Fun. I’m not sure why I need two maps about rivers in the US to better understand the world. So there’s a lot of rivers there, and a lot of them feed into the Mississippi? Who cares? I also don’t think that the map of where Ludacris has hos really enhances my understanding of the world.
Because, according to the map’s note, the center of gravity is computed in three dimensions, and then projected to the nearest point on the surface. When the 3D center of gravity is near the Earth’s center, small changes in location can be magnified into large changes on the surface.
And to make it worse, the projection used is a poor one that further magnifies the perceived change. If the projected were centered on north-east Europe instead of west Africa, the changes would not look so dramatic.
Maps are very cool, but like statistics, one must look carefully at the details to avoid being misled.
Most of those were interesting. Two of them pissed me off: the paid maternity leave and the highest-paid public officials. At least I live in one of the states where the highest-paid official isn’t a coach, but a university president.
I found #39 to be really amusing.
What is it about Orchids that so fascinate the Chinese?
Bosnia-Herzegovina is “Persia Nun-Ya”, Bulgaria = “Insurance Profit-Ya”, and Sweden = “Very Lucky Soldiers”?
Is this some sort of phonetic transliteration?
Of course, Great Britain is “Braveland” and if I recall correctly, the USA is "Beautiful Country, but Italy is “Meaning Big Profit”?
I am so confused.
Map 7: Surprising to me that the most common surname in France is “Martin,” and that it’s “Smith” for both England and Scotland.
Map 9: What’s with the little red extended time-zone box just past “3 o’clock” on that map of Antarctica?
Map 11: Also surprising that none of the most-heavily-traveled airline routes are in either North America or Western Europe.
Map 12: The SE Asia population-density circle is just amazing.
Map 19: For more on the lost rubber duckies, see Moby-Duck: http://www.amazon.com/Moby-Duck-Beachcombers-Oceanographers-Environmentalists-Including/dp/0143120506/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376935994&sr=1-1&keywords=moby+duck
Map 22: Scandinavians get laid pretty early, I guess.
Map 24: And are pretty well-studied.
Map 28: And drink way too much coffee.
Map 32: The U.S. overlaid on the Moon - very cool. Gives a good sense of scale.
Map 35: Didn’t know there was that much piracy; had just heard about off the Somali coast and in Indonesian waters.
Map 36: Ludacris’s area-code ho shoutouts. LOL.
Bonus map: If I were that guy, I’d never go to Russia.
I can shed somewhat of a light on that. For some words, the Chinese translation is a wholly new translation, a new word/term is created from existing words. For others, the translation is simply a bunch of words that sound similar to whatever it is they are trying to find a word for.
America is pronounced “may guo” where “may” is indeed Beautiful and “guo” is Country, and England is “yin guo”. Italy is “yee da lee” so from a translation standpoint, its not like the first two at all. I don’t really know who decides these things though
Click on the link to the map to see a discussion of where the names came from.
Basically, the Chinese took words/characters that sounded like England when they created the name, and the actually meanings of those words are mostly accidental (though there’s some discussion about whether the meanings of US, England, Germany and France have more attention paid to meaning).
So, an example in English… let’s say someone is named Roger and we want a phonetic spelling from existing words. We’d call him Raw Jar maybe, because the sounds fit best. We wouldn’t be implying that he was an uncooked glass container, though the words do have that literal meaning.
I think a lot of the US usage is based on server farms and not Internet usage of people. We don’t dim as much at night as the rest of the world, and I think that’s a result of servers located in the US and provided Internet service to foreign individuals. In particular, the US has several red dots that never go away - something that I don’t see very many other places.
Or if somebody in China said that the American name for Germany translates as “one of several viruses”.
Why is sweden “nor applicable” in nr. 15? What does that even mean?
You’re not getting the colors right, wine is most popular in Sweden. I’m trying to find countries that have ‘Not applicable’ but I’m not finding any.
ETA: looks like Kashmir is N/A, because they can’t decide what country it belongs to I suppose. Same for the Western Sahara.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
Map 11: Also surprising that none of the most-heavily-traveled airline routes are in either North America or Western Europe.
Map 12: The SE Asia population-density circle is just amazing.
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Doesn’t # 12 explain # 11? The most heavily populated area will have the most travel.
Dude, it’s cold. Can you think of options better than:
A) Get laid
B) Ensconce yourself by fire/in office with book
C) Drink coffee
D) All of the above
Because I can’t.
What I do not understand is how a point midway between those places is well to the north of any of them. Midway between Europe and North America would be somewhere in the north Atlantic, or maybe even in the eastern USA somewhere, but certainly well south of Svalbard. Nowhere much north of Europe has a significant economy. (Even Canada’s economic activity is mostly in the far south of the country.) The influence of booming South-East Asian economies ought, surely, to pull the center of gravity both eastwards and southwards. Indeed, the map does indeed show it moving in that direction after 2000, presumably with the booming of China. What I don’t get is how it could ever have been so far to the north of both the USA and Europe.
It sounds like you’re forgetting the concept of a geodesic path. I’m sure you’re aware the Earth is spheroid.
If we look at your “midway between Europe and North America” example, let’s estimate those as Bismarck, North Dakota and Warsaw:
E) Drink booze. Which is why I always assume the Russians were such drunks. They also seem to be pretty good at B). Or at least writing, anyway.
I understand the principle. But even so that straight line between Karachi and Kamchatka surprised me.
I can only speak for the Cape Town to Johannesburg route, since I’ve taken it a few times. For that route in particular the next best option* to flying is significantly worse: it is about a two hour flight but probably a 16 hour drive (without stopping). Cape Town is a pretty geographically isolated major city, and a popular tourist destination. There is a lot of travel between those two cities.
When I think of other short hops (say San Francisco to Los Angeles) the alternatives are much shorter (especially when you take into account waiting around in airports, etc). Also at least in the Bay Area you can use SFO, Oakland or San Jose and I think LA has a similar number of options so if they’re counting individual airport to airport routes traffic could be split up.
I wonder if other routes on this list have similar issues.
*The third best option, rail, takes about 24 hours. I’ve done that too, and its actually very pleasant and comfortable. But not fast.
Other factors to add: when you put Gauteng (Greater Johannesburg-Pretoria) together with the Cape metropolitan area, they account for about a third of the country’s population. The executive government is in Pretoria while the legislature is in Cape Town, which makes for lots of trips for politicans and bureaucrats. Most long-haul international flights go to Joburg, while (as you mention) many tourists’ destination is Cape Town.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:23, topic:666593”]
At least I live in one of the states where the highest-paid official isn’t a coach, but a university president.
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It totally surprised me that sports coaches are paid from the public purse - I’m guessing state colleges and the like?