July 10, 2004
Nice callback oj.
Posted by: Bartman at July 10, 2004 5:02 PMHere's something I've never noticed about the UN flag: the smallest continent depicted is North America. Which, I am sure, is exactly how the UN would like it.
Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at July 10, 2004 9:16 PMNotice also that the center of the world is the north pole. I suggest moving their headquarters there immediately.
Posted by: jd watson at July 10, 2004 9:47 PMThe flip side of the flag should be a pile of bodies in Rwanda, or a pile of money with Saddam Hussein's signature on it.
Posted by: jim hamlen at July 10, 2004 10:19 PMNot big on geography, eh? Check a globe.
Posted by: LB at July 11, 2004 12:19 AMMy globe shows the correct scale; e.g., North America is about 36% larger than South America.
There are lots of different ways to draw maps of the world. None is perfect, because it's impossible to project every point on a sphere onto a two-dimensional surface in such a way that both relative areas and local angles are preserved. The UN emblem uses an azimuthal equidistant projection, which preserves neither. Instead, it shows the correct distance and direction from the center point, in this case the North Pole.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that, of all the projections they could have used, the one they chose makes North America look small.