morwen | (no subject)

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A prize to anyone who can spot the mistake (or possibly simply an innovative stylistic decision) here? Tsk. Google Maps data quality is pretty poor, but this.... Tsk.

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The way they've named Wales in something that looks more Gaelic than Welsh?

Could be Irish, could be Scots...

That's what I thought too, but it's not correct Scots Gaelic because words beginning with 'b' take the definite article 'am' not 'an', and 'Bhreatain' is a word I haven't come across. I also haven't heard of Wales being referred to as 'Little Britain', but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Anyway, it doesn't look like Welsh, does it?

Google suggests it's Irish.

er, that is, a google search, not google maps...

In summary:

If the label on the Welsh side of the border is in Welsh Gaelic, why aren't the other place names Gealicised?
If the label was correct, in Welsh Gaelic, it would say Cymru;
An Bhreatain Bheag is Irish Gaelic for 'Little Britain'.

What makes me think that Google has an office in Dublin?

Edited 2009-04-28 09:57 (UTC)

There is no such thing as 'Welsh Gaelic', Welsh is an entirely different language which is a member of the Brythonic rather than Goidelic family.

That's extraordinary!!!!! Presumably this is infiltration from the fact that Google's European offices are in Dublin?

Possibly, but then why is it affecting only Wales? I think someone has actually confused Welsh and Irish at their end.

I'm sure that's the problem. I've caught them out on this kind of thing before - they used to show Skopje with the Serbian spelling Скопље rather than the locally correct Macedonian Скопје. They've changed it now.

I was going to say that the shared rail/road bridge is messed up, but think am wrong...

From what I did at openstreetmap, turns out it's really quite hard to get that sort of thing right automatically. Paper maps have people manually exaggerating the distance or size between features so that the angles and curves still end up right, it essentially ends up an artistic decision, although with a good dollop of practical constraints. But anyhow, that's not a fault in the data...

I spotted a subtle Google bug a few days ago.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q135/katsmeat/Picture1-18.png

But that's what it really looks like!

An Irish employee having a laugh.
If that's a current map then Google maps have been laughing since December 1st since that's when it was reported by the BBC.
I assume the EU have managed to put wales back on that map in Brussels or Strasbourg.

what happened to the railway line? it is truly *underneath* the main road - and anyway it should still be shown imho

That's not it. I can forgive that. The road is being drawn much larger width than it actually is, so the railway line needs to move to compensate. This is Hard to do automatically.

Their railway data is pretty poor anyway - I think the weirdest railway error (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bow,+London&sll=51.500152,-0.126236&sspn=0.600984,1.783905&ie=UTF8&ll=51.539182,-0.029569&spn=0.009382,0.027874&z=16) I've spotted is by Victoria Park where it still shows the line from the NLL west of Hackney Wick to Bow (south of which the alignment is now used by the DLR). This section has been closed for, well, longer than Google have existed. Maybe even longer than computerised mapping has existed.

Of course, the railways are a huge mess around Stratford station. You can forgive them for not showing recent changes there as it's been in constant change for years, what with Stratford international, new DLR lines and the new Overground platforms.

However, at Temple Mills" they appear show the line from Stratford to Tottenham Hale being connected to the Central Line of all things. As far as I know the Central line became a tunnel there back in 1947, and while the lines are close, they've not been connected for decades.

Your linky seems to link to the same thing my link does.

It appears to be based on looking at old maps and aerial photographs without consulting any modern railway sources at all.

You relied before I could edit it - copy and paste fail - you want to go here

Ah. Yeah. That connection must have gone immediately, when the Central line was extended to take over the LNER line to Ongar, I can't imagining it persisting beyond then.

Pub?

It's not unheard of for railway lines to be underneath roads. Happens all the time in London, for example.

The Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway goes largely under roads in central London, as does the Central London Railway, and of course the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways.

Perhaps the map depicts an area of Wales where, remarkably, the majority of the population speak Irish…?

I can see the headline now: "Monmouthshire, unable to resolve county of Wales/county of England dispute, joins Ireland."

As an aside, does Stamfordshire have it's own language?

Yes, Stamrian! And the government of London are guilty of genocide for refusing to fund the development of it.

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