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The edited title is incorrect, in that it is a comparison with countries. How big is Africa compared to Asia? Okay, there’s one comparison with Europe (scroll d

The edited title is incorrect, in that it is a comparison with countries. How big is Africa compared to Asia? Okay, there’s one comparison with Europe (scroll down). Otherwise it’s a matter of how many countries one could cram in there. Of course, Africa already has a bunch of countries, so I guess I just didn’t get it. Comparing to, say, North America or something would be a better visualization for me.

darkwater 5y ago
> A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest of tiny details. People complained “you missed Ibiza”, “how could you make Belgium the same color as the Netherlands” “and on and on and on...
- joe_the_user 5y ago
  No, the parent makes a good point that stacking countries insides different continents doesn't give one much of a comparison. The visualization winds-up more "factoid" than fact. Africa is approximately three times the size of Europe, 2/3 the size of Asia, 5/4 the size of North America and so forth. Obviously it's a large place but so is every continent. Edit: This isn't to take away from the point that historically, the size, importance, history and so forth of Africa have been neglected. But it seems like this should be dealt with more holistically than the infographic size comparison approach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Area_and_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Area_and_population
  - dleslie 5y ago
    The importance of Africa was historically neglected? I don't think that fits well with the "Race for Africa" and the long history of Mediterranean conflicts involving North Africa. Africa wouldn't still be recovering from the effects of colonialism if it weren't as historically important as it was.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- Turing_Machine 5y ago
  The fact that countries and continents are two different things is not a "tiny detail". If you're comparing continents, Asia is larger than Africa, and North America is nearly as large. If you're comparing countries, the largest African country is Algeria, which ranks 10th.
- NaturalPhallacy 5y ago
  > A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest of tiny details. For a second there I thought you were talking about hn.
layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
I think a lot of Americans think that Africa is a country.
- umanwizard 5y ago
  What makes you think so? I’m American and have never encountered that belief.
  - layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
    https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/ https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/confusing-country-continent-how-we-talk-about-africa/311621/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/co...
    - torstenvl 5y ago
      > there are rumors that a former Vice Presidential candidate thinks Africa is a country Rumors, not facts. One candidate, not "a lot of Americans." Irony is making sweeping generalizations while ostensibly pushing back on generalizations.
      - layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
        A candidate and a president (who’s a Yale and Harvard alumnus): “ One of the most famous blunders made by former U.S. President George W. Bush was, “Africa is a nation that suffers from terrible disease.” President Bush, like many others, misconstrued the fact that Africa is not a country, but a continent.” https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/11/23/africa-not-a-country-but-a-continent/ https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/11/23/africa-not-a-co... But surely, it must be a coincidence! :)
        samatman 5y ago
        Joe Biden recently said "white supremacists and Nazi f*gs" while giving a speech. Should we conclude that he was referring to homosexual Nazis with a slur? Or did he mis-speak. GWB was a rich source of flubs and boners. Deciding that this one means Americans think Africa is a country is a big ol' [citation needed].

darkwater 5y ago

> A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest of tiny details. People complained “you missed Ibiza”, “how could you make Belgium the same color as the Netherlands” “and on and on and on...

joe_the_user 5y ago
No, the parent makes a good point that stacking countries insides different continents doesn't give one much of a comparison. The visualization winds-up more "factoid" than fact. Africa is approximately three times the size of Europe, 2/3 the size of Asia, 5/4 the size of North America and so forth. Obviously it's a large place but so is every continent. Edit: This isn't to take away from the point that historically, the size, importance, history and so forth of Africa have been neglected. But it seems like this should be dealt with more holistically than the infographic size comparison approach. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Area_and_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent#Area_and_population
- dleslie 5y ago
  The importance of Africa was historically neglected? I don't think that fits well with the "Race for Africa" and the long history of Mediterranean conflicts involving North Africa. Africa wouldn't still be recovering from the effects of colonialism if it weren't as historically important as it was.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
Turing_Machine 5y ago
The fact that countries and continents are two different things is not a "tiny detail". If you're comparing continents, Asia is larger than Africa, and North America is nearly as large. If you're comparing countries, the largest African country is Algeria, which ranks 10th.
NaturalPhallacy 5y ago
> A veritable shitstorm of responses latched onto the tiniest of tiny details. For a second there I thought you were talking about hn.

layoutIfNeeded 5y ago

I think a lot of Americans think that Africa is a country.

umanwizard 5y ago
What makes you think so? I’m American and have never encountered that belief.
- layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
  https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/ https://time.com/12990/africa-is-not-a-country/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/confusing-country-continent-how-we-talk-about-africa/311621/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/08/co...
  - torstenvl 5y ago
    > there are rumors that a former Vice Presidential candidate thinks Africa is a country Rumors, not facts. One candidate, not "a lot of Americans." Irony is making sweeping generalizations while ostensibly pushing back on generalizations.
    - layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
      A candidate and a president (who’s a Yale and Harvard alumnus): “ One of the most famous blunders made by former U.S. President George W. Bush was, “Africa is a nation that suffers from terrible disease.” President Bush, like many others, misconstrued the fact that Africa is not a country, but a continent.” https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/11/23/africa-not-a-country-but-a-continent/ https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2018/11/23/africa-not-a-co... But surely, it must be a coincidence! :)
      - samatman 5y ago
        Joe Biden recently said "white supremacists and Nazi f*gs" while giving a speech. Should we conclude that he was referring to homosexual Nazis with a slur? Or did he mis-speak. GWB was a rich source of flubs and boners. Deciding that this one means Americans think Africa is a country is a big ol' [citation needed].