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Cake day: June 3rd, 2025

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  • Your question is not stupid, but it is overly vague and broad. An equally vague and broad answer would be: "They did their best with the tools and knowledge they had, tried to copy other cartographer’s work (and failing that, their techniques), and otherwise just guessed. Failingthat, they made it up in ways that would benefit themselves the most.

    Source: I read the Map Men’s book not too long ago.










  • People hear take the phrase “you can’t compare apples and oranges” and get confused as to why you wouldn’t be allowed to compare two fruits. But I think the intended meaning of that phrase is more like “you cannot compare apples to oranges as if they are the same thing/category”. So imagine you’re comparing apples with other apples and someone wants to bring up how oranges fare in the considerations. You may be inclined to respond “Sorry, those are too different to apply here” which is what the original phrase intended to convey. Which of course nowadays is sometimes shortened to someone quipping “apples and oranges, mate” and leaving it at that.