Guess The Map

Thing is, Japan has atrocious LGBT recognition iirc, and so would have some kind of colouring.

yeah no...

LGBT rights in Yemen

Same-sex sexual activity is punishable by death; this law is applied to both men and women. Members of the LGBT community additionally face stigmatization and homophobic violence among the broader population. A provincial court in Yemen sentenced several people to death for engaging in homosexual acts in 2024.

That pesky Yemen!

That pesky Russia!

Perú and Ecuador are both green. They hate each other and don't have a lot in common besides geography and language.

kinda feel like it has to be tied to oil production, or dependency on it for each country's economy

Nothing of substance (or more herrings), but just noting that the Russian Arctic islands aside from Severny appear uniquely cobalt blue.

Those are herrings, Green is all that matters.

I won't give a hint yet as there is activity, and it will be more satisfying for someone to get there without one if possible

Although it may be something of an unknown hint I haven't worked out what the yellow/purple is (whereas blue is just an anomaly). There was no key on the map and when I checked for myself only the green countries met the condition. so maybe the purple/yellow countries used to meet the condition or will meet the condition in the future but that is pure speculation I actually don't know. So they're not necessarily herrings but wouldn't focus on them too much, green is definitely correct and blue is definitely a herring

is this map pulled from somewhere or is it something you generated?

Its a map I pulled from somewhere

from your ass?

“Countries in which it is legal to pay a trapeze artist less than standard minimum wage”

“Countries with samovars or samovar-type tea brewing”

“Countries where cats are more popular than dogs, as pets”

“Countries where ‘Peter’ is more common than ‘John’”

Anvil the real answer had better be good I puzzled and googled this for over an hour last night

ILX: come for the zings, stay for the comparison of legal systems between Aruba and Curacao...

Is it amount of inward investment by China in these countries?

How old is this map? South Sudan isn't marked, though it may be covered up by that yellow blob.

I think the map is from 2020, but its accurate for today.

South Sudan is on the map isn't it? I assume the map is just a base template map

wait, I have it! Is it Earth?

Surely for a 'Guess the..' thread, this has to follow the "Guess the City" thread where you post an image of the inside of someone's shoe then disappear for a month?

Ok, let me think of a suitable hint on the way home. I'll post one in a couple of hours unless anyone wants a bit more time

Has anyone been in the right ballpark?

I think all of the answers so far have been in the same ballpark as each other, but none of them in the same ballpark as the answer

IIRC, Perú's biggest exports are copper, gold, oil and fish-related products (fertilizer, animal pellets).

Countries that don't have Starbucks yet

jk I know that's wrong

I really thought Dominican Republic would give me some big clues but it didn't.

If it’s like all countries with nickel deposits or something I’m going to hurl the computer through the window

Countries that have an even number of McDonald's restaurants

The DR and anvil's hint makes me think it's baseball or Olympic related.

If that is a reference to the ballpark reference, that isn't a hint. Dan Worsley introduced that reference and I was just replying in kind

Although neither answer is close, Josefa and StanM have been the closest with their suggestions

'incidences of certain businesses' would be quite a letdown

Is it countries Amazon don’t operate in?

No, because Germany is there

(Germany is purple fwiw)

Countries that perpetrate(d) genocide?

oh wait, you said green is what matters.

been trying to focus on the Ghana presence but getting nothing.

Google maps / satellite / streetview coverage? even though I've already disproved this myself.

I forgot about this after trying to think how to do a clue

'incidences of certain businesses' would be quite a letdown

It might be considered as a letdown

It really is a strange subset of countries. I can't decide if "green" means "has" or "has not". What could Western Sahara, Russia, Bonaire and Mauritius have in common? But if it is a "has not", then what the hell is going on in CAR and Chad and Niger, but not Ghana?

If there is a boat for those of us who are saying "I give up, tell us the answer already" I'm on that boat

Green means the country has it

*removes bookmark*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LC_Waikiki

LOL ok I’m mad haha

I’ve never even heard of that thing

*re-removes bookmark, throw laptop out window*

With approx 54,000 employees worldwide, LC WAIKIKI directly employs nearly 0.000007% of the world's population!

Ok, my turn...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LC_Waikiki#/media/File:Lcw_magazalar_turkiye.svg

I'll come back in a few months if anyone needs any hints.

It is a great thread idea anvil tbqph

but but

what do the colours mean?

huh, i wonder what's the battle in west australia

Google suggests the pinjarra massacre

i'm surprised there were that many sea battles back then

Battles made sense for North Sea and Falklands but still stumped on Akimiski!

we fight a lot don't we

Aussies seem pretty relaxed (about recording their battles)

But is it a lot? Its a 4500 time period on a plant of billions and no indication of how large an incident has to be to count

The map comes from this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK5OsDWYJmQ

https://i.imgur.com/qi1ui0P.png

what savages still use the mercator projection

white people of the world

Whatever this is, it seems highly correlated with national wealth.

except for the Middle East...

incidence of dementia

what is that little dark spot in the Gulf - Djibouti?

Average life expectancy?

Average life expectancy?

Reverse google image searched it, good luck getting this one guys.

Greenland complete contrast to the adjacent lands, hmmmm

(this time Greenland and Svalbard aren't part of Denmark and Norway, respectively - they sometimes are) - and Crete and Mallorca are probably too small to see (or the lines around them are too thick)

Iran, Irak, Afghanistan, Libya, Djibouti, North Korea are brighter than their surrounding countries - is it something political? (but then Greenland and Svalbard again - and those two shouldn't be life expectancy either I think)

Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, also - political? Terrorism?