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The True Size of Africa (2015)

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Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#91

Post by runarberg »

mgerullis wrote: post #75
DevKoala wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In which sense is the USA homogenous?

Language, currency, jurisdiction (to large extends), media… An American from Idaho will be able to communicate, trade and watch the same tv as someone in Vermont, whereas a person from Malawi will not be able to do any of these things with a person in Guinea

As someone from Scandinavia I was surprised to to find out that there is even homogeneity in brand names. In Scandinavia if you from Denmark to Norway, you will likely stop shopping at Netto and instead shop at REMA 1000, if you travel to Iceland, you might find your self shopping at Nettó again, but it is a whole different chain (more likely you will shop at Bónus). In the USA you will probably shop at Safeway in New York, just as you would in California.

In comparison all of Scandinavia has a similar population size as the New York metropolitan area.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#92

Post by jandrewrogers »

ithkuil wrote: post #47
jandrewrogers wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also excluded Alaska from the United States, which would increase the size by >20%. I also understand why they didn't; the purpose isn't a rigorous measure of country size or anything like that.

>17%

Alaska is 17% of the US but ~21% larger than CONUS, which is how it was expressed.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#93

Post by sangnoir »

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.

I'm always surprised to hear people say "The world is overpopulated" - I'm thinking there's plenty of room to grow in regions that live sustainably.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#95

Post by gsich »

scythe wrote: post #69

There are three basic choices you have with a rectangular map: - Mercator, which preserves shape and direction, but not size - Gall equal-area etc, which preserves size and direction, but not shape - AuthaGraph, which preserves size and shape, but not direction No rectangular map will ever be satisfactory, but maybe putting all three together would make a good display? And then there's my stupid projection (a rip-off…

Gall sucks, it looks vey ugly. If you want equal area use Eckert 4 (fill the rectangle if desired).

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#96

Post by alanbernstein »

boraoztunc wrote: post #77

>> The Good Design Grand Award, arguably Japan’s most prestigious award for design, went out to architect Hajime Narukawa’s completely groundbreaking design for a map of the world. His map, the AuthaGraph World Map, isn’t your average map of the globe: It’s a near-perfect representation of the continents and oceans as they exist on our spherical planet, all laid out on a two-dimensional surface. https://totravelistol…

I prefer the (related) Dymaxion approach myself, but I'll admit it's not quite as accessible.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#98

Post by alanbernstein »

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.

I'm honestly shocked to hear that. I've encountered it many times.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#99

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

runarberg wrote: post #91
mgerullis wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Language, currency, jurisdiction (to large extends), media… An American from Idaho will be able to communicate, trade and watch the same tv as someone in Vermont, whereas a person from Malawi will not be able to do any of these things with a person in Guinea

As someone from Scandinavia I was surprised to to find out that there is even homogeneity in brand names. In Scandinavia if you from Denmark to Norway, you will likely stop shopping at Netto and instead shop at REMA 1000 , if you travel to Iceland, you might find your self shopping at Nettó again, but it is a whole different chain (more likely you will shop at Bónus ). In the USA you will probably shop at Safeway in…

Actually, the one example you've picked there (grocery stores/supermarkets) is quite a bad one. There are very few national supermarkets in the US. Ironically, Whole Foods Market (now owned by Amazon) is as close as any to this title. Safeway may once have been widespread, but in terms of stores bearing that brand (as opposed to be owned by the company), there are not many Safeways anymore.

Instead, there are regional supermarket chains, some of which branch out a little into areas where they are not the dominant store.

Examples:

Albertsons: mostly in the western states

HEB: Texas only

Publix: southern states (all the way down to Key West)

Piggly Wiggly: hard to describe, but mostly a stripe running up through the midwest

Fairway: NYC, NJ and almost nowhere else

Now, had you written that about, say drug stores, it would be more true. Everywhere you go it will either be a CVS, Rite Aid or Walgreens. There are independents, but these 3 dominate the entire country, with some regional focus, but always a national reach.

Re: The True Size of Africa (2015)

#100

Post by vmception »

Tade0 wrote: post #94

One of my early childhood toys was a little globe and I'll make sure my kid has one too.

Globes are great for inquisitiveness, but they are often outdated, with globes providers in certain regions simply never updating them. Many globes in the US still have Czechoslovakia as a country, let alone not having South Sudan on it, for example. And let's not get started about all the globes being Made in China and what that means for getting a perception of that region of the world.

Owning a globe and giving it to a child is just a start.

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