To put all of the above information into perspective, we created a map of the countries showing the most troublesome accident records for commercial passenger aircraft.

BBC: A record year in airline safety

In December, a New York newspaper inspired a heated debate about transparency of public records after it published a ( somewhat inaccurate) interactive map showing where all the gun owners in its community lived.

FORBES: Court Says New York Times Doesn't Need To Know Exactly Who Owns Guns

Skyhook has amassed a database of 50 billion scanned records of Wi-Fi, cellular tower and GPS signals--a "map" of locations that captures 80% of the U.S. population.

FORBES: Technology

And combining the result with Iceland's excellent medical records, which stretch back the best part of a century, means that the map can be used to identify disease genes as they pass from one generation to another.

ECONOMIST: Human genetics