{"id":1807162,"date":"2022-05-03T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1807162"},"modified":"2022-05-03T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-05-03T14:00:00","slug":"mercator-extreme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/05\/mercator-extreme\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercator: Extreme"},"content":{"rendered":"

To follow-up on xkcd\u2019s Madagascator cartoon<\/a> (previously<\/a>), I missed the fact that clicking on the cartoon at the xkcd website actually did something, but Keir caught it<\/a>: it links to Drew Roos\u2019s Mercator: Extreme<\/a>, an online tool that allows you to have some fun with the Mercator projection\u2019s excessive polar distortion by making any point on the planet the North Pole and which clearly served as Randall\u2019s inspiration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To follow-up on xkcd\u2019s Madagascator cartoon (previously), I missed the fact that clicking on the cartoon at the xkcd website actually did something, but Keir caught it: it links to Drew Roos\u2019s Mercator: Extreme, an… 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":[29],"tags":[571,604,1578],"class_list":["post-1807162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-cartography","tag-map-projections","tag-mercator","tag-too","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1788490,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/02\/smbc-takes-the-mercator-projection-into-its-own-hands\/","url_meta":{"origin":1807162,"position":0},"title":"SMBC Takes the Mercator Projection into Its Own Hands","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 February 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"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 the map conform to the territory, make the territory conform to the map. Since we\u2019re\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SMBC: Mercator","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/smbc-mercator-excerpt-270x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1786810,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/12\/blame-the-mercator-projection\/","url_meta":{"origin":1807162,"position":1},"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":1785584,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/05\/mercator-globes-at-the-university-of-lausanne\/","url_meta":{"origin":1807162,"position":2},"title":"Mercator Globes at the University of Lausanne","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 May 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CrJnQ3mGvO0 The University of Lausanne has come across a pair of globes\u2014one celestial, one terrestrial\u2014made by Mercator in the 16th century. Mercator apparently had a reputation as a globemaker, and a number of his globes are still in existence today. But \"not particularly rare\" is not the same as \"not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/CrJnQ3mGvO0\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1788622,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/04\/a-virtual-16th-century-globe\/","url_meta":{"origin":1807162,"position":3},"title":"A Virtual 16th-Century Globe","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 April 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"Mercator Globe - \u00a9 National Maritime Museum by Cyreal.com on Sketchfab The National Maritime Museum is closed right now, obviously, but in the meantime they\u2019ve given us a virtual version of one of their treasures: a 1541 table globe by Gerardus Mercator. Previously: Antique Globes, Virtual and Real.","rel":"","context":"In "Antique Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Antique Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/antique-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786066,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/08\/google-maps-switches-3d-globe-at-small-scales\/","url_meta":{"origin":1807162,"position":4},"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":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":1807162,"position":5},"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":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807162","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=1807162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1807165,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807162\/revisions\/1807165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1807162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1807162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1807162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}