So frustrating when every world map in Too HOT and HUMID to Live: Extreme Wet Bulb Events Are on the Rise cuts off Aotearoa New Zealand — either completely or mostly.
It’s not a great feeling when 5 million Kiwis are overlooked, ignored and forgotten about.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran …and most of the pacific, but who knows how long those islands are still above sea level.
Miraz Jordan @odd Yes, we weren't the only ones cut off. I know it doesn't really matter and it's a tiny nit to pick, but I realise that actually I feel it like one of many paper cuts. How hard would it have been to just let the whole globe be visible? That's the second 'paper cut' for me this week. On the plus side, it makes me more acutely aware of when I overlook others from my own points of privilege…
Clifford Beshers Hmm... I watched the video and this seems like low-level decisions and standards overriding high-level requirements. Someone in editing gets a map that is rendered at a specific aspect ratio, which is too wide to broadcast without letter-boxing. You can see them pan and zoom around the map, so they have access to an app that is captured somehow. PBS is a US network, so they make sure Alaska is on the map and don't let the letter-boxing get too bad, and that means you get cropped.
You need to get a link to that application.
Miraz Jordan @cliffordbeshers I've noticed the same thing in other mainly US-based videos too. I'm not going round wounded all day about it but am interested in the fact that it does hurt slightly — like a papercut. Then I think of all the people in the world who suffer from big-deal being ignored and overlooked every minute of every day. What was a paper cut for me is death by a billion paper cuts for others.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran It’s a small request to even be considered. We are often neglected or cut in half too, when someone is making a map of Europe, and greyed out when talking about the EU. We aren’t a part of the EU of course, but we are part of EEC, (and we are often keener than many EU countries to implement EU regulations). I will make a note of this when I see other parts being forgotten forward.
Matt Huyck I can see how a US-based editor might make the call @cliffordbeshers suggests, but — really — there’s no data to show for Alaska here. They totally could have cropped that own to include everywhere else with data.
Clifford Beshers @fgtech Oh, but the complaints from the Alaskans! They aren't as reasonable as you Kiwis, being both American and of a perpetual frontier mindset.
Clifford Beshers I believe this is the original work and an interactive version of a similar map is slightly less prejudicial.
Miraz Jordan @fgtech Yes, I was looking to see what shading applied to NZ and was disappointed. I doubt that whole thing would apply to us here as an island nation in a windy part of the planet, but then what would I know?
Miraz Jordan @cliffordbeshers Wowee, fantastic sleuthing! I see NZ's maximum wet bulb temps fall in the below 30C (86F) range. 😅
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran @cliffordbeshers Oh, 22.5°C here. Not that it means we shouldn’t do anything about it though. @Denny
Miraz Jordan @odd @cliffordbeshers @Denny We have national elections later this year, so of course all the politicians are spouting off. This morning I heard one talking about how we need more growth in business, more growth in tourism, more growth, more growth… And I was screaming in my head that No, we need to sort out the climate and absolutely NOT grow! 🔥
Clifford Beshers Clifford Beshers The economists will tell you that growth isn't always more things, more factories, but growth in productivity. I believe them, but I'm pretty sure a lot of people planning the growth don't understand that.
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran @cliffordbeshers Both are in a manageable range, as is ours, (if I understand correctly).
Odd-Egil “Oddzthrash” Auran Right! That, and more equality would give most people a decent chance of living ok.
Miraz Jordan @cliffordbeshers I think this one wanted more stuff, more farm produce, more tourists, more exports etc
Clifford Beshers I always think ANZ could be a great software hub, but I never get the feeling that happens in a big coordinated way. Am I missing something?
Jessica Smith Honestly that map looks excessively horizontally stretched out, anyway. Like, comparing it to the standard Mercator projection, I'm pretty sure they could've fit New Zealand and Alaska in their 16:9 screen if they'd just gone with a Mercator map. For bonus points, they could've gone with a projection that doesn't depict the far northern lands as being many multiples of their true size, like Gall-Peters, which also looks like it would've fit in a 16:9 screen...
Miraz Jordan @jayeless I'll take your word for it… Oh, that Gall-Peters sure looks unfamiliar!
Miraz Jordan @cliffordbeshers I'm not sure what you mean by that. The question is probably better addressed to someone like @billbennettnz …
Clifford Beshers Followed, thank you. I guess I mean something like a small Silicon Valley, or Redmond, a city that collects software industries.
Miraz Jordan @cliffordbeshers Hmmm. Not sure how much software industry there is here. What we do collect is film industry — especially around Wellington where Peter Jackson has his Wētā studios.
Clifford Beshers Ah, right, I know someone who spent a year or two in Wellington working on GFX for those films. Now Vancouver is a hot spot for that, I believe.
Bill Bennett I don't want to come across as snarky, but thinking about ANZ as a software hub misses the point that we are two sovereign nations with very different approaches to industry policy.
Australia is fond of handing out money to attract international companies and industries.... it has done so for decades.
In general New Zealand does not (although it does with the movie industry).
So right now games developers get a big tax break in Australia, but not in New Zealand... guess where they are heading? From memory there are other incentives to locate in Australia.
There is next to zero co-ordination on this kind of policy between the two countries.
Bill Bennett @cliffordbeshers @miraz There is still activity in Wellington, but other governments are busy wooing companies with (depending on your point of view) bribes or incentives.
Clifford Beshers @billbennettnz Hmm I don't remember mentioning Australia, but I get the sibling rivalry. When I flew from Australia to ANZ I went to the domestic flights terminal in Sydney. Sheesh, how dumb am I?
Anyway, I just thought Wellington or Aukland could draw software industries once the internet blossomed. I spent two months on there while telecommuting to the US, it worked fine. But I totally get that ANZ would not compete on tax breaks for a random software industry. The movie industry makes sense because it promotes tourism, I imagine.
Thanks for the insight.
Clifford Beshers @billbennettnz Ah, light bulb. By ANZ I meant Aotearoa/New Zealand, not Australia/New Zealand.
Bill Bennett @cliffordbeshers Ah... that is going to be a huge point of future confusion if people use ANZ that way.
Bill Bennett @cliffordbeshers Yeah, New Zealand definitely punches above its weight in software... it is a higher proportion of export dollars than in most countries. Sadly I can't dig out the actual comparison numbers any more because Google search has becoming so much harder
Miraz Jordan @billbennettnz @cliffordbeshers In light of that confusion, today I decided to drop the New Zealand part when I refer to our country. In future I'll generally just use Aotearoa. 😀