stats: boston-based radical nerd in my 30s
yes, I am a grown-ass lady believe it or not
happily living in sin with my co-conspirator Mr. X
Other tags of interest - Places I Wish I Was Right Now, GPOY, owls, you are cordially invited to my pants, this has been a post, OH MY GOD, Favorite of all the things, Maru is the best cat in the whole world
So I am going to be spitting some knowledge that has kept me from falling back asleep last night.
Now, to discuss maps I gotta refresh some of y’alls memory because geography is probably the farthest thing in the world for you right now. In fact I doubt they are teaching any of it in schools anymore since I’ve left elementary and middle school.
I never even thought of that. Wow.
It’s bizarre just how weird that second map looks to me. Even though it’s objectively correct. My brain actually skips over it, like whoa that’s wrong. Stupid indoctrination.
Here’s the map thing that bugs me : the standard maps that USians see are based on a design that exaggerates the size of the Northern Hemisphere, like so:

which has the weird effect of making Africa and Greenland approximately the same size. That’s not even close to true.
A more reality-based version of this map, using the actual measured land size of all the continents, looks like this:

Hey look! Suddenly Africa’s a whole lot bigger! So is Brazil, and India, and much of the Middle East. Meanwhile, Europe and North America got smaller. Did anybody get this second map in their schools? I sure didn’t.
maaaaaaaaaaaaps
As an American living in *ahem* “Old Mexico” at the moment, let me tell you how accurate this is: VERY.
LULZ at “Iceland sunk the Titanic.”
(via lord-kitschener)