Merged Mercator projection to be phased out?

[Ziggurat]

Aye, but you can't teach and discuss its topics without touching upon themes such as injustice, gender inequality, cruelty to native populations, and so on,

Yes you can.

 

[Steve]

I am female. I also don't care.

My mistake. Failing old memory. Must be thinking of another poster. No apology though, for something you don't care about.

 

[theprestige]

Eh. I fail to really see the issue.
Sure, Mercator is really good for navigation, but it's really bad for everything else. So why not use a more realistic map for most things and should you want to learn how to navigate ships you get the Mercator lessons.

I'm still having trouble with this set of claims/arguments.

What is Mercator really bad at? How is it unrealistic? The topology is correct. Everything is correctly represented to scale. It's about as realistic as a projection from a three dimensional object to a two-dimensional scale model of the object can get.

Realistically, any map significantly below 1:1 scale is going to portray Africa as small enough to fold up and put your pocket.

The official logo of the UN is a north polar projection that doesn't do any of the continents any favors, according to the Togolese rubric.

 

[W.D.Clinger]

(What follows is relevant to the Mercator projection only because it goes a very long way toward explaining how discussion of that mathematical projection was able to degenerate into accusations of wokism and related silliness.)

I suspect you think you've scored a point. Knock yourself out, I literally don't care what pronoun you use for me. My sense of self is stable enough that trying to impugn my femininity is a waste of your time.

The highlighted is good to know.

I went back and checked.

On 21 February 2021, you wrote

I strongly prefer the pronouns meow/mew. I find it extremely insulting and offensive if people refuse to refer to me as meow/mew. To me, it is extremely uncivil.​

You ended that post by saying "the mods should enforce my preferred pronouns across the entire forum."

On 1 March 2021, you confirmed the above by writing

I prefer Meow/Mew/Mews​

On 3 March 2021, you generously extended the range of acceptable pronouns by writing

I request that people use gender neutral pronouns for me. I am okay with the singular "they", but if you prefer to use xe or ze or something similar, feel free.​

​

I am female, but I would prefer gender neutral terms for use on this site.​

@Darat responded to that by saying, in small part:

If a fellow member asks to be referred to as “he” or “she” then use that preference if you have need to refer to them as he or she.​

To which I responded by writing:

Just to make sure I understand: Although the mods will deride such requests and will not enforce them, are we hoi polloi allowed to respect their requests? As a clarifying example, suppose someone suddenly asks to be referred to using gender-neutral pronouns: Would it be okay for us to refer to such a member as "it"?​

I don't think I ever got a definitive answer to that within that thread, but the "I literally don't care what pronoun you use for me" quoted above appears to authorize my continued use of gender neutral singular pronouns for the person/animal who strongly prefers "the pronouns meow/mew".

By the way, I don't have any problem with folks who strongly prefer Mercator projections to other mathematical projections, just as I have no problem with folks who strongly prefer other mathematical projections to Mercator projections. When it comes to pronouns and projections, you see, my views are very liberal. So long as no one asks me to use plural pronouns when a singular pronoun would be correct.

 

[Ziggurat]

The highlighted is good to know.

I went back and checked.

Why would you bother? EC's past preferences are irrelevant to her current expressed preference.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Can we please not make threads be about the posters in them?

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Can we please not make threads be about the posters in them?

While an admirable request, since when has any thread (about social issues) that went beyond two or three pages, not become about one or more of the posters?

 

[Rolfe]

This is an example of the projection I was talking about.

Goode homolosine projection - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I haven't seen one that doesn't slice Greenland in half, and Antarctica appears subjectively bigger than it really is because it's spread over four leaves. But it does give a decent idea of relative sizes without too much distortion.

Oh, dammit, use a globe.

 

[theprestige]

(What follows is relevant to the Mercator projection only because it goes a very long way toward explaining how discussion of that mathematical projection was able to degenerate into accusations of wokism and related silliness.)


The highlighted is good to know.

I went back and checked.

On 21 February 2021, you wrote

I strongly prefer the pronouns meow/mew. I find it extremely insulting and offensive if people refuse to refer to me as meow/mew. To me, it is extremely uncivil.​

You ended that post by saying "the mods should enforce my preferred pronouns across the entire forum."

On 1 March 2021, you confirmed the above by writing

I prefer Meow/Mew/Mews​

On 3 March 2021, you generously extended the range of acceptable pronouns by writing

I request that people use gender neutral pronouns for me. I am okay with the singular "they", but if you prefer to use xe or ze or something similar, feel free.​

​

I am female, but I would prefer gender neutral terms for use on this site.​

@Darat responded to that by saying, in small part:

If a fellow member asks to be referred to as “he” or “she” then use that preference if you have need to refer to them as he or she.​

To which I responded by writing:

Just to make sure I understand: Although the mods will deride such requests and will not enforce them, are we hoi polloi allowed to respect their requests? As a clarifying example, suppose someone suddenly asks to be referred to using gender-neutral pronouns: Would it be okay for us to refer to such a member as "it"?​

I don't think I ever got a definitive answer to that within that thread, but the "I literally don't care what pronoun you use for me" quoted above appears to authorize my continued use of gender neutral singular pronouns for the person/animal who strongly prefers "the pronouns meow/mew".

