Playing God
Sep. 2nd, 2004 02:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
windelinaThis is why they pay me the big bucks:
Kate wants a marketing brochure that shows the world, with countries that have data protection laws highlighted. (Again, we are behind the rest of the "first" world - all of Europe and Canada have such laws but not us.)
A map is produced, but the parties involved hate it, largely because in this large swath of blue in the top center (Canada and Europe) there's a gigantic red Greenland stuck in the middle.
Kate asks, "Why is Greenland so big?" And, geeky girl-who-loves maps just has to answer.
"Well, it's a Mercator projection, which is horridly inaccurate but still the most widely used map."
"Projection?" says Kate.
"Yes, a projection is a map of a 3d object onto a flat plane. There are many kinds of projections of the world."
"Can we get another one?"
So, I go and find out we can and we do and they try it, but nobody likes how it looks because it doesn't look "right" (because it doesn't look like the Mercator projection). Basically, they want a Mercator map, only...accurate. *snort*
And so, this morning, I proved my brilliance once again. On my way down to have some text changes made to the brochure, I looked at the map.
"...hm, the problem that started it all is Greenland, sitting there in the middle, being all wrongly huge...
...
...I never did like Greenland."
So, I had them delete Greenland.
And sure enough, the map is now loved.
All because I was smart enough to think of it, all on my own.
And because nobody likes Greenland.
Kate wants a marketing brochure that shows the world, with countries that have data protection laws highlighted. (Again, we are behind the rest of the "first" world - all of Europe and Canada have such laws but not us.)
A map is produced, but the parties involved hate it, largely because in this large swath of blue in the top center (Canada and Europe) there's a gigantic red Greenland stuck in the middle.
Kate asks, "Why is Greenland so big?" And, geeky girl-who-loves maps just has to answer.
"Well, it's a Mercator projection, which is horridly inaccurate but still the most widely used map."
"Projection?" says Kate.
"Yes, a projection is a map of a 3d object onto a flat plane. There are many kinds of projections of the world."
"Can we get another one?"
So, I go and find out we can and we do and they try it, but nobody likes how it looks because it doesn't look "right" (because it doesn't look like the Mercator projection). Basically, they want a Mercator map, only...accurate. *snort*
And so, this morning, I proved my brilliance once again. On my way down to have some text changes made to the brochure, I looked at the map.
"...hm, the problem that started it all is Greenland, sitting there in the middle, being all wrongly huge...
...
...I never did like Greenland."
So, I had them delete Greenland.
And sure enough, the map is now loved.
All because I was smart enough to think of it, all on my own.
And because nobody likes Greenland.
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Re: Greenland
Date: 2004-09-02 04:22 pm (UTC)Re: Greenland
Date: 2004-09-02 05:04 pm (UTC)Greenland is winter embodied
Iceland is fairly temperate and well-rounded
Our world is a strange place
Re: Greenland
Date: 2004-09-02 05:36 pm (UTC)