Choose the center of the universe

May 27, 2020 2:59 PM

Mercator: Extreme, by Drew Roos. “A single map encompassing the entire surface of the Earth, yet containing both human scale and global scale.”

Some fantastic nodes from which to unfurl the world: Stonehenge (linked above), Iceland, Central Park, Hawaii, Cape Horn, Farol do Calcanhar (Brazil), Sri Lanka, Cape Spear (Newfoundland).

See also: View of the World from 9th Avenue

posted by oulipian (8 comments total)

This is good.
posted by biogeo at 3:30 PM on May 27, 2020

Way cool.

This is mentioned in the "help" text, but in case anyone missed it: I highly recommend clicking the "view on a normal map" button. It's not just a static view; it pops up a separate window with an interactive visualization, showing how vertical lines on the Mercator projection correspond to concentric circles, and horizontal lines radiate outward from the poles.
posted by teraflop at 4:06 PM on May 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

if you put the pole in the center of apple park (the big circular building), it becomes a straight line.
posted by pmdboi at 6:17 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

looking down from Mt. Everest
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 6:27 PM on May 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Damn, that's super interesting. Sort of a Ringworld vibe if you turn your head.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:40 PM on May 27, 2020

I can see me house from there!
posted by vrakatar at 8:57 PM on May 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

Here is the view of the world from 9th Avenue, though I prefer Saul Steinberg's version.
posted by whir at 10:53 AM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

To get my head around this, I started at the north pole and hopped my way down the east coast of North America. Currently in Key West.
posted by neutralmojo at 3:31 PM on May 28, 2020