What were they thinking? The Absolut vodka company was running ads in Mexico featuring an 1830s map showing the southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico and featuring the line, “In an Absolut World.” It’s part of a campaign depicting “ideal scenarios,” according to the AP. It’s a clever ad, and I’m sure it played well in Mexico. But, shockingly, it came to the attention of some humorless U.S. citizens. Cue the calls for boycotts, the angry letters and Absolut’s apology.

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Kellie Pickler may be the obvious mascot, but Susan Jacoby says American “hostility to knowledge” is not just confined to adorable blondes who think Europe is a country and “Hung[a]ry” is not. In her new book, The Age of American Unreason, she argues that a poor educational system and religious fundamentalism’s hatred of reason have helped turn many of us into isolationist dummies.

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Ever mixed up Turkmenistan and Tajikistan? Or Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan? (Guilty, on both counts.) Gadling’s Aaron Hotfelder comes to the rescue with his handy series on Keeping the ‘Stans Straight. Not only are his posts helping to fill a gap in my geography knowledge, but it’s also refreshing, amidst a sea of “hot” 2008 destination lists, to read about a region that is still decidedly “not.” The latest installment: Afghanistan.

Related on World Hum:
* In Defense of Hot Americans Botching Geography Questions on Television

As an editor of the Oxford Atlas of the World, I spend a good chunk of my time following geographic changes around the globe. And the last year saw more than a few worth noting, from borders shifting—or even disappearing—to names changing and islands suddenly appearing. Herewith, my favorites from ‘07, starting with some good news.

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Well, sort of. I’m not going to say that Miss Teen South Carolina’s near-incoherent ramble about education, maps, and “the Iraq” has been misunderstood, or that Kellie Pickler was actually referring to the recent expansion of the Schengen zone when she wondered whether Europe was a country. And I’m certainly not going to claim that I didn’t laugh out loud when I first saw those videos. But something about the vicious glee and satisfaction people around the world have gotten out of the two clips makes me want to go to bat for my fellow blondes in distress.

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According to the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations, it’s Miss Teen South Carolina’s “tortuous” and now-infamous answer to a question about Americans being unable to locate the U.S. on a map: 

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That and other intriguing questions (and answers) can be found in the San Francisco Chronicle travel section’s new geography quiz. Presumably, Hot Americans on Television Botching Geography Questions need not apply—if they do, please send us the video.

Antarctica fans, and perhaps a few cruise ship captains, might want to check this out. U.S. and British researchers unveiled a new high-definition view of Antarctica this week, piecing together more than 1,000 Landsat satellite images and, according to NASA, creating “the most geographically accurate, true-color, high-resolution views of Antarctica possible.” Thanks for the tip, Ben.

Related on World Hum:
* Q&A with Susan Fox Rogers: Antarctica for ‘Dreamers and Readers’
* Environmentalist on Antarctica: ‘Do We Want This to Become Disneyland?’

Photo courtesy of NASA.

The Tabula Peutingeriana (excerpt pictured), an 800-year-old copy of a chart used by the Roman Empire’s courier service, was pulled from the archives of Austria’s National Library yesterday as part of a celebration of its new “Memory of the World” status by UNESCO. 

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Looks like someone in Washington forgot that “the 51st state” is actually just a cute nickname for the friendly neighbor to the north. The U.S. State Department and Department of Homeland Security have released a promotional video called “Welcome: Portraits of America” aimed at changing the United States’ reputation as a country hostile to foreigners. The video, which is to be given “maximum exposure” in American airports and at U.S. embassies around the world, shows footage of the Lincoln Memorial, the Grand Canyon and other American landmarks, as well the Horseshoe Falls portion of Niagara Falls—a famous landmark in, uh, Canada.

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Full title: “Our Dumb World: The Onion’s Atlas of the Planet Earth, 73rd Edition”

Author: Writers of The Onion

Released: Oct. 30, 2007

Travel genre: Parody, atlas

Territory covered: The world, from “Allah’s Cat Box” (Afghanistan) to “The Bridebasket of Europe” (Ukraine)

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Mapping doesn’t mean just plotting places on a piece of paper. In a particularly brilliant This American Life episode, host Ira Glass says you can explore your world by mapping each of your five senses. “Every map is the world seen through a different lens,” he said. 

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