It seems the team over at AutoBlog have much better things to do than fact check their articles. That, or they have been through the US public school system and have no idea about the world outside of the borders of the continental states.

So, for Zach Bowman and Chris Shunk over at AutoBlog, here is a small lesson.

Today, in the “Toyota UK says Top Gear boys to go on another Hilux adventure [w/video]“ article, you state the Top Gear UK crew went to Antarctica. I think you may be mistaken, as the North Pole is in the Arctic. In the programme, they are in a town called Alert, which is in the territory of Nunavut, which is in Canada, which is in the Northern Hemisphere of the world, directly above the United States (from this point on, I am going to use the United States as a reference point, so you don’t get lost).

Please reference the image above. At the top of that big blue thing (the planet we live on, called Earth) there is a metaphorical pole. There is another pole at the bottom. We call these poles North and South, so as not to confuse anyone. There are polar bears at the North Pole and penguins at the South Pole. The Top Gear UK team went to the North Pole (albeit, the magnetic north pole) which is in the Arctic. The South Pole is in the Antarctic. The Top Gear team never went to Antarctica.

Also, on March 27th of this year, Chris made a big boo-boo when he wrote the article Shell struggles to pay $1B oil bill to Iran due to sanctions. The original title was “Shell struggles to pay $1B oil bill to Iraq due to sanctions” and the “Iraq” mistake is still in the URL: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/27/shell-struggles-to-pay-1b-oil-bill-to-iraq-due-to-sanctions/

Please reference the left map. Though Iran and Iraq are very close in spelling, geolocation, and oil production, they are very different countries. Iraq is the country in which you are currently fighting a war. Iran is the one you are looking to go to war with. It is in between the two countries you are currently at war with. Iran is the one of the two countries mentioned in your article that is furthest away from the United States.

So, here is an easy way to remember where it is, thanks to the lyrics in Flock of Seagull’s “I Ran”:

And IRAN, IRAN so far away.
And IRAQ, I wreck all night and day.

Please feel free to come back to this post at any point when you feel confused about North/South Poles or oil rich countries in the Middle East.