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"  If an ordinary picture is worth a thousand words, a map is worth, what \u2014 a million? A single work of cartography can be a travel guide, an escape plan, an investment tool (don&amp;#039;t buy a house on the floodplain, fool), a history book. At their best, maps both tell you the way things are and encourage you to look at things differently.  The fascinating &amp;quot;strange maps&amp;quot; on this blog of the same name illustrate the point. Need a better way to envision what it&amp;#039;s like to be in a Palestinian territory? Imagine yourself on a set of small desert islands. Unsure how British conservatives view the rest of this world? Check out this hilariously Anglo-centric map. Wondering what ties together Obama-supporting areas in the Deep South? They&amp;#039;re the places where cotton was grown before the Civil War. But not all maps are created equal, so Strange Maps has plenty of grossly inaccurate ones.  In October, a Strange Maps greatest-hits book is set to hit shelves. Until then, enjoy the digital version. It won&amp;#039;t help you find a route through traffic, but you never know when knowing that southern Ontario kind of looks like an elephant will come in handy. RELATED LINKS:  GALLERY: Innovative Mapmakers Re-inventing the Very Idea of Maps  THOMAS P.M. BARNETT: Obama&amp;#039;s New Map of the World "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a6002/strange-maps-061709/>