1. How might cartographers use symbols, color, and projections to influence a map user's perceptions? How can maps serve as propaganda?
2. Map distortions usually arise from attempts to project the curved surface of the globe onto a flat surface. Is there any way this problem can be entirely eliminated? What are the various kinds of distortions that are created by this? Why have maps with different kinds of distortion been used in the past? How do you explain these choices? What kind of map do you prefer, and why?
3. The recently ended Cold War was the longest international struggle in our time. How do you think the use of Mercator projections might have influenced Western thinking about the Soviet Union?
4. Suppose you've been asked to prepare a map of the best restaurants and clubs in your community. What information should you include on your map to make it most useful to other students and to tourists to the town?
5. The naming of places is a form of empowerment. When the Emperor Hadrian wanted to obliterate all memory of the ancient kingdom of Israel, he remained the land "Palestine," after the long vanished Philistines. Controversy over this renaming remains intense today. What does it mean when newcomers disregard the names given places by the original inhabitants? Where else have imperialists like Hadrian changed place names in more recent times? Where has their work been undone? Why is this important?
6. Why is the data from civilian satellites important? In the past, which nations have been most unwilling to be photographed from space? How do you explain this? Who do you think should have access to the information the satellites provide? In these days for terrorist threat, should free nations that are most vulnerable to terrorism make efforts to limit access to this kind of potentially dangerous information?
