[HN Gopher] The True Size of Africa (2015)
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The True Size of Africa (2015)
Author : metahost
Score : 333 points
Date : 2021-05-15 18:22 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (kai.sub.blue)
(TXT) w3m dump (kai.sub.blue)
| williesleg wrote:
| Nobody gives a shit.
| kossTKR wrote:
| https://thetruesize.com/ is a way better interactive version.
| mxfh wrote:
| But this is by _Kai's Power GOO_ Kai Krause. Doesn 't get more
| random than this, if the most prevalent output of his getting
| passed around these days is this comperative map.
|
| For those who don't know his software, this was quite
| remarkable UI and graphics software more than 20 years ago.
|
| https://www.mprove.de/script/99/kai/index.html
| stoolpigeon wrote:
| 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.
| jobigoud wrote:
| 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.
| dialogbox wrote:
| 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.
| jedberg wrote:
| I traveled from San Francisco to Johannesburg. It was two
| flights, one to Berlin and then on to Johannesburg.
|
| The first flight gave us the usual jet lag going to Europe. The
| problem was our flight from Berlin to Johannesburg left in
| Berlin's evening. It's an 11 hour flight so the idea is that
| you sleep on the plane and arrive in the morning after 8 hours
| of sleep.
|
| But that only works if your body is already in GMT+1!
|
| So while everyone else slept the whole way, we were wide awake!
| I took pictures of the navigation display the moment we crossed
| the equator.
|
| But man was I messed up when I arrived. 11 hours on a plane and
| no time change is just so strange.
| stoolpigeon wrote:
| The two times I've been to SA it was for conferences and
| normally they had been held in Asia. It was a completely
| different experience going into them without some pretty
| heavy jet lag. Everything was better. And I could see how it
| impacted the people who had come from farther east or west.
| It was super interesting to see it play out. I don't know
| where we would have met this year - the pandemic took care of
| that.
| desktopninja wrote:
| Refreshing to see how many times this pops up on HN:
| https://hn.algolia.com/?q=true+size+of
| username90 wrote:
| Why is that refreshing? You'd expect HN people to not find this
| map interesting and therefore not post it/upvote it as its just
| common knowledge. Continent and country sizes are just a few
| numbers that everyone has already seen.
| mattowen_uk wrote:
| Clickable link:
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?q=true+size+of
| praptak wrote:
| Africa has so much sand that it could cover the whole Sahara
| desert and then some.
| Tade0 wrote:
| One of my early childhood toys was a little globe and I'll make
| sure my kid has one too.
| vmception wrote:
| 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.
| bombcar wrote:
| I have a soft-spot for USSR globes - though ones before that
| are now arguably more accurate than the ones from the 80s.
| init wrote:
| 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.
| JackFr wrote:
| When you say the US is homogenous for it's size, are you
| referring to the physical geography or the demographic make up
| of the population, or something else entirely?
|
| (I think I would disagree, but good faith requires I actually
| try to understand what you meant before I take issue with it.)
| xpe wrote:
| It seems to me the commenter is referring to the number of
| languages and countries in a land mass.
| dnautics wrote:
| I think america is diverse, and shockingly homogenous given
| its diversity. For example, chinatown in NYC does not seem
| particularly different from chinatown in SF.
|
| Yes, the midwest calmer and the south is friendlier, the east
| is more uptight and the west is more chillaxed, and the
| cuisine is different in different parts of the country, but
| these are pretty much details at the edges. Everyone speaks
| english, the low-end labor speaks spanish, african-americans
| are discriminated against, etc.
| djmips wrote:
| Western chillaxation is put-on.
| t0mas88 wrote:
| To me (an outsider from Europe) the US doesn't feel
| homogenous at all. Compare New York to Taxas or California
| to South Carolina and they feel as much as different as for
| example Germany and Spain. With the only difference being
| that all US states share the English language and Europe
| has different languages, but even that difference is slowly
| reducing. For example the French, famous for not speaking
| English 20 years ago now actually do it very well if
| they're under 40 or 50 or so. And similar for Germany.
| anthk wrote:
| >eel as much as different as for example Germany and
| Spain
|
| Then you don't know Spain.
| ulfw wrote:
| None of what you write makes any sense.
|
| Spain and Germany have hugely different history,
| completely different food, different weather, they speak
| two non-compatible languages sets (Romantic vs Germanic),
| they have different laws, different stores, different
| banks, anything.
|
| Texas and California speak the same language, have
| similar makeup of people, are similarly wealthy, they
| have the exact same stores, your bank account is the
| same, everything.
|
| Now I am not argueing there aren't differences between CA
| and TX. But those are similar to differences between
| Hamburg and Bavaria or between Catalonia and Madrid.
| German<>Spain is a whole different ballgame.
| visarga wrote:
| Don't want to interrupt this nice discussion but the head
| topic was about Africa for once, and here we are talking
| about Europe and US again. Funny we can't switch even for
| a moment. I bet Africa sees a lot of this.
| em500 wrote:
| Probably the vast majority of HN readers/posters hail
| from the US and Europe, most probably haven't even been
| in any African country, so that hardly remarkable or
| unexpected.
| anthk wrote:
| And even in Spain itself you have three romances plus
| some alien language: Galician (closer to Portuguese),
| Catalan (French-Occitan family), Spanish (and Andalusia
| has it's own subdialect), plus Basque.
|
| A Basque playing the txalaparta would look like a guy who
| came from a UFO for an Andalusian guy playing Flamenco
| with a guitar.
|
| Ditto with a Galician with an Atlantic culture (and
| Celtic customs) plus a obvious bind to Portugal because
| 500 years ago they were the same language against a
| Valencian living in the sunny Mediterranean towns.
