1. Come on maps, I thought you were cool
Even Maps Can Be Biased
Come on maps, I thought you were cool

2. Maps: Can they be biased?
A globe is the only accurate representation of the world.
A map projection is created by projecting the features onto a flat surface; each projection misrepresents the Earth in some way.
Maps are not neutral.

3. Biased maps What has been: placed in the centre of the map?
left off the map?
relegated to the corners/fringes?
distorted/shrunk?

4. Australia at the bottom
Australia usually gets forgotten about at the bottom of maps
In this map, they’ve flipped the usual North = top idea
Whatever is at the centre of the map is the most important

5. North =top? North is usually put at the top of maps
But before the compass gained popularity, maps often placed east at the top, presumably because the sun rises in the east.

6. Eurasia cut in two
Obviously this one emphasises North America and relegates Russia to the fringes on the side

7. Different Map Projections
Gall-Peters
From Democratic Underground.com
Cassini
Mollweide

8. Mercator Map
Shape and size of regions are distorted: equatorial regions are smaller than they actually are while polar regions are larger.
So it emphasises most of the “First World” and downplays most of the “Third World”

9. Unreliable Mercator Maps
On Mercator projection maps, Africa and Greenland look the same size.
In real life, Africa is almost 14 times larger than Greenland!

10. How the World Map Looks Wildly Different Than You Think
6:19

11. Peters Projection
Equal area map. The continents and bodies of water are shown in their actual size.
This is like the opposite of Mercator; it emphasises the Southern Hemisphere.

12. Robinson Projection
Distorts everything (shape, area, scale, and distance) a little in an attempt to come to happy medium

13. Map Projections
South America in selected projections at identical scale.
Which projection is best? Which is right?
The short answer is none are right,
at least not all the time.

14. The most accurate map???

15. When Google Maps Made Countries Mad
Cartography can be a risky job when neighboring countries have different interpretations of their borders.
In 2010, a Nicaraguan general invaded Costa Rica, set up camp and raised a Nicaraguan flag.
He said that the land was shown as part of Nicaragua on Google Maps.
Google Maps had somehow placed the border a small ways south of where it should have been, giving Nicaragua a few extra square miles.
That particular border had been disputed for decades, so even when Google Maps adjusted the line, the general refused to leave for a while

16. Maps as Propaganda
During the Cold War, maps were used as propaganda pieces by the USA and the USSR.
These places look fairly distant from each other on typical map projections, but lots of polar projections emerged in the 1940s to point out that a nuclear missile didn’t have to cross the Atlantic Ocean, but only the Arctic Ocean, to reach the other side.
The Mercator projection was a favorite of anti-Communist propagandists, since it made the Soviet Union appears to be a sprawling menace, capable of swallowing Europe and Asia whole.

17. Maps and Social Equality
jeIxbQpM 3:48

18. When Americans Try and Label Canada
Wow

25. False Images, Doctored Photos
You can’t even trust your own eyes

26. Doctored photos are nothing new
With Photoshop available, we have to remain skeptical of images we see too
Doctored photos are nothing new
Stalin really liked to have official photos doctored as he purged people

27. Fake photo
This digitally altered image purports to be President Obama's Columbia student ID, used to give credence to the Birther conspiracy The card fails the sniff test: Obama attended Columbia in 1981, and ID's with barcodes weren't issued at the university until over a decade later.

28. Class activity:
Find an example of a well-known doctored photo – whether from history or more recent.
Why was it manipulated in such a way?
What was the result/reaction?
Google “doctored photos” or “manipulated photos”