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Maps distort how we see the world

unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com

111–120 of 351 posts

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#111
post #24

Every flat map projection distorts something, so every projection has to optimize some parameter and trade off other utility. I'm constantly amazed at how hung up people are on apparent size of countries. If size is your thing, use some other projection! Mercator is and remains popular because it preserves local angles and shapes, which makes it simple use this projection to navigate by rhumb lines (compass headings)…

> Every flat map projection distorts something, so every projection has to optimize some parameter and trade off other utility. I'm constantly amazed at how hung up people are on apparent size of countries. If size is your thing, use some other projection! That's the point of the post. The trade-offs between different projections are rarely discussed, considered or even mentioned outside very small cohorts because th…

People have a problem with this post and these kind of posts because they imply it was deliberately done for evil reasons.

The point of any article isn't just its factual content; it's the hidden message from the way it's said. I don't know if you intended to say it the way you did when you started off with the comment about poverty in the first two sentences, but by doing so, you set the tone for the rest of your article. (You also didn't expand on that tidbit so it kind of leaves your audience wondering why you mentioned it.)

I like the rest of the article though.

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#112

There was a memorable scene from "The West Wing" on the biases imposed by most map projections, in particular, how Mercator makes North America look huge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLqC3FNNOaI

The video quality of that clip was so bad I uploaded a new 1080p version to YouTube: https://youtu.be/dxhWybPCEpI

If you want to avoid YouTube, here's just the video: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/szn691fdcgvxwh8/map_proj...

edit: updated YouTube link to include the full version

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#113
post #24

Every flat map projection distorts something, so every projection has to optimize some parameter and trade off other utility. I'm constantly amazed at how hung up people are on apparent size of countries. If size is your thing, use some other projection! Mercator is and remains popular because it preserves local angles and shapes, which makes it simple use this projection to navigate by rhumb lines (compass headings)…

Also 80% of the population lives in the northern hemisphere. It's not an evil scheme to cheat the 20% who live down there.

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#114

If you think only in Mercator (e.g.), it's easy to fall into erroneous concepts. A great example of this came when, years ago, I had a business trip from Texas where I live to Dubai. A friend asked, cleverly aware of the distance involved, if the flight went east or west -- because if you have Flat Map Brain, that's what you default to, right? The answer is "neither." The route went mostly north from Houston, crossed…

This site shows the shortest path between 2 airports: http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=IAH-DXB

I'd imagine your flight would've avoided Russia, afaik even before the war they were obnoxious about who can fly over them/how much it would cost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdNDYBt9e_U

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#115
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that page failing to load for me (Firefox) Weird; testing on a Mac with Firefox it loads fine. Anything interesting in the console?

I tried again in a 'blank' profile, and it worked there. On the failing one, I see some HTTP/3 400 results from "earth-pa.clients6.google.com" before it goes into an infinite-spinner state. On the working profile, those requests succeed. Turned off uBlock and such, still no dice. Maybe some weird thing relating to having a logged-in gmail account on that profile? No idea, really. But clearly not OS/driver related, si…

Are you using "resist fingerprinting" in Firefox? I've noticed that causes mystery total blocks or additional "click and hold to show you are not a bot" challenges on many sites (Fedex, Kickstarter, Walmart, Lowes) and at random. Often it seems in some backend XHR that the app writer didn't think to handle bot blocks on, so the page half loads.

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#116
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every flat map projection distorts something, so every projection has to optimize some parameter and trade off other utility. I'm constantly amazed at how hung up people are on apparent size of countries. If size is your thing, use some other projection! That's the point of the post. The trade-offs between different projections are rarely discussed, considered or even mentioned outside very small cohorts because th…

> That's the point of the post. I lost it in the post. Whenever I hear the “crisis” part presented without the perfectly rational explanation I get frustrated and spend more time trying to figure out if this is a problem. Saying “maps distort the way we see the world” is a problem unless you immediately follow it with “and that’s ok because…” Otherwise we waste time on stuff like “eyeballs distort the way we see the…

I don't understand what you're saying. The article doesn't present this as a crisis. It doesn't really make sense to say it's okay or not okay, except insofar as anything that isn't an existential threat is okay, I suppose.

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#117
With the advent of the paperless office, the increasing ubiquity of screens, and the steady progress in 3D rendering performance – there will soon be little need for 2D map projections. We just render the Earth as a sphere and do some perspective projection.

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried again in a 'blank' profile, and it worked there. On the failing one, I see some HTTP/3 400 results from "earth-pa.clients6.google.com" before it goes into an infinite-spinner state. On the working profile, those requests succeed. Turned off uBlock and such, still no dice. Maybe some weird thing relating to having a logged-in gmail account on that profile? No idea, really. But clearly not OS/driver related, si…

Are you using "resist fingerprinting" in Firefox? I've noticed that causes mystery total blocks or additional "click and hold to show you are not a bot" challenges on many sites (Fedex, Kickstarter, Walmart, Lowes) and at random. Often it seems in some backend XHR that the app writer didn't think to handle bot blocks on, so the page half loads.

Just the defaults, with regard to that; so I think not? I see in about:config: "privacy.resistFingerprinting=false".

Same on the other profile.

Good to know about, though (:

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#119
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably seen that clip a dozen times and this was the first time I noticed Whitford manspreading in the middle of the clip and Janney batting his leg back. By the look on his face, it seems improvised to get a laugh out of her.

it’s a huge stretch to claim there was no bias involved. the biais is in putting europe front and center and at the top. Have you seen maps that place the americas in the center? How about maps with north and south swapped?

[deleted]

Re: Maps distort how we see the world

#120
post #24

Every flat map projection distorts something, so every projection has to optimize some parameter and trade off other utility. I'm constantly amazed at how hung up people are on apparent size of countries. If size is your thing, use some other projection! Mercator is and remains popular because it preserves local angles and shapes, which makes it simple use this projection to navigate by rhumb lines (compass headings)…

> Every flat map projection distorts something, so every projection has to optimize some parameter and trade off other utility. I'm constantly amazed at how hung up people are on apparent size of countries. If size is your thing, use some other projection! That's the point of the post. The trade-offs between different projections are rarely discussed, considered or even mentioned outside very small cohorts because th…

I think most people know what a globe is. And that a globe is not a 2D map, even though they might not be able to articulate that.
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