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Don't
feel bad if, like 30 percent of college-age
Americans, you can't find the Pacific Ocean on a
map. It turns out the people at Microsoft, one of
the world's richest and most powerful corporations,
are geographic dunces, too.
The software maker lost millions in sales when its
colorcoded maps of world time zones showed the
disputed Jammu-Kashmir region as not being part of
India. That's an offense under Indian law, and the
software was banned in India. Even worse, Microsoft
employees were arrested in Turkey after a software
map showed Kurdistan tobe a separate entity. And the
company somehow managed to depict the Korean flag
backward.
Microsoft employees are now getting remedial
training in geography.
But you know better, right? Here's your annual
chance to test your knowledge ofthe world. As usual,
what follows is a grab bag of trivia about
geography, traveland any other fun facts I've
chanced upon while looking something up.
There are no prizes for getting them right, other
than the smug satisfaction of having a deeper
geographic knowledge - albeit a shallower retirement
portfolio - than the average Microsoft employee.
SF Gate San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
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