Map Update: Kosovo Now Recognized by Every Country in Oceania (107/193 UN members)

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Countries recognizing the Republic of Kosovo in green, highlighting recent additions. Disputed recognitions in yellow. Kosovo in magenta. Map by Evan Centanni, modified from public domain graphic (source).

Map: "Eurasian Union" Gets New Member

The Eurasian Economic Union's four member countries, plus disputed territories that might be officially or unofficially included. Map by Evan Centanni, starting from this map by Keverich2. License: CC BY-SA

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Syria Civil War Map: October 2014 (#15) (Premium)

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Our territorial control map of the Syrian Civil War has been updated for October, showing changes to the situation since the previous Syria map report in September. The map and accompanying timeline show the Islamic State's advance against Kurdish-held Kobani, as well as other developments from the past few weeks.

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• Up-to-date map of current territorial control in Syria, color-coded for the Assad government, rebel groups, Islamic State (ISIS) extremists, and Kurdish self-protection forces
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• Recent areas of fighting, including Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), Deir al-Adas, and others
• Timeline of events since mid-September, with focus on changes to territorial control

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War in Nigeria: Map of Boko Haram Control (September 2014)

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Map by Evan Centanni. All rights reserved.

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Conflict tracking by T.H., with additional reporting by Evan Centanni

Boko Haram vs. Nigeria
Though it's waged a bloody war against the Nigerian government for many years, rebel group Boko Haram rarely could claim significant territorial control until recently. Though they did take over a number of remote areas in spring of last year (see our 2013 Boko Haram control map), the militants were soon driven back into hiding by the Nigerian military.

The insurgency never went away, with Boko Haram's bombings and other attacks, often on schools and other public places, increasing in number and lethality from 2013 into early 2014. (Also see our 2013 report for more background on Boko Haram).

Maps of How Scotland's Regions Really Voted

Good geographers know that maps can lie to you. Every map emphasizes some aspects of a place at the expense of others, giving it a lot of power to lead careless readers astray. Maps of Scotland's recent independence referendum are misleading us about the reality, even if not intentionally.

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Map by Evan Centanni, based on blank map by TUBS and NordNordWest (CC BY-SA)

By Evan Centanni

Misleading Maps
By now you've probably heard the results of Scotland's independence referendum: voters chose "no" by a solid margin of 55% to 45%. Check out our previous article to learn more about what would have happened if Scotland had voted "yes".

Maps like this one from the BBC and this one from Wikipedia have popped up since the results came out, showing how each of Scotland's council areas voted. Most of the country is in red for "no", with a few "yes" areas in green.

But if one area went 51% for "yes", and another 51% for "no", those two areas actually voted almost identically - yet contrasting red/green maps make us feel like they're polar opposites (not to mention that one-in-thirty readers has trouble seeing the difference between red and green).

How the Councils Really Voted
Whether each area's people voted just over or just under 50% in favor isn't actually that important. What matters is how far the balance was tipped in each region. This is not the U.S. presidential election, where the final vote is actually made by delegates obligated to go by the majority in each state. All the votes across Scotland were pooled together to determine the result, so which side of the 50-yard line each area came out on has no effect .