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Terminology [XKCD]

xkcd.com — *****

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 12, 2008

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  • dvsbastard, on 11/12/2008, -35/+1287In Soviet Russia...

    http://i36.tinypic.com/21npch4.jpg
  • Zalyster, on 11/12/2008, -166/+535These comments suck. North and south of me.
  • clearlychris, on 11/12/2008, -164/+531Caution: Comment graveyard ahead.
  • Waskonator, on 11/12/2008, -7/+278Bravo. This is first time i haven't cringed when someone tried to pull off this saying.
    I like your wit.
  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -9/+193*Awards one internet*
  • xxatlan, on 11/12/2008, -7/+186that makes sense.
  • identitymatrix, on 11/12/2008, -8/+134You erased Sri Lanka!
  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -157/+276Digg me down!
  • amk29j, on 11/12/2008, -2/+110That's only part of the reason. It's Eurocentric. Why does the Prime Meridian go through Greenwich? The whole system was originally developed by the Europeans and that's how it is today.

    Also something to note: the Mercator projection (which is what is shown in this comic) also magnifies the size of landmasses the farther north or south you get from the equator. So in actuality, Africa is MUCH bigger than what it looks like in comparison to Europe in the Mercator projection.

    But contrary to popular belief, this projection isn't used just to make Europe look bigger than it is. The projection is used because it does not distort direction. So if you draw a line from Point A to Point B and calculate the angle, you can use your compass to travel from A to B without landing 500 miles away from where you thought you were going to land. It's not the shortest distance from A to B. So the Mercator projection has just stuck for convenience's sake.

    Why I went on a long side tangent about the Mercator Projection? Probably because it's 3 in the morning and I should be asleep.
  • identitymatrix, on 11/12/2008, -2/+76Nothing gets by me. Nothing.
  • RobotKeaton, on 11/12/2008, -9/+79Good riddance.
  • iamsmooth, on 11/12/2008, -8/+64Trying to digg you so you don't get buried.
  • ahac, on 11/12/2008, -3/+58What about the Middle East (which is west of you)?
  • NeoNevermore, on 11/12/2008, -8/+62I see what you did there.
  • whataboutdave, on 11/12/2008, -17/+69He never suggested any such thing.

    IIf your read the comic, it's a matter of his perspective.
  • austang, on 11/12/2008, -5/+55http://i34.tinypic.com/2wlyb7p.gif
    Some people don't like maps.
  • rpieszak, on 11/12/2008, -4/+52Bravo, good sir, bravo indeed
  • thscientist1, on 11/12/2008, -4/+45since its soviet russia, we all get one internet or NO ONE GETS ONE INTERNET
  • philomatic, on 02/08/2009, -12/+47I AM THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
  • xDynaBlade, on 11/12/2008, -12/+43No offense, but there is no center of the world. It's a matter of perspective.
  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -5/+34You don't have the right to call anyone ignorant if you're using the word "gays" in your comment.
  • coyote1284, on 11/12/2008, -15/+43………………………………………………………………………………………………
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  • iamsmooth, on 11/12/2008, -7/+32Digg me down never gets dugg down gets dugg down.
  • PrintScrn12, on 11/12/2008, -3/+27There is a centre of the world. It's under high pressure and extreme heat, with a population of zero.
  • PrintScrn12, on 11/12/2008, -5/+26Maps can orientated such that any location can appear to be in the centre of the world.
  • TomFrost, on 11/12/2008, -10/+31"Also, he doesn't get it that it's a matter of perspective."

    Normally in this case I'd just dig you down, but this time I feel compelled to ask you not to be a freakin' idiot :) The author of XKCD isn't some 12 year old moron, he's a NASA physicist who chose to leave to focus on his comic. Yes, I'm sure he's just completely clueless that looking at the map from a different perspective makes the directions make sense.

