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A really nice explanation, thank you (from the bottom of the usual map and a country quite often left off completely)

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Thanks, Melanie. Hooray for New Zealand! Better known these days as "The Country That Stayed Sane When The Rest of Us Went A Bit Mad". I'm not usually one for neo-imperialistic things, but - please invade us. Please invade the UK and topple our existing government and rule us in a shockingly sensible way. Thanks.

(ps. Love "turnstone" as a way to signify investigative curiosity. A+ name for a newsletter you have there.)

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Yes, while our country has its faults, the last couple of years have made me extremely grateful to be a New Zealander. I'll pass on the memo re invasion although I think there's a queue... Glad you like the newsletter name as well.

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That was a fascinating romp through geopolitical history. Thanks!

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Thank you, Don! I fell rather too deeply into the research rabbit-hole for this one, hence it's a few days behind schedule - there's just so much that's worth writing about on this topic. Endlessly surprising...

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Inability of telling left and right is quite common and I gave it to two of my children. Having to think about which way the open part of the E vs 3 goes makes one quite aware of the arbitrariness of left and right.

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A great article! So fascinating how such a simple choice was so influenced by history, topography, power, religion, and apparently winds!

I've always wondered why so many countries had a rich north / poor south pattern. And I hadn't considered how maps could be part of that cycle, and the cycle of colonialism.

I originally thought you were saying that the magnetic pole cancels itself out, but then clicked on the Fleming Rule link and realized it was a mnemonic about electromagnetic fields, and so a metaphor for how map orientation was also inaccurate. I think.

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Wonderful idea. Glad I thought of it years ago, back in 1975 when my daughter was about 3 years old. I didn't want her to be locked into the rigid thinking that I felt the "normal" map orientation could easily engender.

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