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Thread: Shrinking Caithness?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    Default Shrinking Caithness?

    I did realise the BBC weather map sort of skewed the map of the UK but had not realised how bad the distortion was!

    See http://www.flickr.com/photos/caleyseoras/6775782187/

    Complaints can be posted to the BBC at

    https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=#anchor or http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/

    We need our kids to have a basic idea of geography and the BBC are really not helping things - they should know better!

  2. #2
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    Default

    Buy them a map
    W.A.T.P.

  3. #3
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    Wick
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    Default

    Complaint left!

  4. #4
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    Jun 2005
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    Default

    Let me guess.

    You're stupid, aren't you?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection

  5. #5
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    Feb 2012
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    Wick
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    Default

    but, but, but please miss, the world isn't really flat is it?

  6. #6
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    Beechville, Nova Scotia
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    Default

    From your first link, it looks to me that things have improved since the 70's.

    They used to have Orkney and Shetland wandering off somewhere east of Aberdeen in the North Sea, which drove me nuts (ah, that explains a lot for me).

  7. #7
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    Newsflash. The earth is a sphere.
    Patriotism is when love of your own people comes first; Nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.

    - Charles de Gaulle

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by David Banks View Post

    They used to have Orkney and Shetland wandering off somewhere east of Aberdeen in the North Sea,
    That's why they claim all the oil.

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Backlass View Post
    I did realise the BBC weather map sort of skewed the map of the UK but had not realised how bad the distortion was!

    See http://www.flickr.com/photos/caleyseoras/6775782187/

    Complaints can be posted to the BBC at

    https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=#anchor or http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/

    We need our kids to have a basic idea of geography and the BBC are really not helping things - they should know better!

    For goodness sake its not distortion, its projection. The Earth is a globe and has to be flattened out to make into Maps etc.
    All Navigation charts are in Mercators Projection and the view differs from the Equator to the Poles. Why teach your children geography from a BBC Weather map?? get an atlas or a globe.
    Once the original Grumpy Owld Man but alas no more

  10. #10
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    Large chip on shoulder I think the OP has,
    'We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.'
    Maya Angelou

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ballymore View Post
    Complaint left!
    You've certainly given the BBC a good laugh about Caithness people. Thanks!

  12. #12

    Default

    Why are you having a go at the OP?
    I think they have a point. The map is shown in perspective view, and as such, Caithness and Orkney/Shetland in progressive order are more difficult to see on TV's that arent as big as a whole wall.
    Furthermore, when they show the name "Stornoway" on the map, it obliterates the whole of the North Coast. Thats over 100 miles of area that are covered over by one wee word.

  13. #13
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    I despair for the OP's kids if the extent of their geography education is from the BBC weather bulletin. What's next, mathematics from deal or no deal?
    W.A.T.P.

  14. #14
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    Oct 2006
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    I learned French from the side of an HP sauce bottle.

  15. #15
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    We'd have much better weather if they made Caithness the big bit at the bottom.
    Last edited by sids; 24-Sep-13 at 12:01.

  16. #16
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    “We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine....
    And the machine is bleeding to death."


  17. #17

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    Quote Originally Posted by Even Chance View Post
    I think they have a point. The map is shown in perspective view, and as such, Caithness and Orkney/Shetland in progressive order are more difficult to see on TV's that arent as big as a whole wall.
    Yes, it's perspective, and it's not a crazy thing to do on TV. The UK is a tall skinny country, and today's TVs tend to be much wider than they are high. Viewing the country from above, but at a non-zero angle from the vertical, and using perspective makes it appear shorter without squashing it.

    The effect has nothing to do with projection, which would have little effect on the relative size of Scotland versus England - because the UK is small on a global scale. In fact, Mercator projection, for example, would make Scotland look bigger relative to England, not smaller!
    Last edited by secrets in symmetry; 24-Sep-13 at 00:43.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Alrock View Post
    Ahh! That's why Alex Salmond's head looks so funny.

  19. #19

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    Need to use a globe to get perspective right. Or a round telly

  20. #20

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    Quote Originally Posted by theone View Post
    Newsflash. The earth is a sphere.
    No its not its an oblate spheriod

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