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The True Size of Africa (2015)

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Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#31

Post by School-Cotton »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #24
mikestew wrote: post #4

The edited title is incorrect, in that it is a comparison with countries . How big is Africa compared to Asia? Okay, there’s one comparison with Europe (scroll down). Otherwise it’s a matter of how many countries one could cram in there. Of course, Africa already has a bunch of countries, so I guess I just didn’t get it. Comparing to, say, North America or something would be a better visualization for me.

I think a lot of Americans think that Africa is a country.

What makes you think so? I’m American and have never encountered that belief.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#33

Post by dleslie »

joe_the_user wrote: post #19
darkwater wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest of tiny details. People complained “you missed Ibiza”, “how could you make Belgium the same color as the Netherlands” “and on and on and on...

No, the parent makes a good point that stacking countries insides different continents doesn't give one much of a comparison. The visualization winds-up more "factoid" than fact. Africa is approximately three times the size of Europe, 2/3 the size of Asia, 5/4 the size of North America and so forth. Obviously it's a large place but so is every continent. Edit: This isn't to take away from the point that historically,…

The importance of Africa was historically neglected? I don't think that fits well with the "Race for Africa" and the long history of Mediterranean conflicts involving North Africa.

Africa wouldn't still be recovering from the effects of colonialism if it weren't as historically important as it was.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#34

Post by layoutIfNeeded »

School-Cotton wrote: post #31
layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of Americans think that Africa is a country.

What makes you think so? I’m American and have never encountered that belief.

https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/co...

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#35

Post by init »

Africa has 54 countries, thousands of languages and 1.2 billion people.

As an African, whenever I see this map I'm more astonished by how densely populated Europe and India are, how big and populated China is and how homogeneous the US is compared to its size.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#36

Post by NaturalPhallacy »

darkwater wrote: post #5
mikestew wrote: post #4

The edited title is incorrect, in that it is a comparison with countries . How big is Africa compared to Asia? Okay, there’s one comparison with Europe (scroll down). Otherwise it’s a matter of how many countries one could cram in there. Of course, Africa already has a bunch of countries, so I guess I just didn’t get it. Comparing to, say, North America or something would be a better visualization for me.

> A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest of tiny details. People complained “you missed Ibiza”, “how could you make Belgium the same color as the Netherlands” “and on and on and on...

> A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest of tiny details.

For a second there I thought you were talking about hn.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#37

Post by torstenvl »

layoutIfNeeded wrote: post #34
School-Cotton wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think so? I’m American and have never encountered that belief.

https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/co...

> there are rumors that a former Vice Presidential candidate thinks Africa is a country

Rumors, not facts.

One candidate, not "a lot of Americans."

Irony is making sweeping generalizations while ostensibly pushing back on generalizations.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#38

Post by dialogbox »

jobigoud wrote: post #20
stoolpigeon wrote: post #15

One of the strangest feelings I've had is flying from Amsterdam to Johannesburg. It's a super long trip and so mentally I was expecting jet lag. But there was no time change. The season flipped but the time of day was right in sync with everyone back home in Budapest.

That's exactly why it's one of my favorite destinations. Take off in European winter in the evening, land in summer in the morning, no jet lag, beautiful landscapes, it's awesome.

That's also exactly same when I fly from Seoul to Sydney. 1 or 2 hours differences depending on daylight saving but it's actually nothing.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#39

Post by axguscbklp »

This reminds me of reading about Africa's size in the introduction to Michael Crichton's Congo back when I was a kid:

"Only prejudice, and a trick of the Mercator projection, prevents us from recognizing the enormity of the African continent. Covering nearly twelve million square miles, Africa is almost as large as North America and Europe combined. It is nearly twice the size of South America."

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#40

Post by jahnu »

init wrote: post #35

Africa has 54 countries, thousands of languages and 1.2 billion people. As an African, whenever I see this map I'm more astonished by how densely populated Europe and India are, how big and populated China is and how homogeneous the US is compared to its size.

Population density of Europe is 34/km2

Africa is 45/km2

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/europe-popula...).

https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/africa-popula....

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