| dnautics wrote:
| > Catalonia and Madrid
|
| I believe those are what are literally called "fighting
| words"
| monocasa wrote:
| Eh, the difference between those all will have more to do
| with population density than their location. Rural New
| York feels more like rural South Carolina than it does
| NYC.
| kcb wrote:
| I think you may be comparing "apples to oranges" within
| the US. When you say New York that includes a lot more
| than New York City. I'm from New York City but have never
| really felt out of place in Austin, San Francisco, LA,
| Denver, etc. But far upstate New York would be a
| different story.
| init wrote:
| As the other commenter responded, I'm referring to the
| linguistic, socioeconomic and judicial homogeneity. Even
| though the US is culturally diverse, it still has a single
| currency, a single dominant language and a single
| jurisdiction (with minor state specific legal requirements).
| I only need one US visa to travel to all 52 states. A
| software company taking payments in the US has access to all
| 52 states. A peach cobbler is called the same throughout the
| US even though the recipe might change a little bit from
| place to place.
|
| This is not the case in Africa or Europe, where countries use
| different languages, scripts, legal codes, currencies,
| driving directions, etc...
|
| EDIT: I'm referring the land masses included in the
| visualization and what they entail in practical terms.
|
| The US can be seen as a single market, the same applies to
| China and India. Europe has the schengen area, the EU and the
| EEA. Africa needs similar initiatives.
| js2 wrote:
| Do you have any idea how many different kinds of sandwiches
| we have in this country? You're just not looking at the
| right things for diversity! :-)
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/14/dining/field
| -...
| yurishimo wrote:
| I love this! As an American, I think I've had most of the
| sandwiches on this list at one point or another in my
| life :)
| msrenee wrote:
| Good article. They rightly attribute the reuben sandwich
| to the Blackstone hotel.
|
| Anyway, I'm enthralled by the idea of a lobster roll. I
| had clam chowder one time when we were in New England and
| it blew me away. I ate the pint and tried to go back and
| buy another, but my husband stopped me. I've had it a
| number of times since back here in the middle of the
| country and it doesn't even compare. Even in fancy
| restaurants, it's just not the same. I really want to try
| a lobster roll, but I have the feeling I'm not going to
| find one around here that does the sandwich justice.
| js2 wrote:
| The lobster roll is really delicious.
|
| I'm sure you're aware you had New England clam chowder,
| And that there's also Manhattan clam chowder. But few
| folks know there's also a Hatteras clam chowder. It's
| made with a broth and the taste of clams really comes
| through a lot better than with the cream or tomato based
| variants.
|
| https://blog.carolinadesigns.com/outer-banks-
| food/hatteras-i...
|
| (And now that I've worked my way to the Carolinas... if
| you've never had shrimp and grits, look it up. Yum.)
|
| p.s. as good as lobster is, stone crab is even better.
| msrenee wrote:
| Definitely New England clam chowder. I'm not sure I'd
| like Manhatten style. You're just teasing me now with
| this Hatteras style. I don't think there's a good way to
| get decently fresh clams to the middle of the country.
|
| I don't have a taste for grits. I finally came around to
| gravy on my rice, but I'm still iffy on grits.
|
| I'm holding out hope that there's a decent lobster roll
| around here somewhere. You can get live lobsters here.
| There's no real reason you couldn't do a good lobster
| roll.
| JackFr wrote:
| I live in Manhattan and will defend it in all things
| EXCEPT clam chowder. Manhattan clam chowder is hot
| garbage.
| whiddershins wrote:
| Lobster Rolls have two styles as well, butter only or
| with mayonnaise.
|
| Really you just need the right roll, and you can make the
| butter version yourself.
|
| It's the roll that is hard to find.
| msrenee wrote:
| I did have fresh-caught blue crab when I was living in
| New Jersey. Once I figured out how to eat it, it was
| amazing. Fluke and striper straight from the water to the
| oven. I don't miss the coast, but damn do I miss the
| food.
| jamnik wrote:
| Like In France you have diversity of wine and cheese,
| diversity of beer in Germany, not to mention Poland being
| so kielbasa-diverse? Yep, diversity, diversity,
| diversity...
| carapace wrote:
| Also, FWIW, I've read that Africa has more human genetic
| diversity than the rest of the world put together.
| eru wrote:
| > The US can be seen as a single market, the same applies
| to China and India. Europe has the schengen area, the EU
| and the EEA. Africa needs similar initiatives.
|
| Yes, but you don't need much international cooperation to
| get a single market or visa free travel: individual
| countries can unilaterally declare free trade and open
| their borders. (And economic theory is in favour of that,
| too.)
| hrktb wrote:
| You get an imbalance with free incoming trade but
| taxed/impaired outgoing trade. Perhaps a massively
| importing country can live with it if importers get
| better deals as a consequence. But otherwise bilateral
| arguments would be the long term viable approach.
| barry-cotter wrote:
| What imbalance? The benefits of free imports accrue
| whether you're a big country or a small one. Hong Kong
| did very well out of unilateral free trade.
| [deleted]
| manquer wrote:
| Not taking away anything from what you said, my experience
| has been a bit different.
|
| I actually found US more federal in nature for doing
| business compared to India and to some extent Europe.
|
| The tax laws are lot more state specific than India,
| California has very different rules for privacy(ccpa) or
| environmental regulations than other states. Europe largely
| following GDPR is good enough (with some exceptions for
| Germany), most environmental regulations seem broadly
| consistent across Europe.[1]
|
| US did seem lot more regulatory diverse than India which is
| more culturally/linguistically diverse,it feels like US
| states have more significant autonomy than countries in
| Europe have over EU regulations!
|
| [1] It may be that I have not done as much work with Europe
| as US so I have not yet come across nuances
| eru wrote:
| Try running a barbershop in France, Germany and the UK.
