Tuesday 3 March 2015

gazetteer

Vox complies an interesting and sometimes rather chilling glimpse of alternative histories and outcomes mapped-out graphically in twenty unrealized battle plans, contingency operations, secessionists’ aspirations, and massive infrastructure projects.

 I especially found engrossing the portrayal of Africa without colonialism, the secret US invasion plans for Canada, or the proposal for the terra-forming of the Mediterranean Sea. A gazetteer or a gazette has sometimes been used as name for a newspaper but originally referred to a directory, an index to be used in conjunction with a map or an atlas—like the underlying battle plans or agendas that plotted out these charts.