What's Oklahoma's state song?
How about the illiteracy rate of Mauritania?
In one easy lesson, you'll learn the answers to these questions and more. In no time, you'll start believing the world is flat and that it fits in your CD-ROM drive.
These discs are more than maps for the virtual Columbus. They're digital guides to the country and to the planet. The company bringing you the world is Mindscape, but the data and images are compiled from varied sources. Along with the detailed cartography and the sights and sounds of each region, you'll get hard statistics--compliments of the CIA World Handbook.
Both discs contain hundreds of 3-D maps of countries, regions, states, and cities. If you're checking out Senegal and want to know more about Dakar, just click on the city name. Listen to the electronic synthesizer version of its national anthem or study the spoken French phrases provided elsewhere (sorry, no Wolof or Fula language training here). Where in the world is it? The "globe locator" will show you exactly where in Africa and exactly where on the planet.
It's just a question of zooming in. The zoom in/zoom out option allows you to get your bearings by departing from a familiar point of reference. Zoom from the world to the continent, from continent to country, country to region and region to city. The city maps are good for learning about the area around your urban landscape of choice, but are not detailed enough that you'd want to print out a map for that trip to Athens.
To get to the wealth of statistical information (70,000 stats in 300 categories in the world version), click and slide your way through the vertical menus. If you need to convert between currencies, that is also an option.
As for visuals, the U.S. Atlas has more than 150 aerial video clips of landscapes and landmarks that might be breathtaking were they not reduced to a QuickTime postage stamp. Sorry, Mindscape, but the desktop Grand Canyon doesn't do it for me. The world version is a bit skimpier, with one-third the video clips--but close to 1,000 color photos. Some of the language information is well-meaning but insufficient and a bit gimmicky--and sometimes incorrect. As for the "15 common phrases in 30 languages" some of the speakers are non-natives and there are some translation errors. If you want to learn to say "Macedonia" like a Chicagoan and speak Greek like a Texan, you might appreciate the recorded pronunciation of country names provided.
This product is perfect for the seventh-grader doing that country or state report (who else is required to know all the state birds and flowers?) and useful to folks of all ages in search of general atlas information. It's a good reference for topical information about countries you know nothing about or specific demographic stats about those you do.
These digital atlas-almanacs are a fine and useful compilation, but nothing earth-shattering in this age of information overload. On the other hand, if Gengis Khan had had a portable CD-ROM drive and a few megs to spare, we'd probably all be speaking Mongolian.
Brett Allan King is a freelance writer who lives in Madrid, Spain, where he writes for several publications..
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