What is Blog?

mapsontheweb

Trading places; Mexico and Greenland swap place in the Mercator Projection.

peteseeger

This is fucked up

whowhatwhenwhereandwhynot

Map to illustrate the true size of countries

coffee-with-kat

esmeralda-anistasia

#the mercator projection is the world map we’re all used to seeing #and it draws western countries vastly out of proportion #making them seem bigger than non-western countries #it’s been cited as as example of european ethnocentrism #the galls-peters projection is supposed to be more accurate

a-really-big-cat

No global map is “more accurate” than any other. The reason that the Mercator projection distorts size this way is because it’s impossible to perfectly represent a spherical surface on a flat plane without some kind of distortion. The MErcator projection preserves the shape of landmasses, but at the cost of size. Other projections like Galls-Peters massively distort landmass shape, but they preserve the relative size (roughly). The idea that Mercator is a deliberate act of ethnocentric imperialism is absolutely ridiculous. The fact that the majority of Earth’s landmass is located north of the Equator does not make the Mercator projection racist ffs

thngrn20

Mercator also preserves angles, so the angle between two points is the same as the angle you should go to get between those points

pepsimansthickjuicymeatyschlong

liberalsarecool

Sharing space is nothing new. Sharing bathrooms is nothing new. The reactionary outrage is so manufactured.

theconcealedweapon

The parking lot? As in the gender neutral parking lot? As in a place where you have no privacy?

greatmountainfloofsquatch

These are the bathrooms at the airport in question:

As you can see, complete privacy for all waste-expulsion activities. You only encounter other people around the sink.

aspiringwarriorlibrarian

This just proves a point that I’ve repeatedly noticed and it’s that every time a bathroom goes gender neutral it gets about a hundred percent safer.

I distinctly remember coming back from college to find that they’d converted the two of the bathrooms into all-gender restrooms. Among the changes were doors that went all the way up and down, a locking mechanism within the door, and actual door handles. Even the single-occupancy bathroom got a wall for extra privacy.

In contrast, I remember the women’s bathrooms in my old school. They were broken as shit. Some doors needed to be held by a friend, some doors you held with your foot from inside. The wheelchair-accessible bathroom straight up did not have a door at all. And yet we all pretended this was okay because hey, the womanly honor code. You think that shit would have flown if there were two gender-neutral restrooms?

All I’m saying is that if I were fleeing a predator or wanted to be absolutely sure I was private, which one would be the better option? The one that assumes that a “no penises allowed” sign will be enough? Or the one that actually, physically protects me?

the-lady-among-thistles

mymedlife

the-lady-among-thistles

spitbruise

animentality

interstellar-lamb

rudjedet

downside: going to have to include a picture of the Giza pyramids in the slides for the lecture
upside: i get to give people a crash course in why perspective matters in two frames, because

An image of the three pyramids (and three satellite pyramids) on the Giza plateau that looks exactly the same as you've always seen it: Menkaure's smaller pyramid and the three queen's pyramids are in the foreground, with Khafre's pyramid looming behind it. Behind Khafre's pyramid is Khufu's, a.k.a. the Great Pyramid, which looks slightly smaller than Khafre's in this image.

followed by

Another photo of the pyramids of the Giza plateau. This time the pyramids are all shown from the same distance, so that the distance between them is clear as well as their relative size. It's now painfully obvious that Khufu's Great Pyramid on the far right is indeed the largest, with Khafre's in the centre only an increment smaller. Menkaure's pyramid, on the other hand, is less than half the height of Khafre's.

is such a funny sequence

wine-dark-sea

i find most people who haven't seen it in person don't know that cairo is RIGHT THERE

teaboot

I loved these perspectives so I took some of my own when I was in Cairo and yeah, they're literally just. Right there. Pass em on your way to work, nbd

ophilosoraptoro

No, y'all don't even understand.

There is literally a Pizza Hut across the street from the pyramids.

rudjedet

That Pizza Hut among other things is why Egyptologists laugh their asses off when we see another piece of media where the protagonists get "lost in the desert near the pyramids", because it's like... just turn around my dudes you're only a seven min walk away from the nearest fastfood shop

interstellar-lamb

Yall don't know how much I adore all of this

wilwheaton

liberalsarecool

Climate crisis is coming for all of us. We need to vote for people who are not insulated from reality via donor bribes.

We need a robust EPA. The current Supreme Court wants to end the EPA and Federal power to regulate our air and water. Never forget.

Get involved. Vote.

wilwheaton

The air quality that is so shocking in New York is identical to the air quality I grew up with in Los Angeles.

The EPA and the AQMD changed all of that, and I don't ever want anyone to have to experience what I did. It was awful.

We must insist on strong environmental laws and severe penalties for those who break them. We owe it to our kids.