| They are far from business homogeneous.
|
| In eg Germany you need three years of government approved
| training to work in one. And another two years of
| government approved training to run one.
|
| (And I don't think those training certificates can be
| used for anything in other countries?)
| manquer wrote:
| Not saying regulations are lighter in the Europe compared
| to the US , like the other poster below mentioned I have
| usually found some mechanism for cross border
| applications.
|
| On a fundamental level access to free market and European
| project has a goal of synchronizing the regulations
| across member countries.
|
| US states are proudly unique, Texas doesnt even keep
| frequency sync to the national grid!
|
| Even UK(Texas of Europe?) , generally need to follow
| similar rules if they want access to common market brexit
| or not.
| Talanes wrote:
| Barber licensing is done at the State level in the US,
| and also varies pretty widely between states.
|
| https://www.barber-license.com/
| Symbiote wrote:
| The training is often transferable.
|
| Here is a link to a database of regulated professions in
| the EU:
| https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/work/professional-
| qual...
|
| A hairdresser in Czechia, with equivalent qualifications
| from other countries listed:
| https://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-
| databases/regprof/index.cf...
| mateo411 wrote:
| Everything you said is correct and makes a lot of sense
| with the exception of the number of states. There are 50
| states in the US.
|
| Better luck next time DC and Puerto Rico.
| nieve wrote:
| That was pretty clearly a deliberate choice to show
| solidarity with two parts of the country who lack the
| same rights and government support for historical
| reasons.
| slim wrote:
| America understood very early on the power of story telling to
| build homogeneity. Medias are not just entertainement. They are
| the back bone of a nation.
| DevKoala wrote:
| In which sense is the USA homogenous?
| mgerullis wrote:
| 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
| joshuaengler wrote:
| You're comparing a continent with a country. A person in
| Canada has very little in common with those in Mexico
| and/or Panama, etc. The same could be said about most
| continents.
| mgerullis wrote:
| I was answering the question how the USA are considered
| homogenous, not how the Americas are.
| lhorie wrote:
| GP is saying that if you're comparing to the US, it would
| make more sense to compare to e.g. Ethiopia (a single
| country with several ethnical groups and languages) than
| compare Malawi to Guinea (two different countries,
| thousands of miles away from each other)
| tedunangst wrote:
| Vermont and Idaho are also thousands of miles away from
| each other, a distance not achievable within Ethiopia's
| borders. I think people are missing the point, so to make
| it clear, in the US, you can move from Los Angeles to New
| York (not even extreme ends of the country) and
| experience the same culture, language, TV shows, cell
| phone, etc. at both ends. That would be the same as
| moving from Madrid to Moscow, or Lagos to Khartoum.
| lhorie wrote:
| Sure but if you consider that you could say the same
| about e.g. Moscow/Vladivostok or Sao Paulo/Manaus or
| Sydney/Perth, it doesn't seem like homogeneity is that
| unique or impressive of a characteristic for an expansive
| country. IMHO it's more notable to point out that there's
| a language barrier between Toronto/Quebec despite them
| being only a few hours away from each other, a form of
| heteregenereousness that is also present in many
| countries in Africa, whereas in the US, there's a
| relatively high level of homogeneity even taking into
| account highly international places like Chinatowns
| because of the melting pot effect.
| runarberg wrote:
| 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 _Netto_ again, but it is a whole different chain (more
| likely you will shop at _Bonus_ ). 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.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| 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.
| lhorie wrote:
| Trader Joes has a pretty wide presence across the country
| (in 43 out of 50 states). And while they're not
| supermarkets per se, Walmart and Target have also got
| into groceries in recent years. There's also Costco in a
| similar boat.
| degenerate wrote:
| Trader joes is the best example of homogenous because
| they sell mostly their own brand cross-country, so local
| stock doesn't dictate what is available on the shelf. The
| prices remain static across most of their stores as well
| (for most items) which is a _HUGE_ reason why New York
| and Cali folks love shopping there.
| vitus wrote:
| While Albertsons itself might be mostly in western
| states, the parent company owns plenty of other chains in
| other states, e.g. Safeway or Jewel-Osco. These chains
| all run the same promotions, carry the same generic
| brands, etc.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Thanks. I didn't realize that the parent company of
| Safeway had gobbled up Albertsons as well. Good to know.
| vitus wrote:
| It was actually the other way around. :)
| bombcar wrote:
| And there are regional brands in many areas - just below
| Subway and McDonalds you'll find things like Culver's or
| Jack in the Box or In-n-Out - regional. Gas stations and
| restaurants are often regional, especially as cuisine
| varies.
|
| Of course you can find McDonalds everywhere but you'll
| find those in Europe, also.
|
| I think the main thing that makes it feel superficially
| homogeneous is the shared language - which is now even
| more shared since the advent of Hollywood and national
| entertainment.
| bluedino wrote:
| Is Walmart not a national supermarket?
| whiddershins wrote:
| The US isn't very homogenous, it is merely depicted that way in
| media.
| jahnu wrote:
| 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....
| init wrote:
| I'm referring to the European countries included in the
| visualization.
| Retric wrote:
| That really depends on where you draw the borders on Europe.
|
| The population density of the EU is 105 people per km2.
| Include some or all of Russia and things look rather
| different. Similarly, Finland is 8% of the EU's land area but
| only has 16.3 people per km2.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_European_U.
| ..
| samatman wrote:
| That has to be including all of Russia as part of "Eastern
| Europe" (indeed, if you drill down into the data, that's
| what's happening).
|
| When we're talking about geography, you can't include
| anything east of the Urals in the European subcontinent.
| otabdeveloper4 wrote:
| The Urals as a border is purely political and historical
| in nature. It has no particular geographic significance.
