Newly Open 2.0

ickyharry:

rubyvroom:

queernonymoose:

So I am going to be spitting some knowledge that has kept me from falling back asleep last night.

Now, to discuss maps I gotta refresh some of y’alls memory because geography is probably the farthest thing in the world for you right now. In fact I doubt they are teaching any of it in schools anymore since I’ve left elementary and middle school.

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I never even thought of that. Wow.

It’s bizarre just how weird that second map looks to me. Even though it’s objectively correct. My brain actually skips over it, like whoa that’s wrong.Stupid indoctrination.

Here’s the map thing that bugs me : the standard maps that USians see are based on a design that exaggerates the size of the Northern Hemisphere, like so:

which has the weird effect of making Africa and Greenland approximately the same size. That’s not even close to true. 

A more reality-based version of this map, using the actual measured land size of all the continents, looks like this:

Hey look! Suddenly Africa’s a whole lot bigger! So is Brazil, and India, and much of the Middle East. Meanwhile, Europe and North America got smaller. Did anybody get this second map in their schools? I sure didn’t.

Another thing, maps in the U.S. will often centre the Americas and split Eurasia into two, with half on each side of the map. Which makes it look smaller, further splits Asia from Europe, and reinforces the idea that the U.S. is, well, the centre. 

But in China, maps often show the opposite. East Asia will be in the middle, with Europe and the Americas off to the sides. 

Whenever this conversation comes up I can’t help but think of Leo’s Big Block of Cheese Day and the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality.

“When Third World countries are misrepresented they’re likely to be valued less.  When Mercator maps exaggerate the importance of Western civilization, when the top of the map is given to the northern hemisphere and the bottom is given the southern, then people will tend to adopt top and bottom attitudes.”  (the Gall-Peters Projection) -The West Wing

In other, obvious news: good commentary + things to remember.