Viral map completely confusing the internet
Now look what happens when you use a different projection like the Gall-Peters. This map corrects for size and shows each country in proportion to its actual land area. The result? Africa dominates the page, and suddenly Western countries look much smaller. It's a jarring reminder that the maps we trust are far from neutral. Picture: iStock
Now, Gen Z is catching on. TikTok and YouTube are full of explainer videos breaking down map distortions and exposing the truth behind why countries like Africa have been visually minimised. It's part of a wider conversation about decolonising education. Picture: TikTok/@NASDAILY
In true social media fashion, the viral issue has been turned into a meme. Picture: Reddit
Australia appears almost comparable in size to Africa on a Mercator map. In reality, it's not even close. Africa is nearly four times bigger than Australia. Picture: Supplied
Even in the digital age, the distortion lives on. Google Maps still uses Mercator projection for zoomed-out views, meaning countries far from the equator are stretched and inflated. Picture: Google Maps
There's no such thing as a perfect map because every projection distorts something. But equal-area maps like the Eckert IV projection aim to show countries in their true size, without dramatically skewing shape or scale. It's less extreme than Gall-Peters, more balanced than Mercator, and offers a clearer picture of how continents actually compare. Picture: iStock
The Equal Earth projection, introduced in 2018, is a modern attempt to balance aesthetics with size accuracy. It keeps continents in proportion without looking too unfamiliar, acting as a middle ground between Mercator and Peters. Picture: iStock
The Robinson projection is often used in atlases. It's not strictly accurate in area or shape, but it looks 'right' to many viewers, which is why it's common in schools and classrooms. Picture: iStock
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
2 hours ago
- ABC News
Bunbury mourns loss of its 'Red Dog', an alpine dingo called Marley
If you asked a Bunbury resident about a dingo named Marley, most would have a story tell. Many did not know where he had come from, just that he lived at the boat harbour and liked to survey his surroundings from atop a pile of concrete slabs. Marley died at the weekend, aged 15. He is mourned by an entire city, but missed most deeply by the one man who knew the full story of the alpine dingo pup that came to live in the South West of WA all those years ago. Kevin Frencl was driving trucks in the Pilbara in northern WA in April 2010 when he came across an orphaned dingo pup cowering on the side of the road. Aware he was too young to survive on his own, Mr Frencl took him in. "He had to come with me to work on the loader," he recalled in a speech written for the launch of a boat Bunbury Marine Rescue named after Marley in 2019. "When he was young he could comfortably fit in a little worker's lunch box esky. "[He] was not yet eating solid foods so ... [was] living on iced coffee as it was all I had out there." Within a week, Mr Frencl and Brownes — named for the iced coffee brand the pair were more or less living off — were inseparable. When he finally finished his shift he took the pup home to Harvey, 140 kilometres south of Perth, where his children promptly took over naming rights. They called him Marley after the labrador in the movie Marley & Me, which they had recently watched. "[He] came everywhere with us — out on the boat fishing or skiing, camping." Marley went with Mr Frencl when he bought an old navy vessel and started fixing it up to live in. "He learnt to climb the ladder up to the boat … [but] he wasn't overly keen on going down," he said. Mr Frencl later moved them to a different suburb. But Marley was not happy — pacing, whining and howling, which he did not usually do. He settled down as soon as he was brought back to the Bunbury boat yard. From then on, that was where he stayed. The marine rescue group headquartered at the harbour became his foster parents, though Mr Frencl still visited regularly when he was not away working. Former sea rescue volunteer Kerry Trantham said everyone took an instant liking to the wild-looking, yet gentle dingo. Other locals and sometimes the odd out-of-towner would leave food for Marley too, or bring their dogs to come play with him. Marine Rescue Bunbury skipper Denis Hynes said the response had been overwhelming when the community was notified of Marley's death on social media. "It's unbelievable, the love everyone had for Marley and the effect he had on some people's lives," he said. "Some people were in bad places and would come down and talk to Marley … [other] people brought their parents down on their dying days." Authorities recognised Marley's importance to the community early on, as Bunbury MLA and state minister for the South West, Don Punch, recalled. "There was talk at one point that maybe he would end up at the pound," he said. "Then minister for ports Alannah MacTiernan got on the phone to the port authority and said you make sure he's supported and looked after and doesn't end up in the clutches of the pound." The same residents who campaigned for authorities to protect Marley have asked for help to commemorate him. "I just think it would be nice that there be some monument of some sort … you think of Red Dog, what they did up there," Mr Trantham said. Mr Punch said he had already spoken to the development commission about the idea. "I do think there's a great opportunity as we're doing the final stages of the waterfront to remember Marley and maybe have a statue," he said. Bunbury mayor Jaysen Miguel said the council would consider helping fund a permanent tribute if enough of the community wanted it.
