Time to get started on getting these off around the world!
And speaking of the world… Frances Garrood was wondering the other day “why America is always on the left, and the Eastern countries on the far right, and what would it look like if it were seen from a different angle”.
Well, I suppose it depends on what angle… But this is what it looks like if you just spin it around from our usual European view of it. (Which might actually explain why most of us don’t really look at it from that angle very often.)
The world is my deskpad, and my money box…
I think it was when I joined Postcrossing 2-3 years ago that I bought the globe. I don’t actually use it as a coin box; but I do sometimes find it a helpful tool for a not-quite-so-flat perspective of the world.
12 comments:
It is also fun to see maps that put China in the center and Europe and the Americas on the edges. I am a maps librarian (retired) and enjoy the different maps and worldviews.
i never thought about the left and right thing and the simple answer is proved by your globe, because it shows more land and not so much water. this is something to ponder since i read Terra's comment.
I live in Australia and the maps I used at school had the Pacific Ocean in the middle. Australia was easy to locate and so we learned about the relationships with other countries nearby. It was also easy to learn about early explorers and adventurers who recorded our land mass on their maps. Most came from Europe, a few from China and south east Asia. Later when we learned about the Arctic and Antarctica we had maps with those in the middle because the usual projections do not help students learn easily about those places. It is interesting to learn about the different ways people have made maps over the centuries. I was delighted to see that your money box has the international date line where the eye can catch it. Most important.
Today, I am going to write my Christmas cads, too. They probably won't go to as many different places as yours; most of them will be to my Yorkshire family. But there will also be ones sent to the US, to Denmark, to other places in the UK and a handful within Germany.
My sister and I used to have a light-up globe when we were children. I wonder what became of it.
I did not even know there was such a profession as maps librarian! Geography was never really my favourite subject back in school but I can imagine the history of maps being quite fascinating if you start taking an interest in it...
It gets even more confusing if one turns the globe upside down...
Well spotted about the date line, Louise. I have to confess I did not even know the line went zig-zag like that until the topic got discussed on Frances' blog.
My parents had a bigger globe which I remember from my childhood as well, but I did not keep it. It would have taken up too much space in my little flat; and too many names of countries have changed during my lifetime anyway...
There is really no substitute for a proper globe. I wish we had room for a great big one in our house!
There is really no substitute for a proper globe. I wish we had room for a great big one in our house!
I'm with Jenny on this one and would love a HUGE globe. I loved geography at school (I can still remember quite a lot about the glacial effect on Britain) and am fascinated by maps.
Yes... I'd love a big globe too... sitting on a little round table in a huge spacious library kind of room... :)
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