I think the West Wing clip highlights how out of date the thinking in the article is. When this clip was filmed, turn by turn navigation didn't exist yet. If the average person saw a map, it had north at the top. By contrast, these days, if I see a map, the direction I'm currently going is normally up. I don't find it freaky for maps to be oriented with north down because I see a map like that every time I drive south in my car.

One of my favorite episodes! This immediately came to mind. I was due for a rewatch, thanks for linking.

Came here to see if anyone recommended that clip. I watched it just last night, it never fails to crack me up, especially CJ's reaction. "You can't do that!" "Why not?" "Because it's freaking me out!"

Effective scene, too -- I've thought a bit differently about maps and some other things ever since, things that might not have ever occurred to me before. It's not a bad idea to expose people to different map projections / configurations to shake up their view of the world.