{"id":1788490,"date":"2020-02-27T14:35:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1788490"},"modified":"2020-02-27T14:35:36","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T19:35:36","slug":"smbc-takes-the-mercator-projection-into-its-own-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/02\/smbc-takes-the-mercator-projection-into-its-own-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"SMBC Takes the Mercator Projection into Its Own Hands"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SMBC:<\/a>
From \u201cMercator\u201d, SMBC<\/abbr><\/em>, 24 Feb 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal<\/em>\u2019s take on the Mercator projection<\/a> is … not what you\u2019d expect. The punch line is similar to Christopher Rowe\u2019s short story, \u201cAnother Word for Map Is Faith\u201d: if you can\u2019t make the map conform to the territory, make the territory conform to the map. Since we\u2019re dealing with the Mercator projection, this requires some … escalation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal\u2019s take on the Mercator projection is … not what you\u2019d expect. The punch line is similar to Christopher Rowe\u2019s short story, \u201cAnother Word for Map Is Faith\u201d: if you can\u2019t make… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[233],"tags":[274,936,192,571,604,1370],"class_list":["post-1788490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-unusual-maps","tag-comics","tag-fun","tag-funny","tag-map-projections","tag-mercator","tag-smbc","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1786810,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/12\/blame-the-mercator-projection\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788490,"position":0},"title":"Blame the Mercator Projection","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 December 2018","format":"image","excerpt":"Last Friday's xkcd suggests that the Mercator projection's reputation can be used to convince anyone of any false geographical fact. Not that\u00a0I\u2019d suggest you do that, mind. No.","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"xkcd (7 December 2018)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/mercator_projection.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1786066,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/google-maps-switches-3d-globe-at-small-scales\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788490,"position":1},"title":"Google Maps Switches to 3D Globe at Small Scales","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"3 August 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Web mapping uses Web Mercator. As Kenneth Field points out, this is fine at large scales, but at small scales you end up replicating the problem of using the Mercator projection on a wall map of the world. Zoom out in Apple Maps: using the map layer you get a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Web Mapping"","block_context":{"text":"Web Mapping","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/web-mapping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/google-globe-1024x819.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/google-globe-1024x819.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/google-globe-1024x819.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/google-globe-1024x819.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6037,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2015\/11\/how-the-mercator-projection-won-the-internet\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788490,"position":2},"title":"How the Mercator Projection Won the Internet","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 November 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I've said it before: if you want to start a fight among cartographers, ask them what their favourite map projection is. Earlier this week I did just that: I felt mischievous and wanted to try out Twitter's polling feature, so I ran a poll asking my Map Room followers what\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"OpenStreetMap, using Web Mercator, all zoomed out","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/osm-web-mercator.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/osm-web-mercator.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/osm-web-mercator.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/jonathancrowe.net\/images\/2015\/osm-web-mercator.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1844848,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/08\/in-case-you-thought-the-war-against-the-mercator-projection-was-over-long-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788490,"position":3},"title":"In Case You Thought the War Against the Mercator Projection Was Over Long Ago","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 August 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"A new front has been opened in the never-ending war against the Mercator projection. The African Union endorses Correct the Map\u2019s campaign to replace the Mercator projection (which diminishes the relative size of Africa) with the Equal Earth projection. I think it\u2019s awfully interesting that they\u2019re proposing Equal Earth instead\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4073,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/03\/the-peters-map-is-fighting-the-last-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788490,"position":4},"title":"The Peters Map Is Fighting the Last War","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 March 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"News of Boston public schools' decision to go with the Peters projection has gone viral over the past week, and my teeth have not stopped itching. Largely because this is very much old news: Arno Peters began promoting \"his\" projection 44 years ago, and the Peters map has been making\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1791423,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/07\/xkcd-the-greenland-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":1788490,"position":5},"title":"xkcd: The Greenland Special","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 July 2021","format":"link","excerpt":"At some point, xkcd cartoonist Randall Munroe is going to put out a book focusing on his map-related cartoons, isn\u2019t he. The latest in his \u201cBad Map Projection\u201d series (previously: All South Americas, Time Zones, Liquid Resize) is The Greenland Special, an equal-area projection except for Greenland, which uses Mercator.\u00a0And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"xkcd: Bad Map Projections: The Greenland Special","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/xkcd-greenland-special-1024x895.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/xkcd-greenland-special-1024x895.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/xkcd-greenland-special-1024x895.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/xkcd-greenland-special-1024x895.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1788490"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1788495,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1788490\/revisions\/1788495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1788490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1788490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1788490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}