| bilbo0s wrote:
| Huh?
|
| In Geology class they teach that the Urals formed about a
| quarter of a billion years ago when Europe and the Khazak
| land masses collided. I know this because we had to do a
| group paper on why such an old mountain range would be so
| unusually high. (Long story and not important.) Point is
| that though my degree wasn't in geology, and I'm only
| going from memory, I'm 99.999% certain that the Urals are
| the Urals for a critically meaningful geographic reason.
| At least, geologically speaking.
|
| Of course, if this is all just political, then you can
| take any borders you wish to be Europe. I was only
| pointing out that if we're talking about landmasses in
| the geological sense, then the commenter was correct,
| Europe clearly does not extend past the Urals.
| Scientifically speaking.
| Retric wrote:
| In terms of geology it's all just the Eurasia pate.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Plate
|
| Europe has always just been an political/economic entity
| as overland passage to Asia is difficult. Which makes the
| border completely arbitrary with various historic maps
| placing it in different areas.
|
| That said plate technics is surprisingly recent, reaching
| a fairly modern form and acceptance in ~1960's.
| artur_makly wrote:
| Check out these latest photos taken all across various USA
| cities by NYTimes photographers:
| https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/16/us/scenes-from-americas-r...
|
| It's quite varied for a homogeneous country.
| k__ wrote:
| This is especially funny when I look at my home country
| Germany.
|
| It's one of EU countries with the densest population, but it
| doesn't feel that way. Especially the east is very empty in the
| countryside.
| SiempreViernes wrote:
| This is very much a question of reference points, I'm sure
| even the Belgians will insist there are sparsely populated
| areas in their country :)
|
| Scrolling around on a map of Germany, I could find a forest
| about 10 km across in the eastern bit that only looked to
| have a few roads marked on the map. Go into northern Sweden
| and you'll be drawing completely empty circles 50 km
| across...
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| A related map comparison that blew my mind and left me feeling
| I understood things a little better, is East coast of USA vs
| Japan:
|
| https://photoguide.jp/log/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/JapanUS...
| sangnoir wrote:
| 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.
| EvilEy3 wrote:
| Good luck living in Siberia.
| fsloth wrote:
| As the tundra thaws that place is predicted to be a massive
| agricultural production area.
| youtube__ wrote:
| No, there isn't room to grow unless you're talking about
| decimating other species and habitats. I live in one of those
| densely populated areas, and see the environmental, social,
| and political challenges of overpopulation every day.
| peoplefromibiza wrote:
| with the population density of NYC the entire World
| population would fit in Texas.
|
| the environmental benefits would be enormous
| spankyspangler wrote:
| Biodiversity is being decimated at an ever increasing rate,
| oceans are being stripped of life, many minerals will be
| mined out and become depleted and economically inaccessible
| within a generation or two, fresh water is running out,
| antibiotic resistance is increasing, long term chemicals are
| accumulating in the environment.
|
| That's all before you even talk about greenhouse gasses.
| bandana wrote:
| What would those regions be ? The Sahara isn't overpopulated
| if you look at the density of population, but it can't really
| sustain anybody. I'm sure there are some rain forests left to
| cut so we can grow more food for 1 or 2 billions extra
| people, but what's the end goal ? The world is overpopulated.
| ClumsyPilot wrote:
| What are you measuring to determine over or
| underpopulation? Food production? We grow more food that is
| required to feed current population, much of world's
| farming is not efficient, done without modern equipment,
| etx., and then there is the subject of meat - if we stopped
| growing feed for animals, and instead seitch to vegetarian
| diet, we could feed a lot more people.
|
| Then there is the argument that glasshouses are 10x as
| productive as open fields, so if we were to use them
| predominantly, we could return land to forests.
| e3bc54b2 wrote:
| The _modern_ agriculture just means automating depleting
| natural aquifers and using up topsoil and abusing
| chemicals at massive scale. Its the agricultural
| equivalent of optimizing for next quarter, but losing out
| on next decade.
| eru wrote:
| How would greenhouses use up top-soil?
| JPLeRouzic wrote:
| Some places when seen from planes looks literally as
| vitrified, for example in Netherlands.
| em500 wrote:
| One of the largest current national problems in the
| Netherlands is the overproduction of nitrogen compounds,
| mostly caused by intensive farming. There's more to
| sustainability than CO2 and topsoil depletion.
| ClumsyPilot wrote:
| Ancient equivalent is slash-and-burn agriculture, and
| famines from crop diseases and droughts. I dont think
| modern vs oldschool juxtaposition is helpfull
| birdyrooster wrote:
| What does it mean to be an African? Is there unifying culture
| of all of Africa? Like when I say I am an American, I don't
| mean the continent, I am talking about living in the US, but
| when someone calls themselves an African, what can I glean from
| that other than they live on a large, heterogenous continent?
| philipswood wrote:
| As a fellow African I struggle to answer the question!
|
| I find it interesting that your (valid to you and a commonly
| used use case) of "being American" excludes Canada, Mexico,
| etc. ... (actually all of South America).
|
| There isn't a common culture.
|
| I'm also acutely aware that my definition is extremely
| unlikely to be shared in North Africa, Central Africa, even
| in another province of my own country).
|
| All that said "being African" parses with a lot more
| emotional and ideological content than just geography.
|
| There's a hint of pride at the grandeur and diversity of the
| landscape and peoples, a dollop of hope for a brighter future
| given our huge potential (despite our poverty we have so much
| more stuff than many other countries), there's a dash of
| injustice of colonial history and exploitation.
|
| When I work with someone from Nigeria or Kenia or I interact
| with someone who is effectively a refugee from DRC or
| Zimbabwe - I can honestly say we seem to have something in
| common with our feeling about Africa.
