The Maps and Geography Thread

[BigPiney]

That is really interesting. I knew the Sahara has huge, but wow.

[Donuthole]

I thought this was an interesting read:

Cartography: The true true size of Africa.

[All-American]

If it was, China would have landed in California long ago, and people would be speaking Chinese there.

California's one of the things that makes me suspicious. The map looks curiously like what westerners in the 1700s thought the world looked like-- especially the bit about California being an island.

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California"]Island of California - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

[Bo Diddley]

It's there, it's just covered up by writing.

No way in hell that map is from the 1400's.

If it was, China would have landed in California long ago, and people would be speaking Chinese there.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Yeah, especially since they got the Red Sea, but not the Persian Gulf.

It's there, it's just covered up by writing.

No way in hell that map is from the 1400's.

[wuapinmon]

Highly suspicious.

Yeah, especially since they got the Red Sea, but not the Persian Gulf.

[clackamascoug]

Chinese map from the 1400's, depicting the Grand Tetons in Wyoming? (Rocky Mountains at the least.)Those dudes got around.

[All-American]

Here is a Chinese map of the world dating back to the early 1400s, well before Christopher Columbus et al

Highly suspicious.

[BigPiney]

Cool map. I love stuff like that.

I dig the Earth at night pictures. Fascinating to me.

One thing I learned recently. And I don't know how I never knew this before, but it was seriously amazing to discover. I always knew international flights went way north in their path, but for some reason I thought it had to do with wind currents (which is partially true sometimes but not the primary reason). So I was looking on a globe, and damned if a straight line between say Eastern Europe and Utah doesn't go almost right through the North Pole. Mind blown.

That my friend is a Great Circle.

One of the biggest disservices that we have done for kids is have that stupid transverse Mercator map on all the elementary school walls growing up. Everyone thinks Greenland is bigger than Africa.

[Levin]

That is phenomenal. I missed seven easy ones that I simply forgot: Sweden Macedonia, Monaco, Haiti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe.

The other ones are the ones that give me trouble: Mauritius, Comoros, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Antigua, and other islands.

My son has a thing for memorizing, and did the 50 states in the order they were admitted to the Union (weird), and last year did the countries of the world. I did it with him, which is the only reason I got that score. Now he's memorizing poetry from Billy Collins. I'm happy about that one. "And you are certainly not the pine-scented air. there is just no way that you are the pine-scented air."

[Moliere]

Here is a Chinese map of the world dating back to the early 1400s, well before Christopher Columbus et al

The map is wrong since China should be on the far right.

[wuapinmon]

191.

Missed Sao Tome, Igaria, Nauru, Kiribati, and Bhutan of all places.

Gave up with 2 minutes left.

The hard part was having to spell them right. Took several tries for many of them.

That is phenomenal. I missed seven easy ones that I simply forgot: Sweden Macedonia, Monaco, Haiti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Zimbabwe.

The other ones are the ones that give me trouble: Mauritius, Comoros, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Antigua, and other islands.

[wuapinmon]

Here is a Chinese map of the world dating back to the early 1400s, well before Christopher Columbus et al

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...inese_map.html

[Indy Coug]

Here is a Chinese map of the world dating back to the early 1400s, well before Christopher Columbus et al

[clackamascoug]

I got rim checked on too many spellings and it took the fun out of it. I would have had the worst score anyway.