Braindroppings

Khodadad, thanks for visiting my blog and also for the very nice things that you said. I hope that I can live up to them. :)

I tried to get access to the NYT web site some time ago. I tried to register, but something went wrong. Maybe I didn't jump through all their hoops in the proper sequence or something. I actually tried several times, but finally I gave up. If they are going to give free access to a part of their material, they should just get rid of the hoop game. End of Gripe. :)

I checked out the link explaining their Atlas. I think perhaps they updated it since you looked at it. I found this there:

"Borders, names, and even countries can be hotly disputed. How does National Geographic decide who's right?

We work very, very hard to represent the world objectively, fairly, and accurately.

We adhere closely to what we call a de facto policy, meaning that we show the world as it is on the ground, rather than as any one person or group feels it should be. That means that if a country has occupied a piece of territory for some time, we show it as under that country's control, without making judgments about whether that occupation is right or not.

In many parts of the world, we add brief map notes letting people know that a certain area or boundary is in dispute or is claimed by two or more countries. And sometimes we give alternate names or spellings.

As a specific example, National Geographic appears to have ruffled some feathers in Iran with the inclusion of "Arabian Gulf" in parentheses beside the "Persian Gulf." Why has Geographic decided to include "Arabian Gulf"?

We included "Arabian Gulf," in parentheses, as a secondary or alternate name on the atlas plates that show the gulf at the largest, most detailed scale. That's because we recognize that some countries and organizations use "Arabian Gulf" as their official or preferred name.

We do, and will continue, to recognize "Persian Gulf" as the primary name. But we want people searching for "Arabian Gulf" to be able to find what they're looking for and not to confuse it with the nearby Arabian Sea."

Oops, I just reread your post. You were talking about the islands issue not being in the Atlas explaination. I guess that you saw the quote I copied. Sorry! :)