At least the placement of Europe in the middle of the map makes sense, because then the map edge occurs in the middle of the Pacific and doesn't cut anything important in half (no offence, Aleutian Islanders!) Similarly, Australian-made world maps stick the map edge in the Atlantic. But putting the Americas in the middle of the map makes no sense, you have to cut Eurasia in half somewhere.

I for one prefer this map with New Zealand in the centre ;) http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/mcarthur-large.jpg

On a similar note, does anyone else feel bothered by the recent use of "North of" to mean "more than"?