Monday, March 16, 2020

What The Hell, CBS? (Geography Nerd Posting)

On Saturday, CBS showed a graphic as they discussed expanding the travel restrictions to Ireland and the United Kingdom. Both countries are NOT in the "Schengen Area" where passport free travel is in place. The Schengen countries were all ready subject to travel restrictions.

The map they showed was idiotic in the extreme.

Images of this.

The map (below) is completely stupid for this purpose, as noted below the image:



Why?

  1. The first lump of Red is the island of Ireland without showing the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland which is part of the United Kingdom.  Had this been the only error, I would be okay with it.
  2. Above England they have shaded Scotland with random lines, even though it is part of the United Kingdom.
  3. The blue shaded area above Scotland are the Shetland Islands, part of Scotland and not covered by any unique US policy at all. It's just a part of the UK. It would be like coloring New Mexico in blue when shading the US red.
  4. As for the rest of Europe - just wow! First the Green areas. These are Norway, Sweden and Finland. There is no reason to color them anything separate. 
    1. Sweden and Finland are part of the EU - but there doesn't seem to be EU coloring.
    2. All three are part of Schengen, but so are 22 of the other countries on the map. 
    3. They are part of the Nordic Council (which is not interesting in the context of this story), but then so is Denmark, which is not shaded green.
  5. For an unknown reason, the red/gold areas are called out. These are (left to right) Portugal, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Denmark (above Germany). No reason for different shading, they are all part of the Schengen Group AND the European Union.
  6. The gold areas are just coloring for no reason. 
    1. They aren't just Schengen Countries because they include Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, Belarus and the Ukraine.
    2. They aren't just EU countries because they include the Balkans (Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, etc.)
    3. With Belarus and part of Russia included, they aren't even EU applicants. 
This is horrible map making.  A better map would simply be of the Schengen Countries and note that we are going to add restrictions for Ireland and the United Kingdom.  Image below.
How tough is this to pull off the net?

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