UKC

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3745016/Our-world-maps-WRONG...


... but only if you are allowed to count 350 year old stories as 'breaking news'.

nice to see the Mail at the cutting edge of investigative journalism, as usual...

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

My gosh - ancient news.

I always used to enjoy asking people if Greenland or Algeria was the bigger country - but rarely managed to trick anyone because of the way I asked the question tended to let on that it was a trap.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

On the plus side - they've paid a DM reporter to go and actually learn something (instead of just printing advertorials, photo shoots as news or scraping twitter feeds for stupid comments) - have to give them credit for that.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

yep, good on the Daily Mail, I was a bit confused at first, as I didn't understand who I was to blame and HATE for this error.

And Cuba is bigger than Iceland! the drag and drop map is a great bit of programming, exactly what the internet should be used for http://thetruesize.com

In reply to Dan Arkle:

That's brilliant - take home message for me is how bloody massive Antarctica is.

In reply to Dan Arkle:



Indeed. I liked their 'Terminal Disaster' headline on their front page when things went wrong at Terminal 5 though. I thought it was funny, and 'typically Daily Mail' in it's tone.

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

Oh dear Lord; I started reading the comments...

I notice the article didn't seem to mention globes at all. Which have been used for centuries, and accurately depict land mass sizes...

In reply to captain paranoia:

There is some good stuff in there i thought...

Apparently there's a website called dailymail.co that looks like it might be a real newapaper site but it really isn't.

I've always preferred a Lambert conformal conic projection, but then again, I've always been a bit kinky.

Ridiculous article; it does not tell how much Gerardus Mercator's house was worth.

It's all theoretical anyway. Our machine & lizard overlords only tell us what they want us to know, trapped here inside the matrix...

The distortion of the Mercator Projection was ground breaking news in 1569, for it's value for mariners and navigation at sea. It is taught to present day school children. Catch up DM science writers, you are only about 450 years late with this story. What next? Why large objects appear smaller when they are far away?

i might tune in a bit more, could be a guilty pleasure...

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

My personal preference was Phil with

"Father Ted... "Dougal these toy cows are very near, those real cows are far away, that's why the toy cows look bigger..." DM journalists are just like Dougal "

Tickled me it did

In reply to Dan Arkle:


Johnny bloody Foreigner, of course. Bloody EU, telling us how to draw maps. They'll be telling us next that our cucumbers are too bendy, or our bananas aren't bendy enough. And, when my garden is mapped correctly, and shrinks because of Johnny bloody Mercator, my house price will fall.

In reply to Dan Arkle:


It certainly brings out the best in UKC!

In reply to Big Ger:

My post wasn't attacking the paper as such, more cheerfully 'there they go'. I think it probably deserves it though, not due to the political slant of the paper, but from the creepy comments which have appeared on their website about female children being 'leggy' and 'stealing the show', and what's been written about gay people in the past by the paper.

Since we're all different, I couldn't really give a chuff about people having different political views to myself, but some of their copy has been creepy or homophobic, which makes me think they should just 'eff off'. I'd be quite glad if the paper folded.

I think there's potentially the danger of being smug, in talking about 'Daily Mail readers' in a condescending way, but I still dislike it.

Edit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2269261/Little-Leni-steals-mot...

Here you go written about a little girl.

In reply to Big Ger:
There's more Daily Mail copy like that written about female children, but I can't be fussed with searching for it, things to do.

reply to Timmd:

Quite. A nasty publication, dripping poison into public discourse, with added doses of prurience and salaciousness, often as you point out with children as it's subject.

Anyone remember tvgohome, and its satirical listings, with 'daily mail island'...?

http://www.tvgohome.com/0704-2000.html

In reply to Timmd:

Look, the daily mail used to be something you wouldn't want to wipe your arse with. It's difficult to come up with an equivalent phrase for their execrable online intellectually bankrupt click bait.

In reply to pasbury:
I guess I just can't get my head around people who seem to put a label on people who don't like it, given what can get written about female children, some of it's almost akin to a green light for paedophiles. Saying children are 'leggy' or putting on their 'best model face'. Really creepy.

In reply to Timmd:



What's wrong with it?

In reply to Big Ger:
You make a good point, because it seems to have been edited since a fuss was made, but originally it said 'mum's not the only leggy beauty in the family', insinuating the 8 year old was too, the reader comments questioning the turn of phrase are still there. The Daily Mail has form describing female children in similar ways, and it strikes me as creepy, when she's described as stealing the show and putting on her best model face too.

In reply to Timmd:


I can see that that would have been totally out of order, thanks for clarifying mate.