Guess The Map

also cuba, and probably not mauritius

Another pointer to this being a legal thing is the ABC countries - Curacao is green whereas Aruba and Bonaire are not. That corresponds with Aruba and Bonaire being under Dutch law whereas Curacao has its own constitution and legal system. Could it be something to do with taxation? Or maybe age of consent, divorce laws, same-sex laws or something like that.

only thing i can think of is 'served on some fucked-up UN committee like that for human rights'

I'm thinking Calzino is right and it's something to do with LGBT rights. Maps on same-sex marriage or adoption rights look very similar.

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!

Ha, nice one, Lithuania.

Woooooo! Thank you cherry blossom & StanM, wouldn't have got there without those prompts but it totally clicked into place and I was reasonably confident in the rabies guess.

Our bats would like a word with the author of this map

Part of the reason I was confident is because a few years ago I had to look up whether British bats had rabies (injured bat in the house). The emergency vet just called it rabies, but it's a different strain of rabies virus ("European Bat Lyssavirus") and so the UK can maintain its rabies-free claim (based on what the site I'm looking at right now calls "classical rabies", nice nice).

I remember being told as a kid that France had rabies, but googling it, it seems it's been free since 2001

I think pet passports were introduced at about that time? That would make sense as part of an international push to eradicate it.

Interesting. My doctor described us as free of terrestrial rabies, which is a cool way of saying bats. Apparently no strain of the rabies virus is older than 1500 years. It's originally from bats and shifted to foxes, dogs, skunks etc, which means it's being again contained to the original hosts. And apparently the vaccine served as a base for one of the Covid vaccines, described as a "deactivated rabies-virus Covid vaccine". Which I guess is why you hire people for marketing after scientists do their job.

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

Light pollution is too obvious probably?

hmm. europe, japan, south korea all lit up. usa and mexico around the same. cuba and north korea completely dark. i'm thinking it's some cultural thing like soccer players.

honestly the only thing that makes sense is population density

adam t. is on the right track

Is it misleading that it looks like a map of might lights, then, if it's a cultural thing?

Dhaka isn't lit up, though it might be covered by the country label

The Canary Islands are lit up

South Korea, Java, New Zealand are a couple of locations that seem more lit up than expected imho

Mauritius & Réunion, east of Madagaskar, too

South Korea is a hotspot, is it something like mobile phone use?

now pondering what south korea and southeast england have in common

does south korea have Nando's? I know Mauritus has like the most per capita in the world (don't ask how I know)

afaik continental Europe is Nando-less?

I see that Coca-Cola is banned in Cuba and North Korea -- is it Coke sales?

on second thought, the US would be the brightest.

bicycle usage

I will accept that as correct. It is a heat map of cycling activities recorded online on the most popular global app.

(Russia and some other countries are not rendered/displayed due to political reasons)

wow i rule

you do