Latest news with #worldmap
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Africa is much bigger than you think. Here's how you've been misled
The African Union is championing a drive to replace the 16th-century Mercator world map, arguing its widespread use by governments and international bodies inaccurately depicts Africa's true scale. The projection, devised by cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, distorts continent sizes, inflating areas near the poles like North America and Greenland, while shrinking Africa and South America. Selma Malika Haddadi, the deputy chairperson of the AU Commission, said the map's impact is significant. "It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not." She argued that the Mercator fosters a false impression of Africa as "marginal", despite it being the world's second-largest continent, with 54 nations and over a billion people. Such stereotypes influence media, education, and policy, she said. Criticism of the Mercator map is not new, but the 'Correct The Map' campaign – led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa – has revived the debate, urging organisations to adopt the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries' true sizes. "The current size of the map of Africa is wrong," Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, said. "It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop." Fara Ndiaye, co-founder of Speak Up Africa, said the Mercator affected Africans' identity and pride, especially children who might encounter it early in school. "We're actively working on promoting a curriculum where the Equal Earth projection will be the main standard across all (African) classrooms," Ms Ndiaye said, adding she hoped it would also be the one used by global institutions, including Africa-based ones. Ms Haddadi said the AU endorsed the campaign, adding it aligned with its goal of "reclaiming Africa's rightful place on the global stage" amid growing calls for reparations for colonialism and slavery. The AU will advocate for wider map adoption and discuss collective actions with member states, Ms Haddadi added. The Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies. Google Maps switched from Mercator on desktop to a 3D globe view in 2018, though users can still switch back to the Mercator if they prefer. On the mobile app, however, the Mercator projection remains the default. 'Correct The Map' wants organisations like the World Bank and the United Nations to adopt the Equal Earth map. A World Bank spokesperson said they already use the Winkel-Tripel or Equal Earth for static maps and are phasing out Mercator on web maps. The campaign said it has sent a request to the UN geospatial body, UN-GGIM. A UN spokesperson said that once received it must be reviewed and approved by a committee of experts. Other regions are backing the AU's efforts. Dorbrene O'Marde, Vice Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, endorsed Equal Earth as a rejection of Mercator map's "ideology of power and dominance".
The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Africa is much bigger than you think. Here's how you've been misled
The African Union is championing a drive to replace the 16th-century Mercator world map, arguing its widespread use by governments and international bodies inaccurately depicts Africa 's true scale. The projection, devised by cartographer Gerardus Mercator for navigation, distorts continent sizes, inflating areas near the poles like North America and Greenland, while shrinking Africa and South America. Selma Malika Haddadi, the deputy chairperson of the AU Commission, said the map's impact is significant. "It might seem to be just a map, but in reality, it is not." She argued that the Mercator fosters a false impression of Africa as "marginal", despite it being the world's second-largest continent, with 54 nations and over a billion people. Such stereotypes influence media, education, and policy, she said. Criticism of the Mercator map is not new, but the 'Correct The Map' campaign – led by advocacy groups Africa No Filter and Speak Up Africa – has revived the debate, urging organisations to adopt the 2018 Equal Earth projection, which tries to reflect countries' true sizes. "The current size of the map of Africa is wrong," Moky Makura, executive director of Africa No Filter, said. "It's the world's longest misinformation and disinformation campaign, and it just simply has to stop." Fara Ndiaye, co-founder of Speak Up Africa, said the Mercator affected Africans' identity and pride, especially children who might encounter it early in school. "We're actively working on promoting a curriculum where the Equal Earth projection will be the main standard across all (African) classrooms," Ms Ndiaye said, adding she hoped it would also be the one used by global institutions, including Africa-based ones. Ms Haddadi said the AU endorsed the campaign, adding it aligned with its goal of "reclaiming Africa's rightful place on the global stage" amid growing calls for reparations for colonialism and slavery. The AU will advocate for wider map adoption and discuss collective actions with member states, Ms Haddadi added. The Mercator projection is still widely used, including by schools and tech companies. Google Maps switched from Mercator on desktop to a 3D globe view in 2018, though users can still switch back to the Mercator if they prefer. On the mobile app, however, the Mercator projection remains the default. 'Correct The Map' wants organisations like the World Bank and the United Nations to adopt the Equal Earth map. A World Bank spokesperson said they already use the Winkel-Tripel or Equal Earth for static maps and are phasing out Mercator on web maps. The campaign said it has sent a request to the UN geospatial body, UN-GGIM. A UN spokesperson said that once received it must be reviewed and approved by a committee of experts. Other regions are backing the AU's efforts. Dorbrene O'Marde, Vice Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, endorsed Equal Earth as a rejection of Mercator map's "ideology of power and dominance".
The Verge
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Verge
This collaborative doodling website is like Google Maps plus MS Paint
A new website that lets you paint over a world map with other users in real-time has taken the digital illustration community by storm. Wplace is a collaborative pixel art platform that serves as a spiritual successor to Reddit's r/Place April Fools' Day experiments, placing time restrictions on drawing tools that motivate users to team up to complete large or complex paintings. While r/Place provided its users with a blank white pixel grid, Wplace is layered over an interactive canvas of a world map made up of four trillion pixels, according to the website's launch trailer, making it feel like a mashup between Microsoft Paint and Google Maps. Wplace also appears to be a permanent experience, unlike r/Place, which Reddit has only made available for a few days every time it revives the experiment. That said, it appears to be straining under the weight of its explosive popularity, limiting its availability. The painting aspect of Wplace is made intentionally challenging — new users have a limited pool of 30 pixels that they can place, and regain one spent pixel every 30 seconds. Though the maximum pool size expands the more you draw, the recharge time remains the same. Those limitations mean that Wplace users either have to work extremely slowly and hope that nobody paints over their progress, or collaborate on large projects with help from other users. That makes some of the expansive paintings that have been shared across social media all the more impressive. Gaming and fandom-related content seem especially popular: fans of the NBC TV series Hannibal have littered images and quotes all over Florence, Italy, which is the setting for some of season 3, while Las Vegas, USA, is covered in homages to the Fallout games. Wplace itself has some gamified aspects too, such as leaderboards that track which countries are painted with the most pixels and which country has the most users who are contributing to the global canvas. The website has attracted more than a million users since Friday. Some functions are currently offline at the time of reporting; however, with Wplace saying that it's 'experiencing technical problems.' Existing users can add to the canvas, but new users are unable to create accounts, and the leaderboards feature isn't displaying any information. It's unclear when regular service will be restored, but for now you can still visit the website to scroll through all of the artwork that was placed over the weekend. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Jess Weatherbed Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Design Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Web
