2] I have no idea how to make a globe out of this. Does anyone here? Can someone help me with that?
I was bored and couldn't sleep last night and I liked your alternate earth map a lot so I went and did this...
http://web.me.com/craig.john/share/theworld.mov
(It's only 1.5MB and it loops)

For interest's sake, I added mountains and a cloud layer.

After making the animation, I can see I'd need to add some more space above and below the original map image so the continents don't take up the whole side in the USA.

What do you think?