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This map is not upside down

maps.com

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Re: This map is not upside down

#61

Post by evandrofisico »

sivers wrote: post #24

It's also a wonderful metaphor for how the opposite can also be true. Japanese addresses that name the blocks, not the streets: https://sive.rs/jadr West African music that uses the "1" as the end of the phrase instead of the start: https://sive.rs/fela “Whatever you can rightly say about India, the opposite is also true”, Joan Robinson https://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_weird_or_just_differe...

In Brasilia, Brazil only main avenues are named and all addresses are also by block, just like in Japan.

Re: This map is not upside down

#63

Post by zahlman »

throw-the-towel wrote: post #38
shadowgovt wrote: post #12

Is this map projection making Russia look small an artifact of the projection (i.e. we expand the land in the north more than the south in this projection in general) or an optical illusion? Russia looks small flipped on its head and I can't quite figure out why.

I don't think Russia looks small on this map, it's just not as blown-out as on Mercator maps. When I was growing up in Russia, the map I had in my room was a similar projection -- except with the North up, of course -- and Russia was about the same size on it.

> I don't think Russia looks small on this map, it's just not as blown-out as on Mercator maps.

I think that GP is accustomed to Mercator maps and is thus more surprised by it.

(I'm not really sure why this is a thing. My elementary school classrooms in the late 80s showed a variety of projections, and globes.)

Re: This map is not upside down

#64

Post by dbl000 »

Relatedly there's a Map Men video on why north is up. [0] I don't buy the whole top is 'good' and lower is 'bad'. I think the bias is just a lot of the groups that made maps were located north(ish) and traveling roughly southward which made it a convenient orientation, especially during the age of sail.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B14Gtm2Z_70

Re: This map is not upside down

#65

Post by gausswho »

cyberlimerence wrote: post #55

I love stuff like this. I encourage everyone to check out 'Méditerranée Sans Frontières' map. [1][2] [1] http://mediterraneesansfrontieres.org/babel4.html [2] https://amroali.com/2020/12/what-a-sideway-map-of-the-medite...

Intriguing. I wonder if an Arabic reader looks more prominently at the right side (Europe), the way an English speaker looks more prominently at the left side (Africa).

Would be interesting to see a world map designed with latitude vertically instead. If the top were the Pacific, your eyes would first appraise East Asia. If the top were the Atlantic, North America.

Re: This map is not upside down

#66

Post by axiolite »

quuxplusone wrote: post #14
skellington wrote: post #4

The weirdest thing about this to me is I was just thinking about the arbitrariness of current North being up the other day and then this article pops up here. They're reading our freaking brains!

Reading the "Divine Comedy" led me to a realization (or at least a shower thought) the other day: It makes perfect sense for someone living in the northern hemisphere to think of "north" as "up." Why? Because when you look up, you see the stars, all rotating around a fixed point at the very top of the heavens. (In our current epoch, this fixed point is close to the star Polaris.) If you journey on foot in the directi…

I doubt that is a thought on anyone's mind... I find people orient themselves by the direction their house / street faces, to a lesser extent the position of the sun, and north at the top is a completely arbitrary thing imposed on us.

As evidence, see GPS navigation, which shows "forward" at the top.

Re: This map is not upside down

#67

Post by [deleted] »

hyperhello wrote: post #2

> Psychologically, we tend to view things nearer the top as ‘good’ and those lower as ‘bad.’ This, of course, is the point of the article. It was so predictable that it made me wonder: who is telling me that top is good and lower is bad? The articles themselves.

[deleted]

Re: This map is not upside down

#69

Post by hyperhello »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #46
vman81 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing top to bottom, and even left to right has/had advantages for mostly right-handed writers to avoid moving your hand over and smudging previously written text.

How would top-to-bottom benefit right-handed writers any more than left-handed ones?

And why would that make the top better than the bottom anyway? That's like saying the meal is worse after you finish it.

Re: This map is not upside down

#70

Post by micromacrofoot »

alabhyajindal wrote: post #25
hidroto wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_North_and_Global_South

First time seeing this and it feels so offensive. I'm somewhat okay with the term developed and developing countries, though not too much [1]. But this just feels discriminatory. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factfulness

it is discriminatory, though that wasn't the original intention
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