linuxcare.com.au received a bemusing email a few days ago, complaining that the little world map page used a projection of the Earth that was no longer politically correct.

Our correspondant suggested we should instead use the politically correct Peters projection, which tries to accurately present land area and therefore show countries close to the Equator as larger. These countries tend to be less-developed countries.

I found a nice summary of the Peters projection, which is demonstrated here. (Sorry, this link was wrong.) Ironically for socialists, it seems hard to locate the algorithm to draw the map, and it would be more than amusing if it turned out to be patented. If the constraint is merely that area should be preserved it should be straightforward to derive, and perhaps a patch to xplanet would be appropriate.

Even in geometry (lit: measuring land), it seems, the technical is political.