ABC News
3 hours ago
- ABC News
Reinterment service held for bodies exhumed from Hutchins School site
About 200 people have gathered at the Cornelian Bay Cemetery in Hobart for a reinterment service of remains exhumed from the former Queenborough Cemetery. The service came after what was believed to be the largest exhumation project in the Southern Hemisphere, which arose from 1,981 skeletons being discovered under the playing field of The Hutchins School during building works last year. Thousands of Hobartians were buried at the Queenborough Cemetery in Sandy Bay, operated by a private company, from 1873 until the 1930s. The cemetery's practices were the subject of public scandals, its record keeping described as messy and past exhumations not clearly defined. Hutchins principal Rob McEwan said the service was a moment of "deep historical and human significance". "Today we bring lives once forgotten back into the light of memory," he said. "It was a shock to discover that beneath a playing field at The Hutchins School lay the original, untouched graves of almost 2,000 individuals. "Individuals whose stories were silent, their names lost to time, their identities obscured by a changing landscape." He said 1,781 individuals were able to be identified and remembered through the respectful and painstaking work of an archaeological team. "They were mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, soldiers, settlers and servants," he said. "To be reinterred is not to be forgotten, it is in many ways a return to the earth with dignity and to rest amongst loved ones." Lead archaeologist Brad Williams was the first on the scene when he got a call that remains had been discovered at the school in March, 2024. Initially, two bodies were found. The scale of what lay beneath would shock the state. It led to nine months of meticulous excavation and identification, as archaeologists tried to piece together who they had found. At its peak, there was a team of 35 people working on the exhumation. Speaking at the service, Mr Williams said the project was the largest of its type in the Southern Hemisphere and was an "honour and a challenge" to work on. "For all of those involved in the process, it's been life-changing to spend months on the site carefully and respectfully uncovering and removing the remains in preparation for re-burial," he said. "We could not avoid being moved by the thoughts of their lives and their deaths." He said record keeping in the 1960s when council-funded exhumations were meant to occur after Hutchins took over the land "hadn't been as good as it should have been", and the process was not mapped properly. Such was the scale of the exhumation he oversaw, a coffin building workshop was set up on site using carpenters waiting to work on the halted redevelopment. Regulations stipulate that exhumed bodies have to be given an individual new coffin, or ossuary. William Markham, who died in 1882 and was buried at the Queenborough Cemetery, was reinterred at Cornelian Bay. His descendant, Sam Graunke, travelled from Victoria to attend the service. She described it as a closing of the chapter for his story. She said her family history was a "little bit sketchy" due to some shame about his convict connections. Ms Graunke told ABC Radio Hobart Mornings that she had been researching his history, which included time as a convict on Norfolk Island and at Port Arthur. She said he went on to have seven children and lived to 74. The research led her to find out her great-great-grandfather was buried at the Queenborough Cemetery. "I saw a news article last year about the archaeological side of things and reached out and asked if William was there, and was told he was," she said. She attended the service with six family members. "It's been a great trip, it's an opportunity for us as siblings to catch up and talk over the family history and make sure the stories are passed on," she said. "It's an opportunity to recognise the last steps for not only William our ancestor but for the 2,000 people who have been exhumed. "There will be many of those who don't have anyone representing them so it's kind of a special moment to acknowledge the past for those people and see them safely laid to rest." Jo Ledda said all she could find out about her great-great-grandmother Charlotte Zarth was that she died when she was 40 in 1891. "Then she just vanished off all records, I couldn't find anything about where she was laid to rest," she said. But Ms Ledda found her on the list when the names of identified remains came out. "It was nice, despite what they've been through, it was nice to finally figure out where she was and her three little children were with her too," she said. Ms Ledda was glad she had somewhere to go and pay her respects. "They were treated with the utmost respect and it's lovely to know there's a place here and a plaque on the wall," she said. The school has published the names of all those who have been identified on its website, and a final report will be released soon. Mr Williams said while the exhumation project had ended, it would not be last people heard of the former Queenborough Cemetery. "There's probably still a lot of research that can be done in terms of who is potentially still buried within the wider environs of Hutchins and the wider cemetery," he said.
ABC News
4 hours ago
- ABC News
Auditor-General slams WA's water regulator as report exposes lack of oversight
Authorities have no idea how much water is being pulled from the ground each year in Western Australia nor whether any is being taken illegally, a blistering report has revealed. And despite more than two decades of warning of surging demand amid a drying climate, the state's Auditor General found that the agency tasked with the responsibility of managing the precious resource was still in the dark on what was happening. The report says that agency — the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation — is "not doing anywhere near enough" to adequately protect WA's water resources, and "does not understand" if water is being extracted legally or not, or how much is actually being used. 'Despite increasing demand for water and our drying climate, DWER cannot be confident that licence holders are meeting their licence conditions and that water is being extracted appropriately," Auditor General Caroline Spencer said.
