Hey, there! Log in / Register

Finally, a map worthy of Boston

Andy Woodruff takes note of the news that Boston schools are getting new world maps that try to more accurately show the true sizes of continents and countries and begins to ponder what a Boston-centric world map might look like - in lots and lots of projections.

Neighborhoods: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

Why don't they just look at a globe instead of trying to flatten the earth? THE EARTH IS ROUND, FOLKS!

up
Voting closed 0

And they're rich so they must be right.

Jokes aside, that's a pretty silly projection of the world, even if it is more accurate than the Mercator map.

up
Voting closed 0

That's why Mercator is bad. Gall-Peters also sucks. Winkel-tripel is the way to be!

up
Voting closed 0

n/t

up
Voting closed 0

The strength of the Mercator projection is that a straight line between points A and B makes a constant angle with north that is the same as the heading that a helmsman would use to steer a ship from A to B.

In other words, it was devised for marine navigation and first used for that purpose.

up
Voting closed 0

The navigational angle (as it were) is one of the strengths of the Mercator, and it may be the reason for Mercator's original widespread adoption. But another virtue of the Mercator map is that it closely approximates the correct shape of landforms at a local level. So an island that's more or less circular in real life will show up as more or less circular in Mercator; the same island in the Peters projection will show up as long and skinny in a north-south direction if it's near the equator, or long and skinny in an east-west direction if it's at a high latitude. Landforms in the mid-latitudes (incidentally, the latitudes of most of the former colonial powers!) are the only ones that are depicted in approximately their proper shape. So Iceland and Borneo are both badly distorted in the Peters projection, whereas Hokkaido and Tasmania are depicted much more accurately.

That said, I can see why preserving the correct relative areas of different countries would be desirable from a pedagogical point of view. As others have pointed out, every schoolroom should really have a globe in addition to flat maps.

up
Voting closed 0

It would be a great opportunity to talk with students about the problems of trying to represent something round on paper. Could have interesting discussions about the trade-offs cartographers have to make and why the projection that's best for one purpose (say navigation) isn't good for other purposes (seeing relative sizes) and comparing the differences. Meanwhile use a globe as a reference point.

up
Voting closed 0

its good to foster discussion about the politics behind the projections & what they mean

up
Voting closed 0

For kids who couldn't find Poland or Argentina or Indonesia on ANY map, I think it's fair to say that politics is the last thing they need.

up
Voting closed 0

The Gall-Peters is so awful, I hate to think they teach it as being the correct map. Now the kids will think Africa looks like a wet rag hanging on a towel rack.

up
Voting closed 0

Boston Magazine map would include Cambridge, Somerville, Newton and Brookline but not Mattapan, West Roxbury or Roslindale.

Jeff Sanchez's map includes JP, Mission Hill, Roxbury but definitely not Roslindale.

Steve Murphy's map is actually of Florida.

A Boston (the band) centric map would, of course, be of New Hampshire.

up
Voting closed 0

I would like some sea monsters in the harbor and a warning that "Here there be baby whales."

up
Voting closed 0

Wheels!

up
Voting closed 0

Someone says baby wheels and i spit up my milk through my nose.

up
Voting closed 0

We doubt any maps except those produced by propagandist imperialist colonial cartographers will ever be found in a human classroom. Any recognition of our legitimate claims to our ancestral lands is contrary to the institutionalized whitewashing of the occupation and oppression of our noble kind.

up
Voting closed 0

n/t

up
Voting closed 0

Think you mean carturkraphy

up
Voting closed 0

But it's no authagraph projection.

up
Voting closed 0

Oh, just go to Spencer Gifts at the mall and buy the old "A Bostonian's View of the World" black & white line poster.

Maybe an updated, commercially-sponsored version with accurate locations for all Dunkin Donuts.

up
Voting closed 0

Gall-Peters is a bad choice. It distorts shape as badly as Mercator distorts size. Winkel-tripel for all! (Or, if you want to be really subversive, a series of Dymaxion.)

up
Voting closed 0

Because they consulted with ODT, a Massachusetts based company that is the exclusive North American publisher of Gall-Peters projection maps. If I go to a Buick dealer they will try to sell me a Buick, even if a Jeep is more suited to my needs.

up
Voting closed 0