Tag: geography
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The Search for England's Forgotten Footpaths
Nineteen years ago, the British government passed one of its periodic laws to manage how people move through the countryside. The Countryside and Rights of Way Act created a new “right to roam” on common land, opening up three million acres of mountains and moor, heath and down, to cyclists, climbers, and dog walkers. It …
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If Doggerland Had Not Drowned
by Lee Rimmer
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As well additional land around our familiar coastlines, the lower sea level reveals a low lying 9,000 square mile landmass called Doggerland – named after Dogger Bank, the large sandbank which currently sits in a shallow area of the North Sea off the east coast of England (dogger being an old Dutch … -
@RespectableLaw on North Sentinel Island
There's been a lot of talk about the missionary killed by the natives of North Sentinel Island. They're probably so aggressive because of this weirdo, Maurice Vidal Portman. So here's a big thread about this creep and some facts from my decade-long obsession with the island.
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A 2016 version of the 1914 Isochronic London/World travel times map
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The peculiar history of the Ordnance Survey
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The history of the organisation known as OS is not merely that of a group of earnest blokes with a penchant for triangulation and an ever-present soundtrack of rustling cagoules.
From its roots in military strategy to its current incarnation as producer of the rambler's navigational aid, the government-owned company has been checking and rechecking all … -
Welcome To Nauru, The Most Corrupt Country You've Never Heard Of
Nestled in a cluster of islands in the central Pacific Ocean is Nauru, a small country with a totally insane story.
In 1980, the island nation was considered the wealthiest nation on the planet; in 2017, BusinessTech listed it as one of the five poorest countries in the world.
This is a story of a country that journeyed … -
history of the entire world, i guess
Bill Wurtz -
Fun fact: Brazil is the only country in the world named after a tree [details in comments]
When Portugese explorers landed in the area of South America we now call Brazil in the year 1500, they discovered the caesalpinia echinata tree growing there. They noticed that this tree had a similar red-coloured wood as the related Sappanwood (caesalpinia sappan) tree, native to Asia, and that a similarly-useful red dye could be … -
Odd One Out?
Which is the odd-one out: gypsies, turkeys, french fries, or the Kings of Leon? It's a simple riddle, but it's still better than whatever you've gotten out of your cracker.
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I found a debugging river that the mods left in by accident!
Alt"River Test" highlighted on a map
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TIL that the most uncontacted people in the world, the Sentinelese, live in a hunter-gatherer society that isn't even known to make fire.
The Sentinelese (also called the Sentineli or North Sentinel Islanders) are the indigenous people of North Sentinel Island in the Andaman Islands of India. One of the Andamanese people, they resist contact with the outside world. They are one of the uncontacted peoples, although like all of today’s so-called uncontacted people they have a history …
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Disaster Analysis
In the aftermath of this week's shocking lunchquake, Dan is joined by Dr. Pepper, who surveys the damage.
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Finding my Geographic Centre
What do you get if you take the average location between all of the places you've ever lived? Dan tried this, and it turns out that his geographical centre point is only a quarter hour's drive away from where his parents live, even without weighting. How will it be affected by his house move, later this year?
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Roadspotters
Dan learns about the way that road numbers are organised around the UK and speculates about the existence of a new kind of nerd, the "roadspotter". And then, a short Internet search later, realises that this unusually hobby actually exists...
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Traveling In Time(zones)
Just when you think you've got them figured out (and the application you're working on is coping correctly with daylight saving time), something comes along and blows your little mind. Like this, for example:
Suppose you're chilling out in Hawaii on some lazy Sunday. Cocktail in hand, you check your watch - it's midday. Midday on …