So I usually prefer sharing pop sci versions of articles, but the Princeton office of communications is so annoyingly hyperbolic that I’ll link it here instead.
It’s cool in that it’s an interesting new projection to add to the collection. But the researchers effectively minmaxing their own Goldberg-Gott score is...lame. In a contest of flat maps, are we gonna let a double sided circle win? Yes it technically is flat because its volume is zero but winning on technicalities doesn’t earn you any prizes.
I do like they ended up with an azimuthal projection. Azimuthal doesn’t get enough love, which is why my lasercut world map which used to be my desk but now hangs above the kitchen table is a Two Point Equidistant projection that almost always has people scratching their heads, not noticing New Zealand stretched out like a steamrolled cartoon character until I point it out to them.