this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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[–] probable_possum@leminal.space 215 points 1 month ago (5 children)

All countries are in a straight line. If you make it wide enough.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 82 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Or long enough, as it's on a spheroid.

[–] probable_possum@leminal.space 47 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Or use the proper projection.

[–] teft@piefed.social 47 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Yeah, like the Euler Projection.

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

It's actually a curved line

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Or if you use a suitable projection. I'm pretty sure you can pick some really wild projection and make it work with another letter too.

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[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 123 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] iatenine@piefed.social 93 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Côte d'Ivorie

It's weird they use this as their "English-language" name but I don't really have a point, just hoping to watch a thread become a comment shit show

[–] milkisklim@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago (6 children)

It makes just as much sense as calling it Türkiye.

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[–] cabillaud@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Côte d'Ivoire

[–] rustyfish@piefed.world 107 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did you know?

All countries are in a straight line?

Please send bitcoin, save the dream 😎

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 8 points 1 month ago

"Fraction of a dot"

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 50 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

*with their anglicized names

India, for example, has been traditionally referred to as Bharat (depending on language root) domestically and among the 100s of languages and dialects used there the name India is never used. Similar to Deutschland and Germany.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What about in the second official language of India, English? :P

The constitution uses "India" in English.

But yes they're the English names...

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

It does out of a sense of pragmatism rather than any deeper association to national identity. English is not an indigineous language to India and was enforced upon the populace for a few hundred years. Indian people do refer to themselves as Indian when speaking English, but not when they're speaking an actual Indian language, which I assume is similar for countries like Germany etc.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Did you think someone was unaware that India's use of English stems from colonialism? Because otherwise I don't understand what you're saying.

The purpose of my comment (to clarify) was that English is a commonly used (even official) language in India, and that the name when using that language is India, rather than Bhata, because your comment to me implied that "India" just wasn't used by the citizens of India when conversing with fellow citizens at all.

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[–] 1rre@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 month ago

The problem with saying "X language is not indigenous to Y place" is that it just depends how far back you go. France, Spain, Portugal and Romania had Latin enforced upon them, and what about Patois and Nigerian Pidgin where they've developed to the point of being different languages, spoken only in the place they developed, or Singlish where nobody forced English due to the circumstances surrounding Singapore's colonisation, but it was a common language spoken by all of the various ethnic groups there and picked up features from some of the other languages spoken there?

If Indian people don't refer to themselves as Indian when speaking English, then that's just a characteristic of Indian dialects of English.

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[–] SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social 36 points 1 month ago

That's nothing! All countries starting with a letter can be mapped onto the surface of an oblate spheroid.

[–] blinfabian@feddit.nl 34 points 1 month ago (4 children)
[–] ChairmanMeow@programming.dev 28 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Technically called "Côte d'Ivoire" I believe.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)

By that logic, most of those countries' official names don't start with I, so the map is still wrong whichever way you do it.

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 month ago

La francaise saves the day.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Quite.

Is there a word for the type of ragebait when it's specifically posting something wrong, so that you get engagement from people telling you why you're a fucking idiot? It should be bannable offense regardless. OP going straight on the block list. Actually skimming their profile they look like a low-effort repost bot anyway

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[–] Matriks404@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That's not a line, it's a fucking rectangle.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago

On a curved surface.

[–] RheumatoidArthritis@mander.xyz 16 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] sik0fewl@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 month ago
[–] m33@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 month ago

And all countries share a common border if you fold the map right 😉

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If you remove Russia, this is a strip that covers almost half of the remaining land mass. Not impressed.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Russia benefits heavily from this map projection

Really, it's this size: 1000100517

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[–] sircac@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago

To be honest, everything is in a straight line if wide enough or in the correct map projection...

[–] thevoidzero@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

That's easily the case isn't it, the only question is how much distance is there between these two lines.

[–] OpenStars@piefed.social 9 points 1 month ago (2 children)

For some reason I read this as the letter T and I got so confused 🤔

img

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[–] subOrange@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago

Guys, guys, this is for real, I just check the wikipedia !

[–] excral@feddit.org 8 points 1 month ago

I assume this is purely a result of the specific map projection used here. On an actual globe those lines are most likely neither straight nor parallel.

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago

They also exist together on a sphere.

[–] RegularJoe@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago
[–] morto@piefed.social 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

More useless and interesting map facts, please!

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