| industriousthou wrote:
| I think you'll find lot's of people from North and South
| America would take issue with your definition of "American".
| birdyrooster wrote:
| Totally but they would also know I was just speaking of the
| US. I don't have any frame of reference for someone who
| says they are African.
| slim wrote:
| It's an identity. It attracts people who have it and repels
| people who don't have it. With efficient communication
| channels around it you can eventually build homogeneity. (I'm
| African)
| MihaiSandor wrote:
| This map ( https://thetruesize.com )is very interesting, also.
| scythe wrote:
| 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 of August
| epicycloidal): https://postimg.cc/N5nZ18CF
| gsich wrote:
| Gall sucks, it looks vey ugly. If you want equal area use
| Eckert 4 (fill the rectangle if desired).
| scythe wrote:
| Aside: this was meant to be a reply to this comment:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27168589
|
| Not at top level.
| dang wrote:
| Past related threads. Others?
|
| _The size of Africa, in perspective (photo)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7492708 - March 2014 (1
| comment)
|
| _True size of Africa_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7249832 - Feb 2014 (31
| comments)
|
| _The True Size of Africa - Misleading Maps_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6226458 - Aug 2013 (101
| comments)
|
| _The True Size of Africa (2010) [pdf]_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5790504 - May 2013 (44
| comments)
|
| _The True Size of Africa (infographic)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865958 - Nov 2010 (2
| comments)
|
| _The True Size of Africa_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1789769 - Oct 2010 (1
| comment)
|
| _The True Size of Africa_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1780004 - Oct 2010 (38
| comments)
|
| _Strange Maps: Did you realize Africa is this big?_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=366692 - Nov 2008 (51
| comments)
| Havoc wrote:
| And less GDP than california somehow...
| bombcar wrote:
| It's only 6m sq km more than _North America_ - but a major
| significant part of that is Canada.
| dr_dshiv wrote:
| Isn't this recent 2021 map fantastically simple and accurate?
|
| https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/18/22289120/globe-2d-map-dou...
| idatum wrote:
| Projections can be tricky. Early memory I have in college: I
| walked into my professor's office and she had a curious looking
| map on her wall. It had Australia at the center and the US was
| distorted and upside down.
|
| As someone from North America (US) this was a nice lesson in
| perspective.
| xpe wrote:
| Yes, I think more than one Australian professor have a similar
| map on display. :)
| robocat wrote:
| A good page of examples with xcellent historical background:
| https://www.flourish.org/upsidedownmap/
| aksss wrote:
| So too with a polar view of the planet:
| https://www.grida.no/resources/7845
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Shh. We arent supposed to talk about those maps. The earth is
| officially round.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| Why is the subtitle "a visual comparison with other continents"
| here? It's not in the source, and the source _does not compare
| Africa visually to other continents_ (except that one of the
| smaller visualizations conpares it to Europe), but to individual
| countries.
| ohyeshedid wrote:
| I share the same read. It's very much an apples to oranges
| comparison.
| axguscbklp wrote:
| 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."
| pvorb wrote:
| That's not really accurate. Madagascar, for example, is about
| twice the size of Great Britain. That's without Ireland, but
| still...
| cortesoft wrote:
| He mentions this in the article.
| tome wrote:
| He does but I can't understand his rationale. He claims it's
| "just a symbolic image - it may as well have been just blobs
| to tell the story" and "Had I stretched things to truly
| properly show that though, then the whole shape of Africa
| would have looked very awkwardly elongated." But why? One
| could scale the outlines so that they have the correct
| relative area whilst they preserve shape.
|
| I think it's just a poorly-designed map.
| paulpauper wrote:
| becase why not
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTQbiNvZqaY
| djmips wrote:
| ^ Africa video by TOTO
| afterburner wrote:
| Wow the audio is badly out of sync.
| _Microft wrote:
| "Kai Krause" is the one of "Kai's Power Tools" ("KPT") and
| "Bryce" fame by the way.
|
| https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Krause
| nfoz wrote:
| Wow! Thanks for the heads up. Those were some of my favourite
| softwares. Inspired design.
| [deleted]
| mikestew wrote:
| 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.
| layoutIfNeeded wrote:
| I think a lot of Americans think that Africa _is_ a country.
| imtringued wrote:
| That sounds more like a language quirk. For example, gas does
| not refer to a state of matter, it refers to a liquid fuel
| used in cars.
|
| Calculus doesn't refer to categories of calculations, it
| refers to infinitesimal calculus.
|
| America doesn't refer to the combination of both South and
| North America, it refers to a specific country in North
| America called the "United States of America".
|
| In your case they simply may have decided to just drop the
| "South" from "South Africa".
|
| I don't understand the logic behind these abbreviations so I
| will never understand why someone would refer to a single
| African country by "Africa" as a whole, but apparently that
| is what some Americans do or at least it sounds believable
| when you consider the 3 examples I have mentioned above.
| umanwizard wrote:
| What makes you think so? I'm American and have never
| encountered that belief.
| layoutIfNeeded wrote:
| https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/
|
| https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/c
| o...
| torstenvl wrote:
| > _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.
| layoutIfNeeded wrote:
| A candidate and a president (who's a Yale and Harvard
| alumnus):
|
| " One of the most famous blunders made by former U.S.
| President George W. Bush was, "Africa is a nation that
| suffers from terrible disease." President Bush, like many
| others, misconstrued the fact that Africa is not a
| country, but a continent."
|
| https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/11/23/africa-not-
| a-co...
|
| But surely, it must be a coincidence! :)
| ordu wrote:
| _> But surely, it must be a coincidence!_
|
| Coincidence of what and what? Bush is well known for his
| blunders, so it is not such a coincidence that this one
| is of his authorship. Or did you mean that it was
| _American_ president who blundered this? How many other
| presidents had a chance to blunder in such a way that you
| 'd notice it? It is an important question, because
| blunders of American presidents are carried to every
| corner of the world, while blunders of a president of
| Botswana probably isn't.
