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Map of LtU readers

Cool new meme...

Following Estzer and Brian I have created a Frappr map for LtU readers.

Click on that link and (a) you'll have a chance to see where some of the readers are and (b) add yourself.

By Ehud Lamm at 2005-10-28 12:16 | Admin | other blogs | 11655 reads

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Mercator !!!

Back in the '70s a weekend TV world news program in the UK made a strong visual statement, the studio backgrounds showed the "modern" fractured shape of our world - an Interrupted Goode homolosine map.

In my dreams our common view of the world comes from maps designed in the 20th century (Winkel Tripel) instead of the 16th century (Mercator) - how else are we to understand that Greenland is not bigger than the continent of Africa.

By Isaac Gouy at Fri, 2005-10-28 17:26 | login or register to post comments

Maps are like programming lan

Maps are like programming languages, in that they can't be judged without context. Google maps represents a way to summarize and navigate information tied to geographical regions.
If I wanted to know the land mass of Greenland, I'd use a different tool.

By a_brisson at Fri, 2005-10-28 18:47 | login or register to post comments

Mercator is the wrong tool

Google maps represents a way to summarize and navigate information tied to geographical regions

Mercator is not the appropriate map projection for that purpose.

By Isaac Gouy at Fri, 2005-10-28 20:47 | login or register to post comments

How's that? As someone planni

How's that? As someone planning a roadtrip, looking for locations in a city, or making obervations like "most LtU readers live in New England," I don't see how the distortions of the projection would effect me as a user.

By a_brisson at Fri, 2005-10-28 21:36 | login or register to post comments

Like programming languages

I don't see how

On some map projections New England wouldn't be visible - that's how the distortions of a map projection effect you as a user.


Do differences between programming languages effect you as a user of programming languages?

By Isaac Gouy at Sat, 2005-10-29 16:44 | login or register to post comments

No choice

Well, you have to be able to zoom in and get the usual streep maps. So it has to be a map that preserves angles and keeps north/south vertical. I think Mercator is the only conformal map with vertical meridians, so Google had no choice.

By Sjoerd Visscher at Fri, 2005-10-28 22:04 | login or register to post comments

the usual streep maps

What makes you think the street maps use Mercator?

It would be very unusual to base large scale maps (street maps) on Mercator - with a different map scale there are different trade-offs, and different appropriate map projections.

NGI

By Isaac Gouy at Sat, 2005-10-29 16:35 | login or register to post comments

They got complaints.

I did not say that street maps use Mercator. I only said that you need a map, which when you zoom in look like regular street maps. So it has to be a map that preserves angles. Show me a conformal map that would be a better choice than Mercator!

Btw, Google Maps started with using the plate carrée projection, but they got complaints. F.e. I saw a complaint once on Slashdot that the perpendicular streets in Anchorage did not look perpendicular at all.

By Sjoerd Visscher at Sun, 2005-11-06 23:18 | login or register to post comments

Global distribution of users?

In other words: Not a single member from Africa?!

By Ehud Lamm at Fri, 2005-11-04 09:56 | login or register to post comments

To show one truth, you must distort another

So Greenland is no smaller than the continent of Africa, either, from some perspective. Perhaps size is not as important as people or the digital divide. Perhaps it's better to take it from the top, or take a sideways glance.

When you find yourself thinking that everyone else is a living in a fool's world, it might be time to take a wider pespective and remember that not everyone is looking at the same map. As every mapmaker knows, to show one truth, you must distort another.

[Take it as a meta-comment on where LtU is, from someone who has been away a couple of years, and sometime wonders where he is. The quote is from Seeing Through Maps: The Power of Images to Shape Our World View by Ward L. Kaiser and Denis Wood.]>/div>
By rici at Fri, 2005-11-04 16:08 | login or register to post comments

Knowing why

"As every mapmaker knows, to show one truth, you must distort another"

The interesting question is why the digital divide is presented on Mercator rather than on a Population Map?

By Isaac Gouy at Sun, 2005-11-06 02:11 | login or register to post comments