6 thoughts on “Where in the world…?”

1. Colin Toffelmire September 28, 2009 at 3:43 pm

   Sure you don’t *need* to be a WW fan…but why wouldn’t you be?
2. Karyn Post authorSeptember 28, 2009 at 3:50 pm

   Yeah, Colin, watching this clip made me realize how much I miss the show.
3. Carl Hostetter September 28, 2009 at 4:45 pm

   This reminds me of why I could never watch more than 5 mins. of WW….

   Unfortunately, the (so-called) Peters Projection is just as distorting of relative sizes of land-masses as is Mercator (just notice how short Canada and Alaska look, and compare it with a globe). If one holds Mercator to be “biased” towards Europe, then one must also hold Peters to be “biased” towards Africa and South America.

   See: http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa030201a.htm

   There are much more accurate projections than either Mercator and Peter (and have been for a long time). See for example the Robinson projection here: http://egsc.usgs.gov/isb/pubs/MapProjections/projections.html

   Personally, though, I can’t think why any classroom shouldn’t just have a _globe_ and avoid the projection issue entirely. Or these days, a computer with access to Google Earth….
4. Karyn Post authorSeptember 28, 2009 at 4:55 pm

   Carl,

   I don’t think most people actually watched WW for encyclopedic information. And, as you well know, it is impossible to accurately portray a spherical earth with a flat map. But, it is an interesting study to look at how various maps have developed, for what purposes, and how they affect our perceptions of the world.

   My friend, Fred Putnam, noted on FB (in response to this video), “There is a good book, “How to Lie with Maps”, which, along with another (o.o.p.) from National Geographic (something like “A Round Earth on Flat Paper”) will definitely reorient your thinking (sorry).”

   And I agree, that Google Earth is a very useful (and accessible) tool.

   But, a little humor never hurt anyone either (and I thought C.J.’s reaction was pretty funny).
5. Mark Traphagen September 28, 2009 at 10:21 pm

   “Where the hell is that?”
   “It’s where you’ve been living all along.”

   Priceless. Man, I loved West Wing. Miss it very much. I never depended upon it to tell me what life in the WH is “really like,” but I’m betting it gave a good idea (in terms of the pressures). And it’s humor was always wonderful.

   We can argue all day about who has the best map, but all that aside, this is a wonderful little parable about how the way we portray things effects the way people think and behave, whether they are conscious of it or not.
6. robert r. cargill September 30, 2009 at 10:02 pm

   i remember this episode and loved it! thanx for posting it. makes me miss that show terribly!!

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