|
| _> A candidate and a president_
|
| I pray, America is a democratic country, anyone could
| become a president. ;)
| samatman wrote:
| Joe Biden recently said "white supremacists and Nazi
| f*gs" while giving a speech.
|
| Should we conclude that he was referring to homosexual
| Nazis with a slur? Or did he mis-speak.
|
| GWB was a rich source of flubs and boners. Deciding that
| this one means Americans think Africa is a country is a
| big ol' [citation needed].
| alanbernstein wrote:
| I'm honestly shocked to hear that. I've encountered it many
| times.
| ddxxdd wrote:
| There's the fact that not many Americans can name more than
| 3 countries in Africa.
|
| And the ratio of people mentioning "Africa" rather than a
| particular nation in Africa is much high than the ratio of
| other continents being mentioned rather than their
| constituent countries.
|
| Also, "African American" is a common term; "European
| Americans" not so much.
| umanwizard wrote:
| All of these imply that Americans know less about Africa
| than other continents, which is true (and makes sense,
| since Africa is the poorest continent and therefore has
| the least impact on contemporary news, is relatively
| unpopular as a place to visit, etc).
|
| None of it implies that we "think Africa is a country".
|
| > "African American"
|
| Asian-American is a widely used term, too.
| meristohm wrote:
| I haven't yet found a reference site, but I remember then-
| President G. W. Bush referring to Africa as a big country.
|
| Edit to add: sometimes one important person's error gets
| conflated with the assumed views of many.
| tomrod wrote:
| Coming from a background most would consider rough and tumble
| in the US, this is true.
|
| However, you're missing a bit part of it. Americans don't
| understand governance models very well. Provinces are to
| counties and states are to small countries. What does federal
| map to? Mental model says next one up - continent.
|
| I'd argue its not precise to consider Americans dumb, just
| inexperienced outside our bubble.
| layoutIfNeeded wrote:
| >I'd argue its not precise to consider Americans dumb, just
| inexperienced outside our bubble.
|
| Indeed!
|
| Funny, because others replying to my comment seemed to be
| similarly inexperienced outside their well-educated Silicon
| Valley / Ivy League bubble... :^)
| tomrod wrote:
| I can't speak for them. I don't know that many to have
| any sort of reasonable basis.
| darkwater wrote:
| > 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...
| NaturalPhallacy wrote:
| > A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest
| of tiny details.
|
| For a second there I thought you were talking about hn.
| joe_the_user wrote:
| 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 size, importance, history and so forth of
| Africa have been neglected. But it seems like this should be
| dealt with more holistically than the infographic size
| comparison approach.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Area_and_population
| dleslie wrote:
| 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.
| [deleted]
| Turing_Machine wrote:
| The fact that countries and continents are two different
| things is not a "tiny detail".
|
| If you're comparing _continents_ , Asia is larger than
| Africa, and North America is nearly as large.
|
| If you're comparing _countries_ , the largest African country
| is Algeria, which ranks 10th.
| edem wrote:
| If you find this fascinating try the intractive version!
| https://thetruesize.com/
| jalgos_eminator wrote:
| Wow, this is a great visualization tool because it corrects for
| the distortions of flat maps. Greenland is always so huge on
| maps, but really its only a bit bigger than Mexico.
|
| For people trying the website out, you can type in the country
| then drag it around the world and it will change size based on
| latitude (because of flat map distortion), but you can also
| left click on the country, then turn it by clicking and holding
| on the compass in the lower left. You can also change the
| colors by double clicking the county.
| zokier wrote:
| > Greenland is always so huge on maps
|
| Not quite always.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-area_map
| andix wrote:
| Off course Africa is huge. I think it takes around 9 hours by
| plane to get from Cape Town to Tunis. But Africa is extremely
| diverse, there are so many different counties and cultures.
|
| What impressed me most recently, was the size of Brazil. I flew
| from Montevideo to Madrid and around one third of the 12 hour
| flight you just fly over Brazil
| prestigious wrote:
| It's interesting as I always thought Africa is over populated but
| then if the whole of France was the Sahara it would be over
| populated as well.
| gundmc wrote:
| This reminds me of my favorite scene from The West Wing where
| they talk about how misleading the Mercator projection is with
| regard to the size of Africa.
|
| https://youtu.be/eLqC3FNNOaI
| tptacek wrote:
| The alternative projection used in that episode is apparently
| pretty bad too. (It's a great scene, though!)
| igitur wrote:
| This is exactly why I despise it when I people say "things go
| south" then they mean "get worse" or "north of" when they mean
| "better".
| cortesoft wrote:
| Big block of cheese day!
| kingsuper20 wrote:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXqKkYYALMU
| raldi wrote:
| It says "United States with Alaska & Hawaii" but I don't see them
| anywhere.
| Nition wrote:
| > "The table at right shows the US including Alaska and Hawaii,
| btw. And while not listing Eastern Europe (dark blue in the
| map) it adds many others unused in the map: Mexico, Peru, New
| Guinea, New Zealand, Nepal and Bangladesh!"
| jobigoud wrote:
| It's not on the map but it's included in the figure they used
| to add all these countries together to compare with the size of
| Africa.
| bombcar wrote:
| I guess it fits in all the cracks.
| aksss wrote:
| Right, HI is probably not material, but considering AK is 1/4
| the size of the contiguous US, that's pretty substantial.
| dominicjj wrote:
| I remember flying to Munich once from Cape Town and a German
| colleague guessed the flight was three to four hours. I said no,
| it was over eleven hours and he was shocked. I laughed and told
| him to check out a globe sometime - not a map - so he could trace
| for himself how massive Africa really is. The surface area of the
| moon is only 20% larger.
