At first this map seemed perfectly fine to me, but the more I look the weirder it gets.
- The projection used (Mollweide?) distorts the hell out of Europe, Iceland is practically a smear.
- Thailand is gone.
- Crimea seems missing.
- Is Japan a bit shrunk?
- They must have screwed up mounting Africa because the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are WAY too big
They also claim South Korea.
Seems odd to me to want to put the largest ocean in the world as the focus. Yes, let’s put most of the useful information around the edge of the map. Brilliant idea.
Let’s draw maps with Antarctica in the middle instead.
north korea is pretty lose to center on the map.
That’s just the back of the UN logo
Most maps in Asia are like this. That’s why growing up I was confused why the US was called the west and East/Southeast Asia was called the far east.
edit: Oops, didn’t realize the credit wouldn’t be obvious. It’s xkcd #503.
I guess it kinda makes sense if you draw the line right down the middle of Germany. Weird, I wonder if there’s any historical precedent for that…
Its almost as if some country thinks they are the center of the world.
Well, specifically a couple of countries on either side of the Atlantic.
It’s more like most countries. Maps like the one shown in this post that place Asia as a central focus are common in Asia.
Maybe it’s not national narcissism, rather just focusing on what’s most relevant to any one people.
Maps with New Zealand.
And Tasmania!
They included New Zealand.
They’re already leagues ahead of most US primary education text books
It makes as much sense as any other 2D projection of the globe.
In this map’s defense, it really highlights the value of a northwest passage and all the canals.
I like this one
Maybe a little more than this one…
thank god I needed a map with an inverse relationship with population and size on the map
Doesn’t the US sometimes use one that puts America in the center and cuts Eurasia in half? Can we agree this one is definitely stupid?
where to cut is one of the hardest decisions. i am guilty of defaulting to cut through greenland more than any other country when making world map desktop wallpapers.
I don’t think it’s that difficult to decide. There’s a lot more room between San Jose, California and Hokkaido, Japan than between Natal, Brazil and Dakar, Senegal; cutting through the Pacific makes the most sense for most applications, I think. Sure, the Bering Strait is pretty tiny, but if you break in the Atlantic you’re going to get a lot of distortion in Greenland (hasn’t it had enough?), mainland Europe, and Brazil.
I’ve never seen that in the US. That is extremely stupid. Typically maps in the US center around the Atlantic/Europe.
From the US: I grew up with a map like this in the dining room. It was super confusing as s a little kid.
This unlocked some memories, wow.
Fun fact: Whether North or South are “up” on a map is also completely arbitrary.
It’s freaking me out!
Oh god why Mercator?
Mercator really starts to shine when you rotate it by 90 degrees.
At this point, Africa is almost represented at its actual size.
This is cursed enough to be an SCP
They undercut the message buy putting upside down at the top.
I had a teacher in high school who always set his globe that had the text oriented to the nearest pole to have the south pole on top. Anyone switching it would start a conversation about how there isn’t a ‘correct’ up direction.
There is only a “correct” up direction if it has words. The “correct” up would be the direction of the letters.
Yeah, but European borders aren’t
Sure they are, they’re fun to redraw too. I thought y’all loved doing that
Or left right
Should have rotated the other way so the sun scrolls satisfyingly top-to-bottom.
This looks like a fantasy world map wtf.
The oddest part for me is Greenland being split from the Americas
I mean politically speaking it’s Danish, so I suppose it makes sense to group it with Europe in some ways.
It does look a little odd though.
I like it, if only because it places Oceania at the center. They’re always pushed aside and it’s big sad.
Sea of Thieves lookin’ map.
Friar tuck with a splash of bird turd to the noggin
At least it has New Zealand.
Don’t the rest of the countries in the region use similar maps? South Korea, Australia, Japan…? I would expect that to be the case, it seems more natural.
Yes, and Australia even has it as upside down.
There is no North Korea in North Korea. There is only Korea.
Nerd sniped me enough to look it up. Both countries use different names for “all of korea.” While the north generally refers to itself with the same term as all of korea, there are some contexts where there is a “north Korea” used.
Nerd sniped me
The fuck’s wrong with you?(I guess that wasn’t directed at me)Look at the pic, all of Korea is red.
It makes sense they’d centre the Gulf Of Korea though.
