I feel like this explains a lot more of how I think about the the geography of the world today than any other map I’ve seen recently. This is why Australia seems strange and distant while China is familiar, despite the much higher language and culture affinity I have with post-colonial Australia.
I don’t even know how populated the southern cone is, I mostly think of ranches and windswept shores. The water hemisphere might be almost entirely Australia and Indonesia by population.
It’s also interesting to note that the pole of the land hemisphere is in France, where the enlightenment and the modern world got it’s start. I’m pretty sure that’s a coincidence though, it’s no historical crossroads when you factor in the surrounding oceans, deserts and ice caps.