Maps of Iraq make no reference to Kurdish autonomy. Maps of Canada don’t note that Quebec is a separate linguistic sphere, and that many Québécois would prefer not to be a part of Canada at all. But it perhaps unintentionally also highlighted the distortions inherent in using lines and names to demarcate polities. Steinberg’s cover is a clear parody of a snotty New Yorker’s conception of flyover America and the uncivilized beyond. The Pacific Ocean, not much wider than the Hudson, separates us from nebulous chunks of land representing Russia, Japan and China. Los Angeles, Chicago and a few other cities and states-the map makes no distinction-are distant places surrounded by the occasional outcropping (the Rocky Mountains). At an even smaller scale is the rest of the United States. Behind that wall of modernity is the Hudson River, with a narrow strip of brown representing “Jersey” on the far bank. The streets, sidewalks and buildings along 9th Avenue are prominent in the foreground. The work (below) trenchantly depicts a typical Manhattanite’s parochial view of the rest of the United States. One particularly famous distortion of perspective is illustrated in Saul Steinberg’s 1976 “ View of the World from 9th Avenue” cover of The New Yorker. Most map-making incongruities are more conceptual than geographic. The Mercator projection map solved many nautical navigation problems, although it has failed to disabuse schoolchildren of the notion that Greenland is twice the size of the lower 48 states. Mercator published a map of the world using a technique in which parallels and meridians were rendered as straight lines spaced so as to produce, at any point, an accurate ratio of latitude to longitude. The representational distortion problem was solved (up to a point) by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569. Although many questioned Christopher Columbus’s navigational ability, nobody really expected him to plummet off the planet. Despite the popular wisdom on this topic, very few educated individuals after Aristotle believed in a flat earth. Some of the earliest world maps appear to depict the earth as a flat, disc-shaped body, but the circular shape was merely an attempt to show Eurasia and Africa surrounded by water. If you’ve ever had to choose between a pie chart, line chart, or bar chart, you know the challenge.ĭistortions in world maps have always reflected the difficulty of presenting a round globe on a flat page. And while the “x” on a treasure map indicates your desired destination, the “x” on a meteorological map may be a lightning downstrike. Highway maps help you find bridges to cross those rivers. Topographic maps are great for identifying river drainages. The cartographer’s dilemma should be familiar to any project manager responsible for editorial decisions on content, especially for infographics and other data visualizations.ĭifferent maps serve different purposes and thus display different details. And when an inch equals a mile, the omissions outnumber the inclusions. In order to highlight important geographic features, maps must filter out less critical details. Maps developed as intuitive and functional representations of our physical surroundings-water this way, shelter that way. The first maps appeared during the Stone Age and appear to predate written language by several millennia. R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings,ProxyOverride = *.In our History of Information Organization infographic, we highlighted cartography as one of the earliest forms of conceptual communication. R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Local Page = C:\Windows\SysWOW64\blank.htm R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,CustomizeSearch = R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Search,SearchAssistant = R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Search_URL = R1 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Default_Page_URL = R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = about:blank R1 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Search Page = Am I infected?Ĭ:\Program Files (x86)\Iomega Storage Manager\IomegaStorageManager.exeĬ:\Program Files (x86)\Evernote\EvernoteClipper.exeĬ:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel® Rapid Storage Technology\IAStorIcon.exeĭ:\Programs\Adobe MC CS6\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat\acrotray.exeĬ:\Program Files (x86)\AltBinz\altbinz.exeĬ:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exeĬ:\Program Files (x86)\Spotnet\Spotnet.exe I'm getting a lot of missing files after scanning.