Projections!!!

There are so many great new cool projects on the web it is hard to keep up. They probably aren't even new, but I just found out about them. Here is an example. But why, with all the new innovations and ideas do people still create these maps using latitude and longitude? The Social Explorer presents this distorted lat and long thematic map, when they should really be using a projection that preserves area. I know technology like Mapserver, and Sharpmap possess the capability to project into a multitude of projections (I believe using PROJ4).

I see with Google Maps why it is necessary to use Lat and Long, because it just makes it easier for Google if people conform to a standard Latitude and Longitude. Projections or the lack there of can greatly influence people's perceptions of the world. Look at the Mercator projection and Greenland. I think this is related to Dr. Parks' talk as well. She says people don't have an understanding of satellites, but they also don't have any understanding of projections.

I can't tell if Google Earth is a culprit of this as well, because I'm not sure if it uses a Geoid or some other "true" representation of the Earth.