Maps are cool

Megan McArdle is a map junkie:

When you see the map, it becomes radically apparent just how firmly Britain was the root of the Industrial revolution. With the lone exception of Japan, the darkest places on the map are either next to Britain, or former British colonies. And aside from Saudi Arabia and Chile, all the growth seems to spread outward from those Anglosphere points of infection. Nowhere, not even Saudi Arabia, has the income density of Western Europe and North America.

And it's hard not to agree with this sentiment:

It's a pity that geography is so rarely taught in schools above the third grade level — there's an enormous amount to learn about societies just from looking at maps.