One big reason for the Polar Azimuthal Equidistant map (the one with the North Pole in the center, the same as on the UN flag) is that it spread Antarctica all over the rim, which seems to lend support to the story that there are ice cliffs that prevent people from climbing over the edge of the earth. That is just a distortion of the map projection of course, and plenty of people have explored, flown over, and sailed around Antarctica, so we know it's not surrounding the earth. But in previous years it served to fool the gullible and evidently there are still a few gullible people out there. The other FE map shown, I think it's a Lambert Azimuthal Equal-area projection, has an obvious drawback - anyone will tell you that travel from the west coast of North America to the east coast of Asia is hardly as arduous as the map suggests.