Projections

I'm still working on the question regarding the etymology of "3rd World."  In the meantime, consider these two "projections."

The first is the Mercator projection - the most commonly used global map.

The second is the Peters projection.  It attempts to account for the stretching of the poles, and thereforce, represent the world more accurately.

So what are the differences?  For starters, Africa is bigger and the United States is smaller. Also, Russia is much, much smaller.  If you want to know more about the politics of those differences, I would suggest you look HERE