How's the map project coming along? Better than I feared this afternoon, thanks to indespensible help from Duane.
Duane has access to some very fancy mapping software at work, and sent me exactly the map I needed. Black and white with bold, clean lines, and in my favorite Winkel Tripel projection. (The Mercatur projection is proof, perhaps, of the existence of Pure Evil. Anyway.)
Was just getting into playing with the thing, when I realized Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tadzhikistan (yes, those are real places) were all missing. Instead, they were part of that great big blob we call Russia.
So I spent an hour or so retouching Central Asia. Some cutting and pasting, some pixel-by-pixel editing, and the results are so sharp, you can't tell it from the real thing. Except those countries look less like they were drawn by Duane's mapping software, and more like they were drawn by a guy with a mission. And a scotch.
Back in a bit.
NOTE: Wouldn't "Retouching Central Asia" make an excellent name for a porn flick?
UPDATE: Oh, crap. Just noticed Ukraine and Belarus aren't marked on the map, either. Well, Belarus was going to get Russia's color anyway, but still...
UPDATE: Yeah, Moldova, too. Still, Duane did me a great service, and a little retouching of his map is still far, far better than anything I could have gotten on my own.
Steve you are confusing "Retouching Central Asia" , with Asia's first touch" Not that I would know!
Mercator may be useless for a variety of other reasons, but great circle routes are straight lines -- which counts for something.
Not a lot if you're comparing areas, mind you, but something.
Er, no. Great circle routes are not straight lines on Mercator. Consider a great-circle route from two points about 120 degrees apart in longitude but the same latitude.
A straight line route between them on a Mercator projection would involve traveling along the latitude line.
A great-circle route, however, would go north (in the Northern Hemisphere; south in the other) of that latitude to make a shorter path.
Planes fly to Asia from our west coast using the shorter path for that very reason to save time.
Sorry, the ESRI data is from 1992 I think, don't know when Moldova and the rest broke out from the U.S.S.R.....of course I don't even know where Moldova is so that's no big help either!
Take heart, the former Soviet Union was only 13 repuublics that you have to map out. Childs play.
Constant compass heading courses are straight lines on a Mercator. This is handy for some purposes, but it sure does distort areas.
Lawguy, no confusion, it'd just be the sequel. Starring Asia Carrera, of course.
