{"id":1834522,"date":"2024-10-17T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1834522"},"modified":"2024-10-17T08:30:03","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T12:30:03","slug":"a-50-50-us-australia-blend-from-xkcd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/10\/a-50-50-us-australia-blend-from-xkcd\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A 50\/50 US\/Australia Blend’ from xkcd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"A<\/a>
Randall Munroe, \u201cBad Map Projection: The United Stralia<\/a>,\u201d xkcd, 16 Oct 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Morphing maps of the U.S. and Australia into one hot mess<\/a> is more of a Star Trek<\/em> transporter accident than a map projection, if we\u2019re being nitpicky; what\u2019s surprising is that the result is almost viable. Almost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Morphing maps of the U.S. and Australia into one hot mess is more of a Star Trek transporter accident than a map projection, if we\u2019re being nitpicky; what\u2019s surprising is that the result is almost… 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":[378,274,936,192,273],"class_list":["post-1834522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-unusual-maps","tag-cartoons","tag-comics","tag-fun","tag-funny","tag-xkcd","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1832472,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/06\/xkcd-exterior-kansas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834522,"position":0},"title":"xkcd: ‘Exterior Kansas’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 June 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Randall Munroe, \u201cBad Map Projection: Exterior Kansas,\u201d xkcd, 26 June 2024. In the latest iteration of xkcd\u2019s series of bad map projections, Randall puts Kansas\u2014the putative centre of the contiguous 48 states\u2014at the edge of the map.","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"xkcd:","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/xkcd-exterior-kansas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/xkcd-exterior-kansas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/xkcd-exterior-kansas.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/xkcd-exterior-kansas.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/xkcd-exterior-kansas.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/xkcd-exterior-kansas.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1788218,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/01\/xkcd-all-south-americas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834522,"position":1},"title":"xkcd: All South Americas","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"21 January 2020","format":"image","excerpt":"xkcd is back with another bad map projection: in this one, it\u2019s all South Americas. The alt-text:\u00a0\u201cThe projection does a good job preserving both distance and azimuth, at the cost of really exaggerating how many South Americas there are.\u201d Previously: xkcd\u2019s Time Zone Map; xkcd\u2019s Liquid Resize Map Projection; xkcd\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Unusual Maps"","block_context":{"text":"Unusual Maps","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/unusual-maps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/bad_map_projection_south_america.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/bad_map_projection_south_america.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/bad_map_projection_south_america.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1791423,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2021\/07\/xkcd-the-greenland-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834522,"position":2},"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":[]},{"id":1844815,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/08\/how-xkcd-does-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834522,"position":3},"title":"How xkcd Does Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"5 August 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"Randall Munroe, author of the xkcd web comic, posts a surprising amount of map-related content, which I invariably end up linking to here. With some exceptions, they fall into one of two categories, each of which has a recent example. The first category is a hand-drawn infographic map showing, in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xkcd-inaturalist.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xkcd-inaturalist.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xkcd-inaturalist.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xkcd-inaturalist.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xkcd-inaturalist.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/xkcd-inaturalist.png?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1805995,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/02\/xkcd-the-goode-homolosine-to-the-rescue\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834522,"position":4},"title":"xkcd: The Goode Homolosine to the Rescue!","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 February 2022","format":"image","excerpt":"Randall Munroe\u2019s map projection humour is increasingly on point, as last Friday\u2019s xkcd demonstrates. (The mouseover text is even better: \u201cThere are two rules on this ship: Never gaze back into the projection abyss, and never touch the red button labeled DYMAXION.\u201d) Previously: xkcd: The Greenland Special; xkcd: All South\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/sea_chase.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/sea_chase.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/sea_chase.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/sea_chase.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1807135,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/05\/xkcds-madagascator-projection\/","url_meta":{"origin":1834522,"position":5},"title":"xkcd\u2019s Madagascator Projection","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"1 May 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Uncharacteristically for xkcd\u2019s Bad Map Projection series, the Madagascator is actually totally legitimate as a projection. Not that it\u2019s any less mischievous, mind. Update, 3 May: Turns out there was more to this xkcd cartoon. See Mercator: Extreme.","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/art\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"xkcd: Bad Map Projection: Madagascator (29 Apr 2022)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/bad_map_projection_madagascator.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/bad_map_projection_madagascator.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/bad_map_projection_madagascator.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/imgs.xkcd.com\/comics\/bad_map_projection_madagascator.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834522","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=1834522"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1834526,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1834522\/revisions\/1834526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1834522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1834522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1834522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}