| coyotespike wrote:
| whoa, now there's a statistic for you!
| bombcar wrote:
| Asia is 17.21 million mi2 - and the moon is 14.6 million mi2.
| wolfram74 wrote:
| And, according to a very literal reading of 1917 Catholic
| law, under the jurisdiction of the diocese of orlando.
|
| https://aleteia.org/2018/08/03/yes-the-moon-has-its-own-
| cath...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Diocese_of_Orla.
| ..
| mgerullis wrote:
| Ha, in 3-4 hours you may be in Cairo at best
| vishnugupta wrote:
| I got curious and looked at a non-Mercator map and it seems
| Cairo is 7-8hrs away. Damn, Africa is huge.
|
| Interestingly India got separated from African continent.
| West cost of India snugly fits on the right edge of The Horn
| of Africa. India collided with the larger Asian land mass
| resulting in the formation of the Himalayan mountain range.
| It's fun to think about that the western coastal mountains of
| India are much older than the northern mountains!
|
| Geography is lot of fun!!
| Gibbon1 wrote:
| If you leave Cairo in a Taxi after 3-4 hours you'll still be
| in Cairo.
| mgerullis wrote:
| Stuck on 6th of October bridge
| dominicjj wrote:
| After four hours, you're still flying over the Congo and
| haven't even crossed the equator yet.
| unglaublich wrote:
| Ah, the Mercator Puzzle https://bramus.github.io/mercator-puzzle-
| redux/
| tardismechanic wrote:
| Reminds me of this scene:
|
| Why are we changing maps? (from The West Wing) -
| https://youtube.com/watch?v=eLqC3FNNOaI
| logbiscuitswave wrote:
| I love that scene. It's one I find myself thinking back on
| whenever there's a cartography discussion (such as this
| thread).
| mclightning wrote:
| Flash News Today! A continent is bigger than most countries!
| jlos wrote:
| Why isn't Canada or Russia, the two largest countries by land
| mass, included?
| witherk wrote:
| Probably because it's trying to convince you that Africa is
| really huge, so including other really big countries would be
| counterproductive. I guess you could argue that Canada and
| Russia both have a lot of tundra that no one wants to live on
| so that land doesn't count or something.
| bombcar wrote:
| I've not drawn up the maps, but it appears that North America
| is just a bit larger than the USA, Canada, and Mexico
| combined. That's large!
| sandworm101 wrote:
| Canada is tricky because of all the islands in the north. It
| isnt a solid blob. Russia is tricky becuase it is so long. I
| dont think it and the US would nest nicely inside the africa
| outline. And we cannot ever have a map without thr USA center
| stage. Also with russia, exactly which boarder should we use?
| It's probably better to just not enter into that debate.
| samatman wrote:
| > _Also with russia, exactly which boarder should we use?_
|
| I assure you no one was thinking about that. They would just
| take whatever they got from punching "Russia" into the GIS
| database.
| eCa wrote:
| You can make your own comparisons on https://thetruesize.com/
|
| (Spoiler: Africa is still big.)
| djmips wrote:
| Dragging Indonesia around was very illuminating for me.
| Somehow I know the least about Indonesia of all places.
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| 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.
| ithkuil wrote:
| >17%
| jandrewrogers wrote:
| Alaska is 17% of the US but ~21% larger than CONUS, which
| is how it was expressed.
| djmips wrote:
| Canada isn't as big as you think it is.
| jt2190 wrote:
| OT: Here's a little bit of Russia and Canada for you ;)
|
| https://youtu.be/BXqKkYYALMU
| ahi wrote:
| Many years ago, a family member (USian, suburban, whitebread) was
| dating the son of a Nigerian diplomat posted in Addis Ababa. She
| asked him how long a drive it was, and that's how I knew the
| relationship was doomed.
|
| I just looked it up. Addis Ababa to Lagos is 2400 miles as the
| crow flies. This presumably auto-generated route planner states
| nearly 5000 miles driving. On day one on your drive to Lagos, it
| recommends 9 hours of driving and stopping in Gondar, still 3.5
| hours to the Sudanese border. https://www.trippy.com/drive/Addis-
| Ababa-to-Lagos-Nigeria
| blowski wrote:
| Obligatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/977/
| bioinformatics wrote:
| It's big.
| doggodaddo78 wrote:
| I don't know why, but I thought of this song when I saw "Africa."
|
| Cesaria Evora - _Africa Nossa_
|
| https://youtu.be/QH1UG6V7iiY
| mattowen_uk wrote:
| And not this?
|
| https://youtu.be/FTQbiNvZqaY
|
| Interesting... :)
| bioinformatics wrote:
| It's big, quite big.
| boraoztunc wrote:
| >> 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://totravelistolive.co/authagraph-world-map/
| macspoofing wrote:
| Very neat. And he didn't forget New Zealand[1] =)
|
| I wonder how much the Mercator projection influenced the recent
| flat earth movement, specifically the Antarctic ice wall.
|
| [1]https://www.reddit.com/r/MapsWithoutNZ/
| slim wrote:
| The map also follows the tradition of putting one's own country
| at the center
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| Really cool. The shapes of the contents and countries seem like
| what I am used to. Except for Brazil.
|
| Brazil really looks like it bulges out from South America
| compared to what I have seen on globes and other projections.
|
| Does anyone know why that happens?
| wtallis wrote:
| Any comparison of map projections should include Tissot's
| indicatrix [0] as a visualization of how distortion varies
| across the map. I find that it's easier to understand than
| looking at stretched and bent lines of latitude and
| longitude.
|
| For AuthaGraph: https://kunimune.home.blog/2017/11/23/the-
| secrets-of-the-aut...
