> I saw a USA-centered world map once. It looked totally strange! Every world map we usually see here has Europe and Africa in the middle.

That's weird. I don't think I've even seen a map like that myself.

This talk of maps reminds me how cool it is to look at a map of Antarctica. Normally all we see of Antarctica on maps is this vague jagged thing lining the bottom edge of world maps. Consequently, when you look at a map of Antarctica and find out what it's actually shaped like, it's pretty neat, because it looks as foreign as an map of an imaginary world in a fantasy novel, except that it's real.

Maps of the Arctic are nifty, too, for the same reason, and also because it provides a pretty interesting look at how completely geographically MESSED up northern Canada is.

The Arctic: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/Map_collection/islands_oceans_poles/ArcticRegion.jpg