UN votes to adopt new world map that shows Africa’s true scale:

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design.

At the session, 164 countries voted in favour of the resolution. Only the US voted no, with its representative saying the resolution was “superfluous”. [Emphasis added] There were six abstentions.

UN resolutions are non-enforceable, so countries and institutions will not be mandated to use only the new projection or forbidden from using the old one. However, the outcome is expected to result in an update of classroom curriculums and everyday technology given the wide usage of the Mercator projection in education, technology and governance.

This is how Africa looks on the Mercator Projection:

And here is the new map:

Here is the new projection overlaid on the Mercator:

I’ve known that the Mercator Projection exaggerates the sizes the farther one gets from the Equator since high school, so this is no surprise.

There was no reason for the US to vote against the measure.

Speaking of maps, MapQuest is back!

Unlike Apple and Google maps, both of which have kissed President Asshole’s ass by going along with his idiotic executive order to “rename” Lake Ontario, 

MapQuest has surged in popularity on the app charts after the mapping service said it would not rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” after President Trump signed an executive order changing its name.
The company said its mobile app received hundreds of thousands of downloads after it announced Thursday that the name Lake Ontario would remain on its apps, despite Trump directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).

Good for MapQuest!

And Fuck both Apple and Google!

Here’s a good article explaining why it’s such a stupid idea: The SHAME of Donald Trump