[slackline]

Is it!!??

Yep, honest 'guv.

Which is why I don't understand what this is really getting at.  Its saying "US school kids think the US is the largest in the world, but they don't know that the continent of Africa is HUGE!" big fucking deal.

Why the need to throw that into the blurb on the image I've no idea.  Yes Mercator projections do distort things, and this highlights that.

[stevej]

Are they suggesting that a child not knowing the area of Africa is as bad a problem or worse than being illiterate/innumerate?

Fucking geographers. I bet one of them spent all week colouring that in. They didn't even keep in the lines 

[slackline]

I wanna get ^high!

12000-15000 people exhale marijuana smoke simultaneously at 4:20pm in Bolder Colorado.



More from The Big Picture

[chillax]

Yes Mercator projections do distort things, and this highlights that.

Not just Mercator. Every projection distorts things in some way. This is often used strategically, i.e. national mapping bodies choosing a standard projection system based on how big it makes their country look. Its something that few people are aware of but everybody should be. I remember being quite shocked when I found out. As an example, the landmass of Greenland is less than half that of China and less than one eighth that of south america, but when looking at a globe created using the mercator projection Greenland appears bigger than both of them. It might only be an issue of graphical representation, but when you're faced with maps which exaggerate the size of your country for your whole life it can tend to colour your world view. The Peters map projection is area-accurate and was developed as a reaction to the size distortions inherent in the mercator projection (which tends to exaggerate land area in the northern hemisphere). Worth seeing if you haven't seen/been aware of the difference before



Peters Projection



Mercator Projection

If anyone is interested in this stuff, Mark Monmonier's Lying With Maps is very good.

[Drew]

In fairness, any 2-D representation, of the surface of a 3-D object, is never going to be particularly accurate.

[chillax]

True. But the point is that its possible for cartographers to manipulate the inaccuracy to create a map which supports a particular viewpoint they may hold.

[Drew]

True. But the point is that its possible for cartographers to manipulate the inaccuracy to create a map which supports a particular viewpoint they may hold.

True

"In 1924 a group of young Army officers were surveying an inaccessible part of Africa's Gold Coast. At the end of a hard day's work under the tropical sun, a single hill remained. The men decided that, using a little imagination, the small area could be artificially filled in. They drew around a picture in a magazine, creating contours in the form of an elephant. Their improvisation was not detected and the elephant can be seen at least into the 1960"

From Qi Forum

[SA Chris]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11588616

The full lot

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/onlineGallery.do

[slackline]

Really liked the ant picture when I saw it earlier.

Big Picture currently has results of the Nikon Small World competition.

 This shit kills you...

Two human cancer cells seen just before they divide into four cells, viewed at 100x magnification. This image of Telophase HeLa (cancer) cells expressing Aurora B-EGFP took 11th place and was made by Dr. Paul D. Andrews of the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland.

[Eddies]

[Jaspersharpe]

[slackline]

[Jaspersharpe]

http://9eyes.tumblr.com/

[Jaspersharpe]

http://www.360cities.net/london-photo-en.html

[slackline]

Stunning selection Big Picture : National Geographic Photography Contest 2010 (worth going there to read the captions about each picture which I really can't be arsed to copy over).

[andy_e]

http://9eyes.tumblr.com/

The Wayne's world one is amazing!

[slackline]

BIG driftwood! 

[Drewski Rootbitch]

Or very little (and slightly camp) man....?

[SA Chris]

I assumed it was a lass.

[Drewski Rootbitch]

yours

[SA Chris]

Your profile pic is yours

[Drewski Rootbitch]

My profile is more a graphic illustration of how I currently feel...
Why isn't there a smiley doing the Barnsley breaststroke? (eg. sitting with mouth at the edge of the table, using a inverted breaststroke/shovelling action to minimise food on table time and maximise quantity consumed over other breaststrokers).

[tomtom]

BIG driftwood! 

Using SCIENCE.. I wonder if that may be left from coastal erosion that has left the tree 'in situ' as it were... looking at the background the hillock seems very erodible (slopes at angle of repose) so rather than being washed up it could have just been left and weathered..

I would have thought a big ol lump of wood like that could survive without rotting for a good few years.

I may however be - as usual - talkign out of my arsehole 

[philo]

imagine it coming over the falls when your just about to duck dive. 

[Krank]

Dont know if anyone else can see it, but there is a wierd triple sun rainbow thing going on over newcastle at the moment.