By the way, I don't have any problem with folks who strongly prefer Mercator projections to other mathematical projections, just as I have no problem with folks who strongly prefer other mathematical projections to Mercator projections. When it comes to pronouns and projections, you see, my views are very liberal. So long as no one asks me to use plural pronouns when a singular pronoun would be correct.

A lot can change in five ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ years.

 

[theprestige]

This is an example of the projection I was talking about.

View attachment 75757

Goode homolosine projection - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I haven't seen one that doesn't slice Greenland in half, and Antarctica appears subjectively bigger than it really is because it's spread over four leaves. But it does give a decent idea of relative sizes without too much distortion.

Oh, dammit, use a globe.

That map is super inaccurate and unrealistic. /s

 

[Emily's Cat]

My mistake. Failing old memory. Must be thinking of another poster.

AmyStrange? Has a black cat as their avatar, and I believe their user name is based on a character in a book they were writing.

No apology though, for something you don't care about.

 

[Emily's Cat]

(What follows is relevant to the Mercator projection only because it goes a very long way toward explaining how discussion of that mathematical projection was able to degenerate into accusations of wokism and related silliness.)


The highlighted is good to know.

I went back and checked.

On 21 February 2021, you wrote

I strongly prefer the pronouns meow/mew. I find it extremely insulting and offensive if people refuse to refer to me as meow/mew. To me, it is extremely uncivil.​

You ended that post by saying "the mods should enforce my preferred pronouns across the entire forum."

On 1 March 2021, you confirmed the above by writing

I prefer Meow/Mew/Mews​

On 3 March 2021, you generously extended the range of acceptable pronouns by writing

I request that people use gender neutral pronouns for me. I am okay with the singular "they", but if you prefer to use xe or ze or something similar, feel free.​

​

I am female, but I would prefer gender neutral terms for use on this site.​

@Darat responded to that by saying, in small part:

If a fellow member asks to be referred to as “he” or “she” then use that preference if you have need to refer to them as he or she.​

To which I responded by writing:

Just to make sure I understand: Although the mods will deride such requests and will not enforce them, are we hoi polloi allowed to respect their requests? As a clarifying example, suppose someone suddenly asks to be referred to using gender-neutral pronouns: Would it be okay for us to refer to such a member as "it"?​

I don't think I ever got a definitive answer to that within that thread, but the "I literally don't care what pronoun you use for me" quoted above appears to authorize my continued use of gender neutral singular pronouns for the person/animal who strongly prefers "the pronouns meow/mew".

By the way, I don't have any problem with folks who strongly prefer Mercator projections to other mathematical projections, just as I have no problem with folks who strongly prefer other mathematical projections to Mercator projections. When it comes to pronouns and projections, you see, my views are very liberal. So long as no one asks me to use plural pronouns when a singular pronoun would be correct.

I didn't object to being called "it".

 

[Emily's Cat]

Oh, dammit, use a globe.

Or Google Earth

 

[Steve]

AmyStrange? Has a black cat as their avatar, and I believe their user name is based on a character in a book they were writing.

That's who it is. Thanks. We can quit this derail.

 

[Skeptical Greg]

That map is super inaccurate and unrealistic. /s

Yes. It still shows Greenland as almost half the size of the US ( lower 48 ) when in fact it is about 28%. Don't even bother comparing to Africa.
Saudi Arabia would be fair.

Here are some snips from Google Earth. Antarctica still looks pretty big.

In the end, it is all about projection of a curved surface onto a flat one.

 

[arthwollipot]

The official logo of the UN is a north polar projection that doesn't do any of the continents any favors, according to the Togolese rubric.

That logo is never used as a map. Only as branding. It has as much utility as a map as the McDonalds logo does.

 

[Rolfe]

That map is super inaccurate and unrealistic. /s

Well, it was just a thought. I thought it was interesting.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes. It still shows Greenland as almost half the size of the US ( lower 48 ) when in fact it is about 28%. Don't even bother comparing to Africa.
Saudi Arabia would be fair.
View attachment 75765
Here are some snips from Google Earth. Antarctica still looks pretty big.

In the end, it is all about projection of a curved surface onto a flat one.

That's a really interesting comparison between Antarctica and Australia. I genuinely hadn't realised that Antarctica was so large.

 

[Myriad]

I decided to go to the source and ask the Map what its own preferences are. Unfortunately the only answer I could get was, "I'm the Map, I'm the Map, I'm the Map!"

Careful examination of the Map through a number of adventures shows certain biases and patterns, though. Almost invariably, the Map shows the destination in the upper right corner, with obstacles and hazards occupying the lower-left and center positions. Almost all of the various world map projections place Africa near the center, which reinforces its perception as an obstacle or hazard in the pursuit of a better world. To remedy this will require either a different projection, or correcting the Map's upward-rightist bias by distributing the destinations equally among all parts of the Map.