file under: are you fucking kidding me?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/alltherage/2011/04/j-crew-and-jenna-lyons-pink-toenail-controversy.html

I saw this on "The Daily Show" so I had to go look it up to make sure Jon wasn't having me on. Basically, it's a J. Crew ad where a woman is playing with her young son and in one photo, is painting his toenails neon pink. AND IT HAS CAUSED CONTROVERSY. About gender identity.

And you only get one guess as to what "news" network is making the most hay with this.

Further proof we are apparently far too affluent in this country with not enough adversity in our lives. Or, you know, some people are. How else would they have time to worry about such bullshit?

you can say I'm crazy, and that's fair

I have strange things that interest me, in the sense that they don't seem to go with any other interest I may have, or that most people scratch their heads and go "Huh?" when they hear about them. One of my interests is plate tectonics and, by extention, strange images of the planet and how it's represented (I think this relates to a general interest in space, which I've always had, but I digress).

So metalkatt and I were discussing tectonics and she said something about two continental plates moving away from each other resulting in a collision elsewhere, even though the text she was reading didn't acknowledge that part. She mentioned something about people viewing the Atlantic as the center of the world, and that reminded me of something I'd seen a few years ago: An upside-down world globe and map. If you've never seen one, click a linky; for an even more close-up of something familiarish for you Americans, check it out. (Now of course this is only upside-down for me, but I get to that a bit below; be patient *G*)

Then I found a transcript in a discussion forum from an episode of "The West Wing" which reminds me of just one reason I like Aaron Sorkin's writing so much. Basically, it's an episode where someone is pitching to the President's advisors the importance of the kinds of maps used in schools on the thought process of relating to the rest of the world. (Of course, it's not quite that simple, since political drama and conflict make a better story than dry discussion of data, but it's an interesting POV. *G*) It makes some sense if you think about it; here is a typical world map from Rand McNally - kind of old-timey, but what we're used to seeing around North America so far as I know. Ask anyone in marketing/advertising studies about line-of-sight when planning or selling advertising space (newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc.), and they'll tell you the more desirable position is upper left - it's where the eye tends to go first for most people, all images being equal, and so people tend to remember more data from this quadrant than any other. Now, check out what's in the upper left quadrant of that map. *G*

Here's an even more US-centric map of the world. Now IMO, nobody can be blamed for making their country the most noticeable on a map of the world, in what they're teaching in their own schools; hell, go to any mall, and the mall map will have a big red sticker with YOU ARE HERE. It's to orient where you know you are to everywhere else more easily, especially if you're in the middle of things (and isn't everyone on the planet in the middle of things?). But I wonder if this is done everywhere, if other countries have maps drawn that make THEM the center of the world in location and size (if there's any distortion in theirs) for schools and offices and such? metalkatt said as far as she knows, maps such as this are used in Southeast Asian schools.

Those of you in Australia or Norway, or China, etc. - what do you have most often around in your part of the world?