    Seriously now ;-)
  • marshallpeck, on 11/12/2008, -4/+24oh, you're good. very good.
  • t0x2c, on 11/12/2008, -6/+26Well, there's more land mass in the north. Since we read left to right, top to bottom, it makes sense to put the higher concentration of mass up top.
  • linagee, on 11/12/2008, -8/+27someone think of the children!
  • kinggimped, on 11/12/2008, -16/+35This is the map from which American kids learn world geography. I'm British, and this is the layout of the map we (and most other countries, since most other countries don't feel they continually need to exert some kind of dominance over the rest of the world, even in cartographic form) from which we studied: http://www.worldpress.org/images/maps/world_600w.j ...

    Since the majority of the globe had been discovered and mapped prior to the formation of the United States (not to mention the fact that GMT crosses through Greenwich, England, making it the most "sensible" place to have as the middle of the map), it's actually quite an interesting proof that bias is found everywhere - even on something you might think is 100% objective, like a map. I believe British-made maps still colour all the ex British colonies (e.g. India, Australia, etc.) in the same colour.

    Not quite as pretentious as shifting all the other countries over so yours appears to be the centre of the world, but hey.

    So... "east" and "west" work out just fine. I do find the relative names given to parts of the world can be interesting - what the British call the "Middle East" (i.e. the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran etc.), many European countries call the "Near East", because obviously it's closer to them. Their "Middle East" is our "Far East" (i.e. China, Japan, Korea etc.). So it's strange that Americans continue to use the British terms for these areas - I guess technically the Far East to Americans would be the "Near West", and the Middle East could be either the "Far West" or "Far East". Quirky.

    OK, enough boringness. Sorry.
  • fnnkybutt, on 11/12/2008, -1/+19I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., uh, or, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries.
  • cardshark69, on 11/12/2008, -11/+29If you consider that these terms were coined in the time of dominant European empires then it makes perfect sense.
    I don't care if you think that I missed the point, he shouldn't have ended it with "This always bugged me" if it can be easily explained.
  • lamiaconfitor, on 11/12/2008, -6/+22Actually, I propose that every time yanzhoulu comments on an article, we make a comment graveyard.
  • DaftMonk, on 11/12/2008, -5/+21w00t; cohesion.
  • KGB420, on 11/12/2008, -1/+16From someone else up at 3am, thank you for the interesting read.
  • PrintScrn12, on 11/12/2008, -4/+19It wasn't there yesterday.
  • mapkinase, on 11/12/2008, -6/+18Actually, the buried comments are quite useless and would have been buried anyway, even if the alleged graveyard indeed happened.
  • XcentryK, on 11/12/2008, -6/+18Skillz, you haz them
  • roostersheep, on 01/16/2009, -3/+15Sometimes I accidentally post a comment in the main thread rather than replying to someones comment directly. So I edit the comment out. Many people write digg me down because the comment is useless without the context of the reply.
  • UglyDigger, on 11/12/2008, -2/+14Best. Comment. Ever. I hope Randall puts that on his site. Hell, I'm still LOLing.
  • mitch37, on 11/12/2008, -1/+12Yay us aussies are finally on top!!! ^ ^
  • theHman, on 11/12/2008, -3/+14The humor lies in the fact that the world DOESN'T revolve around the author, and the comic implies that it does.
  • Rhydeble, on 11/12/2008, -3/+13Because Europe is the center of current day civilization?

  • thatspsychotic, on 11/12/2008, -2/+11I see that you commented accordingly.
  • eejbm, on 11/12/2008, -4/+13If you consider that the world doesn't actually revolve around the author, then you will start to see the unfunniness of this cartoon.
  • danconia, on 11/12/2008, -3/+12And what ever happened to the Old Zealand?
  • Dakart, on 11/12/2008, -2/+11Waiiittt... in the movie it was
    Population: Dinosaurs.
  • inactive, on 11/12/2008, -2/+11I can't believe that worked
  • Shelby69, on 11/12/2008, -6/+15How about Greenwich, London, England?
    The Prime Meridian of the World (0° longitude)
  • Lloydinator, on 11/12/2008, -19/+28That's a lie, just look at this...

    Bury me!!!

    Should be negative a thousand in five hours
    .
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