America: Toy-Consuming Supercontinent

Over at The Daily Mail, there is an amazing set of maps showing countries bloated and shriveled based upon criteria besides political borders or land mass... like military spending, house prices, HIV (Africa becomes a supercontinent), alcoholism (which should make Ireland a supercontinent, but mysteriously doesn't) and the wealth of nations.

We all know what the world looks like. But a new series of extraordinary maps shows our planet in a very different light.

Rather than defining each country by size, these computer-generated modified maps - or cartograms - redraw the globe with each country's size proportionate to its strengths, or weaknesses, in a whole series of categories.

For instance, when it comes to military spending, the U.S. appears bloated, but Africa is huge when HIV prevalence is mapped.

The cartograms were produced in a unique collaboration between the universities of Michigan in the U.S. and Sheffield. Here are images and more details on some of the most fascinating...

I picked the toy consumption map to show, because I think it shows why America is still one of the most inventive, idealistic and free countries in the world: we all still play with toys.

How the world really shapes up [Daily Mail]