
Map collection - chris_wot
http://twistedsifter.com/2013/08/maps-that-will-help-you-make-sense-of-the-world
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grimtrigger
I'm worried about posts like this making it on the front page: so much
information spread so thinly. There isn't any analysis that could explain why
or how implicit trends are important or even real.

~~~
chris_wot
I sort of think you miss the point. This gives a sense of place and location,
which is why I posted it. Some of the data, unfortunately, looks a bit wrong.

What I did find interesting is that it awakened in me a little more curiosity
about the lands and countries around me, and the people who inhabit them.
That's really not a bad thing!

~~~
chris_wot
What's with the down votes?

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casca
The Washington Post blog had an article the day before called "40 maps that
explain the world" that has more depth around why the maps are the way they
are.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/12...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/12/40-maps-
that-explain-the-world/)

~~~
aet
I don't like these maps -- not giving a clear picture. For example, 26 weeks
paid maternal leave in the Congo.

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AliEzer
Morocco is shown as not having McDonald's, except there actually are 13. On
the other hand Algeria has none and is shown as having McDonald's.

~~~
gazrogers
The map also seems to be saying there's no McDonald's in Romania, but I'm
pretty sure I've eaten in a McDonald's in Bucharest.

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fideloper
Anyone know if the map of "literal Chinese translations for country names" is
accurate? Seems like there's some possible insight into Chinese culture if
what it portrays is accurate.

I wonder how much business China does with Italy :D

~~~
msvan
It's not really fair to translate the names back into English in this way.
Finland, for instance, is 芬兰 which does indeed mean fragrant orchid, but the
reason that name was picked is because it's pronounced fēnlán which sounds
roughly similar to "Finland" in English. To Chinese people, these are just
phonetic loan words and don't carry any meaning beyond being state names.

That said, the map as a literal translation is mostly "correct", even though
it is meaningless.

I might add that "Asia" also is a loan word in Chinese. If you do a literal
translation of that name, it comes out as being something along the lines of
"secondary/inferior continent". This does not mean that Chinese people think
Asia is a bad continent. It's just a phonetic loan.

~~~
mhurron
> That said, the map as a literal translation is mostly "correct", even though
> it is meaningless.

And Canada is literally 'village.' Meaningless, but a funny bit of trivia.
Which is all the literal Chinese names map is.

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seszett
Wait, how comes on the fifth map, "McDonald’s Across the World", Iceland is
shown as not having McDonald's, but at the same time it's listed as the third
most expensive country for McDonald's burgers?

~~~
ronaldx
McDonald's Iceland franchisee pulled out because it was too expensive. (they
renamed the restaurants "Metro", I believe)

cite:
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8327185.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8327185.stm)
[http://metroborgari.is/](http://metroborgari.is/)

~~~
talmir
I thought they pulled out due to instability in the icelandic markets due to
the financial collapse of 2007.

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claudius
The literal translation of the Chinese name for Switzerland is “Swiss
Scholar”? I smell recursion…

~~~
abrowne
I don't know about this case specifically, but it doesn't have to be
recursive. English has a similar examples, such as Scotland, England, and
Denmark. To take the first as an example, "Scot" is the demonym, and we add
the suffix "-land" to make the placename. A demonym doesn't have to be based
on the placename.

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VMG
The Street View availability in Europe isn't really accurate from the macro
level- if you zoom into central Europe, you'll see that Germany and Austria
have very little Street View coverage.

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kal00ma
Nice to see that Midway Island has been street-viewed:
[http://goo.gl/maps/1M7UN](http://goo.gl/maps/1M7UN) . Seems the birds have
taken over there.

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wikiburner
This may be a stupid question, but can anyone come up with _any_ possible
argument for why this might be false:

#40 - _" (because position of North is arbitrary)"_

Just curious.

~~~
randyrand
Well obviously not completely arbitrary - it's entirely based on earth's
magnetic field.

As for which way we call 'up' \- here's an excerpt from the 'North' Wikipedia
article as for why 'North' is up instead of 'South':

 _Up is a metaphor for north. The notion that north should always be up and
east at the right was established by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. The
historian Daniel Boorstin suggests that perhaps this was because the better-
known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map
these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand
corner._

Edit: As user javindo points out, the excerpt is especially true for globes
where studying land on the bottom of a globe is especially cumbersome. It's
hardly arbitrary that ~3/4 of land is in the Northern Hemisphere.

~~~
Thrymr
> it's entirely based on earth's magnetic field.

No, north is based on Earth's rotational axis. Magnetic north is not true
north, as a good topographic map will indicate.

North is a convention of rotation direction: from above the north pole, a
planet appears to rotate counterclockwise.

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adeaver
The most evocative map for me was the bonus one. I could only color in 2
countries (and 1 is my home country).

Makes me want to explore the world more.

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talmir
Iceland is shown on the Pangaea map, it is very very very tiny, but it is
there.

Iceland did not exist as a landmass back when pangea was a thing.

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chris_wot
I thought that this was a remarkably informative article! One of the other
ways I personally got a sense of the locations of countries was a quite simple
yet addictive Windows game called EMPIRE [1]. For instance I now know where
Egypt actually is on the world map.

1\. [http://www.classicempire.com/](http://www.classicempire.com/)

~~~
ozh
Next you'll learn about Turkey and Hungary --
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey35bBWXls‎](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cey35bBWXls‎)

~~~
chris_wot
I usually conquer them last.

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speeder
One thing that made me kinda worried: Why some countries with the lowest age
of first sex, are the same ones with so much persecution of people that do sex
at that age, specially in the form of child porn laws?

~~~
Derbasti
Having consensual sex as a minor is very very different from documented abuse
of children.

~~~
randyrand
Obviously. But one could argue that there should be a correlation between the
age most people start doing something (in this case having sex/filming sex)
and the age at which it becomes legal to do so.

After all, laws are typically meant to be a 'best-fit' policy for societal
norms.

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aet
The U.S. does have paid maternal leave. In fact, I had 6 weeks paternal leave
at my old job. The benefit was available to all employees at the (Fortune 500)
company.

~~~
selter01
Just because some people get it does not mean everyone gets it.

~~~
acheron
Then those who prioritize it will take jobs where it is available.

By mandating it, an employer has to consider the possibility whenever they
hire someone, and so salaries will be lower as a result. If the employee
doesn't get pregnant and use the leave, their salary has been kept lower with
no benefit to them.

~~~
allannienhuis
The expected benefit for those that don't use the leave themselves is a more
stable and healthy society due to better child care and stronger social/family
bonds. Overall lower (net) salaries is a trade-off that most societies in the
world are willing to make. Mandating it is a means of mitigating the tragedy
of the commons - people thinking that there is no benefit to them at all when
they don't get the benefit directly.

