I was down in the village, in this cool store that has everything to do with Maps, Globes, Flags, Geographical Knicknacks, etc etc. I purchased an inflatable transparent beach ball globe. But it struck me that they were missing something important: where were the desk globes mounted with South on the top? I've never seen one for sale. I'm sure that many a drunken Aussie has remounted a globe in such a fashion, but in that case all the lettering will be mis-oriented. Why can't they make a proper globe, with the lettering in the right direction only facing top-South instead of top-North?
I'm certainly not the first person to propose this. It's a pretty obvious idea. I'm sure it's been jokingly discussed in certain circles, geography wonks, antipodean pride movements...but it doesn't seem as though the movement has gained sufficient force to really place at least one upside-down globe in every store that sells globes, maps, flags, etc. They ought to shake a leg. They could really clean up, at least, with me!
5 comments:
Oh my god! I've totally wondered this myself! Because even though we call the North Pole "North" and think of North as "up," isn't that arbitrary? I mean, the Southern Hemisphere people could have. . . wait, which way do the compasses point, though? You couldn't get a compass to point South, could you? I guess if you put the arrow point on the opposite end. . .
Hm. I hope these utterly rambling comments fit well with your image of how your blog should start rolling its presses, because that be the way it is. Although I'm a little worse for the wear sleep-wise at the moment, so my comments may not always be this way.
You know what, though, I think it's because it was the Northern and/or Western Hemisphere making most of the maps and globes that led to their shaping the modern images of maps and globes. Could be. Although that doesn't really explain the compass.
Me and you should go into business. You do the South-pointing Compasses, I'll do the Globes!
Funny, I was just reading Scientific American, and apparently compasses in the Southern Hemisphere also point North. Despite the well-known myth* that water spirals the other way down the sink down there.
Just something to do with the direction of the magnetic...current, for lack of the better word.
*a myth...or IS IT?
I did call it a myth! Albeit, I threw the asterisk in there for mystification purposes.
Truthfully it was neither myth nor legend, but They Might Be Giants song reference.
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