Subject:
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Re: twisted map followup
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.geek
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Date:
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Mon, 10 Jun 2002 03:23:43 GMT
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Reply-To:
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mattdm@mattdm.=spamless=org
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Viewed:
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559 times
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Mr L F Braun <braunli1@pilot.msu.edu> wrote:
> Here's a quick follow-up to the matter of Arno Peters as a shameless
> self-promoter and his map as not novel. Here's an article that's
> rather well-written and goes over the general points (including
> why the Peters/Gall maps aren't really that useful):
>
> http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030201a.htm
To be fair, I haven't heard the Peters folks actually claiming that theirs
is the *only* improved map -- just the point that the Mercator projection
was designed for navigation, not getting a view of the world as a whole.
They've been pretty forthright in saying that all projections inherently
have a bias, and that they've chosen one they feel is better for political
reasons.
The article you point to seems to agree on all of those points, except with
the addition that there are other projections which are probably even better
(I personally like the one National Geographic uses), and with the claim
that anyone who links to the Peters Projection web site is ignorant and
blind.
Particularly, it says "The Mercator map was never intended to be used as a
wall map and by the time Peters started complaining about it, he was
creating a mountain out of a molehill as the Mercator map was well on its
way out of fashion." -- the implication being that Peters chose Mercator as
a foil because it is so obviously an easy target, but that in reality no one
uses such projections anyway.
Well, it may be out of fashion among cartographers, but I know I have seen
it many times used inappropriately by news organizations many times, and I
definitely saw it on my classroom walls and textbooks. Given these facts,
the article's main complaint completely falls apart. It's all well and good
that professional map makers know better -- but Peters supporters' point
that the general public -- including government, media, and schools --
*don't* know better is completely valid.
--
Matthew Miller mattdm@mattdm.org <http://www.mattdm.org/>
Boston University Linux ------> <http://linux.bu.edu/>
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | twisted map followup
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| Here's a quick follow-up to the matter of Arno Peters as a shameless self-promoter and his map as not novel. Here's an article that's rather well-written and goes over the general points (including why the Peters/Gall maps aren't really that (...) (22 years ago, 9-Jun-02, to lugnet.off-topic.geek)
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