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Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#41

Post by carl-j »

jacobolus wrote: post #13
jacobolus wrote: post #3

Blog spam (sorta). Original source: http://kai.sub.blue/en/africa.html

While we’re talking about map projections, I’ve long been partial to Cahill’s octahedral maps. Gene Keyes has some derivatives and a comprehensive website about the subject. http://www.genekeyes.com/B.J.S._CAHILL_RESOURCE.html I’ve recently been trying to make some better Cahill spinoffs of my own. Here’s a conformal version: http://i.imgur.com/RhZL1FN.jpg

Would you mind sharing how you go about making these?

I found the Cahill projection a few years ago and was disappointed that I couldn't seem to find one in print.

The one I found that seem to resemble it is the Waterman projection which is also available in printed versions.

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#42

Post by hydrogen18 »

maratd wrote: post #32
jonathanyc wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China is already a member of the permanent council.

Yup. From the very beginning. Remember, the UN is a product of WWII. All the winners got a seat at the table.

That is incorrect. The word 'China' after WWII referred to what is now called Taiwan. Nixon eventually normalized relations with mainland China and arranged for Taiwan's seat to be swapped for the mainland Chinese.

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#43

Post by rrss1122 »

baldfat wrote: post #16
larrydag wrote: post #2

I didn't read the article but the first thing that jumped into my head is why are they comparing the size of a continent to sizes of countries?

Because most people have no idea that Africa is as large as it is due to the way we represent our planet's maps and globes. Seriously have this conversation several times a year. People really think Greenland is almost as large as Africa. I than state that we can fit these countries into the area of Africa and people are shocked. BTW US is the third largest geographical country in the world.

I remember learning in school (here in the US) that the Sahara Desert is by itself as large as the continental US. That fact was so striking to me when I learned it, I wonder why other people don't know it.

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#44

Post by mozumder »

chr wrote: post #21

Long time ago, back in 1992, Kai Krause was famous in desktop publishing for his software "Kai's Power Tools" - a set of plugins for Adobe Photoshop. Kai is one of the designers of this map.

Kai Power Tools had some great UI as well.. probably the most advanced at the time.

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#46

Post by jrs99 »

arethuza wrote: post #15
larrydag wrote: post #2

I didn't read the article but the first thing that jumped into my head is why are they comparing the size of a continent to sizes of countries?

People seem to compare the US with Europe all the time. Edit: My favourite being an, apparently serious, assertion by an HN user than Europe would fit in Texas... :-)

i like the africa comparisons here:

http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-post/how-big-texas-compare...

the last line might help people understand why people compare these things:

"If you’re the right kind of nerd, you can probably do this forever and not get bored"

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#47

Post by baldfat »

frandroid wrote: post #28
rimantas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, our globes do not show the correct size of Africa? :O

Our globes do, but our Mercator projection maps don't.

Which the only globe people see on the computer is either the start of a strategy game or Google Earth.

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#48

Post by arethuza »

jrs99 wrote: post #46
arethuza wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People seem to compare the US with Europe all the time. Edit: My favourite being an, apparently serious, assertion by an HN user than Europe would fit in Texas... :-)

i like the africa comparisons here: http://www.texasmonthly.com/daily-post/how-big-texas-compare... the last line might help people understand why people compare these things: "If you’re the right kind of nerd, you can probably do this forever and not get bored"

I do these kind of comparisons all the time myself (particularly distances) - I just tend to react that assertions that Europe is "small" which I think are based on the distribution of "interesting" bits within Europe and the US. In Europe a lot of the "interesting" bits cluster together in the middle with a lot of empty bits towards the edges - the US has the opposite layout with major attractions often being on the coasts and the middle getting relatively little attention.

[NB Note the sweeping generalisations - I know fine well that there is a lot of cool stuff in the "middle" of the USA as well as lots of fascinating stuff round the periphery of Europe - I'm from Scotland!]

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#49

Post by breitling »

comrade1 wrote: post #5

This has come up before on hn, but I always find it interesting how hard China is pushing into Africa economically: http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/2163955... http://thediplomat.com/2015/01/china-embracing-africa-but-no... http://qz.com/217597/how-a-million-chinese-migrants-are-buil... (that third article is probably the most interesting)

You're right, the third article was very interesting. I'm tempted to buy the book just to learn more about this guy.

He comes across as a very ambitious guy and he seemingly has a plan (to use his children to get more "local" offspring)

Re: Africa Dwarfs China, Europe and the U.S

#50

Post by oblio »

alexcasalboni wrote: post #36
ramanan wrote: post #30

Related link : The Mercator Puzzle : https://gmaps-samples.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/poly/puzzledr... A nice way to get a feel for the distortions.

Wow! That is awesome, seriously mind-blowing and fun to play with!

I can't figure out what hovers over West Africa :(

Edit (spoiler): it's actually in Asia :)

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