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tissot%27s_indicatrix
| alanbernstein wrote:
| I prefer the (related) Dymaxion approach myself, but I'll admit
| it's not quite as accessible.
| afterburner wrote:
| Even better, a close relative of it: https://en.wikipedia.org
| /wiki/Cahill%E2%80%93Keyes_projectio...
| birktj wrote:
| I really like the Dymaxion projection as well, especially the
| fact that one can easily see that all major land masses are
| separated by only small distances of water.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_map
| zokier wrote:
| Dymaxion map is neat, but I don't think human brains are
| very good at handling interrupted maps and Dymaxion is
| particularly challenging. It is just pretty difficult to
| mentally intuit how the edges connect, and especially judge
| distances that cross the edges. Trying to eyeball something
| like Sydney-Lima great circle path on Dymaxion is
| unintuitive.
|
| Of similar interrupted style, I think butterfly projections
| are even better. They might distort land masses slightly
| more, but are immensely more readable. And they have very
| pretty symmetric outline.
| afterburner wrote:
| I far prefer
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahill%E2%80%93Keyes_projectio...
|
| Minimal distortion, preserves east west alignment as much as
| possible.
| owenversteeg wrote:
| I'm not a fan of AuthaGraph at all. It has horrible distortion
| look at Brazil or Alaska - and it's proprietary (creator never
| released the actual map details, so you can't make your own...)
| The worst thing, in my eyes, is that the distortion is
| unpredictable. Looking at a map where Canada is too big, you
| can mentally imagine Canada as smaller. But you can't mentally
| undo the multi-direction transformation of Alaska into not-
| Alaska. The distortion is so bad that real world things like a
| road trip through South America would end up looking completely
| different from this map to another. You better hope you never
| get on a boat or a plane using this map - try tracing a
| straight line if you want a laugh. (The unfortunate distortion-
| hacking done by its creator effectively dumped the distortion
| in the oceans, so good luck if you ever go there.)
|
| Design features like "you can do nifty origami with it"
| shouldn't factor into if a map is used or not.
|
| In my opinion, if you want something modern and cool, and you
| really care about pure accuracy, go with Waterman Butterfly. If
| you want something four sided and traditional, and relative
| sizes are slightly less important (but still important), go
| with Peirce Quincuncial - which, I might add, has far better
| looking Tissot's indicatrices.
| macspoofing wrote:
| Your criticisms are way too strong. Every 2D projection map
| of a 3D globe is going to make some compromises. So you can
| make the similar kinds of arguments for Mercator projection
| maps, which preserve shapes, but not relative sizes.
|
| >You better hope you never get on a boat or a plane using
| this map - try tracing a straight line if you want a laugh.
|
| Then don't use it for that!
|
| >Design features like "you can do nifty origami with it"
| shouldn't factor into if a map is used or not.
|
| Maps are made for functional or aesthetic reasons or both.
| Why shouldn't that be a consideration? The pertinent question
| is: what do you want to use your map for?
|
| >In my opinion, if you want something modern and cool
|
| Again, what are you trying to optimize for?
| andi999 wrote:
| If one really cares about accuracy, why not getting a globe.
| sheepdestroyer wrote:
| We all do : Google Earth. Is there still a point to 2D
| maps?
| KineticLensman wrote:
| > Is there still a point to 2D maps?
|
| Hiking away from cell towers and wifi
|
| Historical maps
|
| Maps that aren't owned by Google
| Judgmentality wrote:
| > Hiking away from cell towers and wifi
|
| Just download the map in advance.
|
| > Historical maps
|
| Agreed on this.
|
| > Maps that aren't owned by Google
|
| I agree with this in principle, but there are
| alternatives to Google Maps and some of them are even
| gaining popularity because developers in general are
| terrified of ever relying on Google for anything besides
| ads.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| > Just download the map in advance
|
| Okay, hiking away from cell towers and wifi and power
| supplies
| Judgmentality wrote:
| My phone gets about 4 days of use currently before
| recharging, and I could pretty easily find ways to
| recharge it even using solar power if I wanted to.
|
| If you don't want to use your phone as a map that's fine,
| but it's incredibly convenient for (I'd wager) 99% of use
| cases.
| thewakalix wrote:
| Yes, you're very clever.
| logbiscuitswave wrote:
| That's a fascinatingly done projection. It really demonstrates
| how it's possible for Maine to be the closest US state to
| Africa.
| josephcsible wrote:
| This projection seems to really skew shapes. For example,
| Alaska looks skewed diagonally, Brazil looks really stretched
| east-to-west, and the west half of Australia looks too big
| compared to the east half.
| eru wrote:
| Mercator is what you get when you preserve local angles (ie
| shapes). So it's only natural that moving away from Mercator
| would distort shapes.
|
| I guess you could try to concentrate your angle distortion
| into the ocean away from the land masses that people care
| about?
| Causality1 wrote:
| _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._
|
| This is a bullshit statement. You cannot project the surface of
| the earth onto a flat plane without distortion. AuthaGraph
| favors the preservation of size at the cost of extreme
| distortion of shape.
| ZeroGravitas wrote:
| Here is an interactive tool, that lets you center other
| projections on different countries, to see the effect of the
| distortions move about:
|
| https://engaging-data.com/country-centered-map-projections/
|
| From playing around with that, it would seem the design process
| for the map was to "center" japan, then fiddle around with the
| polar regions to make them more recognisable.
| block_dagger wrote:
| How about an accurate rotatable 3 dimensional map using the
| puzzle piece idea? I'm not skilled at 3d animation but I bet a
| talented artist could do it fairly easily.
| DistressedDrone wrote:
| At that point why not just use a globe?
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