The Bad Maps Thread

[Kyng]

Apparently, London has as many people as Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Detroit, Dallas, Seattle, and San Francisco combined:



Sadly, the truth is much more mundane: this map is completely misleading. It uses the city proper definitions of the American cities: all seven of them have vast urban areas that aren't taken into account. For example, Chicago has 2,746,388 people living within its city limits - but when you add in the suburbs, it has a total urban-area population of 8,671,746 (almost as many as the entirety of Greater London).

By contrast, London annexed most of its suburbs in 1965 - so its 'city proper' population (8,799,800) isn't much different from its 'urban area' population (9,787,426).

[Kyng]

Ermm, Spain won it in 1964, and Italy won it in 1968 - so, those countries should both be purple.

Also, the Soviet Union won it in 1960. I guess all of those countries should be blue, because that's what they did with the former constituents of Czechoslovakia?

[Kyng]

These size comparison maps are fascinating - but only when they're accurate .

[Kyng]

Due to a software bug, Windows 95's time zone map omitted Poland at one point .

(Though, the above appears to be a Windows XP screenshot - so, I'm not quite sure what the story there is, or if there was a similar bug in there at one point!!!)

[Kyng]

When I was on Facebook earlier today, I came across this abomination:



First of all... don't they realise that Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all have their own varieties of English, separate from British English and American English ? (Though, I guess I should at least give them credit for including New Zealand on the map, since that's not always a given....)

Also, as someone who speaks to Indians every working day: Indian English is categorically not US English. (Due to it being a former part of the British Empire, Indian English has its roots in British English - but where it differs from British English, it's nothing like American English).

There's probably a lot more that's wrong with this map - but, it's not even getting the bare basics right .

[Jarkko]

We don't learn UK English or speak US English, we learn and speak Canadian English, EH???

This of course also neglects that African Englishes are very distinct.