[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":30},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$f36m0rq5hwbhxi":3},{"slug":4,"title":5,"description":6,"date":7,"product":8,"url":9,"minutes":10,"html":11,"next":12},"hardest-countries-to-find-on-a-blank-map","The hardest countries to find on a blank world map","On a laptop-wide world map, Rwanda covers about 30 square pixels. Why small countries are so hard to find, and the neighbours that lead you to them.","2026-10-21","Map Blitz","https:\u002F\u002Fmap-blitz.tukka.dev",3,"\u003Cp>On a world map with no names on it, anyone can find Russia. Rwanda takes longer. I built a free game, \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmap-blitz.tukka.dev\">Map Blitz\u003C\u002Fa>, where a country's name pops up and you get 3 to 10 seconds to click it on a blank map. To decide which countries the game could fairly ask for, I measured how much of the screen each one covers, and those numbers explain most of the misses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>How small the small ones are\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>On a world map 1280 pixels wide, about the width of a laptop screen, Russia covers roughly 30,900 square pixels. The smallest country Map Blitz asks for, Cyprus, covers about 12. Here's how some of the hard ones measure up at that size:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>Cyprus: about 12 square pixels\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Gambia: about 13, in a strip roughly 11 pixels long and 3 tall\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Lebanon, Jamaica and Qatar: about 14 each\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>East Timor: about 18\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Montenegro: about 20\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Eswatini and Kuwait: about 22 to 23\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>El Salvador: about 25\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Rwanda: about 30, a patch of roughly 7 by 7 pixels\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\u003Cp>Luxembourg gets about 4 square pixels, and Monaco and Vatican City less than one. Nobody can hit those in a few seconds, so the game leaves 32 of the world's 195 countries out of the questions and asks for the other 163.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Ch2>Find a big neighbour first\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>The quickest way to a 7-pixel country is through a big neighbour: find that, then look right next to it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>Rwanda and Burundi sit side by side between DR Congo and Tanzania, with Rwanda to the north.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Gambia is a thin strip along the Gambia River, cut into Senegal on Africa's west coast.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Lebanon is on the Mediterranean coast, north of Israel, with Syria behind it.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Qatar is the small thumb of land sticking out of Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Kuwait sits at the top of the same gulf, between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Eswatini is wedged between South Africa and Mozambique, while Lesotho is surrounded by South Africa on every side.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Djibouti sits at the mouth of the Red Sea and borders Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Haiti is the western third of the island of Hispaniola, east of Cuba. Jamaica is the island south of Cuba.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>El Salvador is the only country in Central America without a Caribbean coast.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\u003Ch2>Names that sound alike\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>Other misses come from names that are easy to mix up:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>Niger is the big inland country, and Nigeria is south of it, on the coast.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>The Republic of the Congo is the smaller of the two Congos, to the west. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is the huge one in the middle of Africa.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>Guinea and Guinea-Bissau are neighbours on the west coast of Africa. Equatorial Guinea is far to the east of them, between Cameroon and Gabon.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>South Sudan is the newer and smaller of the two Sudans, and it lies south of Sudan.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\u003Ch2>A practice plan\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Col>\n\u003Cli>Start with the 10-second timer and a single continent: untick the others before you press Play. Add the next continent once you can find most of the first.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>After each run, the summary lists the countries you missed. Point at one, and the map shows you where it is.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>When your streak passes 20 or so, drop to 7 seconds, then 5. Best streaks are kept separately for each timer, so a slower setting never spoils a faster record.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003Cli>At 3 seconds there's only time to find the region and click once, so you need the neighbours above.\u003C\u002Fli>\n\u003C\u002Fol>\n\u003Ch2>How Map Blitz works\u003C\u002Fh2>\n\u003Cp>A country's name appears above a blank world map, and a bar starts emptying. Click the right country before it runs out, and the next one comes straight away. Click the wrong one, and the map shows you where the right one was. A click in the sea just off the right coast still counts, which helps with islands like Jamaica and Cyprus. Scroll to zoom in on a crowded corner like the Balkans; each new country starts zoomed out again. The game keeps going until you press Stop, then shows how many you found, your best streak and your average time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It's free and runs in the browser, with no sign-up. It works best with a mouse; on a phone, turn it sideways for a bigger map. Play it at \u003Ca href=\"https:\u002F\u002Fmap-blitz.tukka.dev\">map-blitz.tukka.dev\u003C\u002Fa>.\u003C\u002Fp>\n",[13,19,26],{"slug":14,"title":15,"description":16,"date":7,"product":17,"url":18,"minutes":10},"walk-among-dinosaurs-in-3d","Walk among dinosaurs and woolly mammoths in 3D, in your browser","A free 3D walk through early Earth's lava fields, the Jurassic, the Late Cretaceous and the Ice Age, among dinosaurs and woolly mammoths, in your browser.","Prehistoric Walk","https:\u002F\u002Fprehistoric-walk.tukka.dev",{"slug":20,"title":21,"description":22,"date":7,"product":23,"url":24,"minutes":25},"online-privacy-self-assessment","What could your public accounts reveal together?","Review your usernames, public location clues and account habits with a free, nineteen-question OSINT self-assessment quiz. Answers stay in your browser tab.","OSINT Self-Assessment Quiz","https:\u002F\u002Fosint-self-assesment-quiz.tukka.dev",1,{"slug":27,"title":28,"description":29,"date":7,"product":23,"url":24,"minutes":10},"what-does-the-internet-know-about-you","What does the internet know about you? How to check in 20 minutes","Search for yourself the way a stranger would: your name, usernames, photos, email and phone number. What to look for, and what to fix first.",1792561478540]