the indigenous ecosystem restoring itself.)

minggatu

https://x.com/BrockRiddickIFB/status/1914672881365344730

Mullinabreena

1918 elections

minggatu

Democracy in Europe 2024

author: geo.universe/instagram, added on: 2025-04-21

geo.universe:

According to The Economist’s latest classification, European regimes are categorized as: ✅ Full Democracy ⚠️ Flawed Democracy 🔀 Hybrid Regime ❌ Authoritarian

silliussoddius

So maybe many of the Putin apologists are just colour blind.

magicbastarder

Any link to the criteria?

E.g. why Britain scores higher than France, for example?

JupiterKid

Stunning image of the large hexagonal atmospheric vortex at the North polar region of Saturn, imaged by the NASA/ESA Cassini mission in 2015.

minggatu

The First 5 Countries To Recognise The United States

https://brilliantmaps.com/first-5-countries-usa/

JupiterKid

Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) atmospheric concentrations in Paris between 2007 and 2024

As you can clearly see, the drastic reduction in NO2 air pollution over this period coincided with measures to sharply curtail car traffic in Central Paris.

Seth Brundle

-_-

Capt'n Midnight

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123388909#Comment_123388909

Technically the Belfast Newsletter was the first newspaper outside of the US to publish the Declaration of Independence in it's August 23-27 edition (1776)

minggatu

Food Map Of Canada

https://brilliantmaps.com/food-map-of-canada/

minggatu

Population Density Map Of Scotland

https://x.com/BrilliantMaps/status/1916462626613199359

minggatu

The languages of Europe including language families they belong to. credit: @JakubMarian

cj maxx

The spread of the Black Death in early 14th century which killed about half of people in Europe

minggatu

Literal translation of country names

Literal translation of country names

author: atlasmapper/instagram, added on: 2025-04-18

suvigirl

1 and 2 above are the wrong way round. No.1 on the map is Kosovo and 2 is North Macedonia

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123148386#Comment_123148386

Latest: the fire affected 55% of the island including 90% of the Phylica arborea woodlands, the only native tree in the French Southern Territories National Nature Reserve. The extinguishing of the three hot spots persisting in the extended perimeter of the base have enabled a mission of 14 technical and military personnel to remain

https://taaf.fr/actualite/ile-amsterdam-installation-dune-mission-technique-sur-la-base-martin-de-vivies/

purplefields

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123386216#Comment_123386216

…or Ireland, where there has been the same FFG government since the foundation of the State.

I would expect a healthy democracy to have at least one change of government within 100 years.

JupiterKid

Deception Island near Antartica, imaged by the Sentinel II satellite in 2023

Located close to the Antartic peninsula in the South Atlantic, Deception Island is a large partially submerged volcanic caldera of an active volcano, similar to the Greek island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea.

Note its unusually straight Eastern shore.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123398175#Comment_123398175

The wiki for the democracy index has a section on methodology.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index

zell12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123398317#Comment_123398317

similar near Île Amsterdam is Île Saint-Paul https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8Ele_Saint-Paul

Black rats were eradicated following an aerial drop of 13.5 tonnes of brodifacoum anticoagulant poison baits 😮

and a wee castaway shelter

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123398175#Comment_123398175

Or a healthy democracy should have a healthy electorate.

Capt'n Midnight

..

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123398175#Comment_123398175

The mental hoops you have to go through to pretend that there has been no change of government in 100 years, and that two sides who fought one another in an actual civil war are in reality a single party, are quite impressive.

In grown-up European democracies, politically aligned but separate parties are commonplace. Two different parties are not considered to form a single party merely because they occupy a similar position on a left-right spectrum.

Ireland is unusual in that it's had an unbroken succession of centre-right or centre-right dominated governments — there has never been a government dominated by the centre-left. But that's a very different thing from saying that Ireland has never had a change of government.