Moderated GNIS Search

[Carrot Flower King]

I like maps and things to do with maps, please tell me about the thing with maps!

Seriously, I do have something of a map habit and am fascinated by them.

 

[Foster Zygote]

I like maps and things to do with maps, please tell me about the thing with maps!

Seriously, I do have something of a map habit and am fascinated by them.

Just pick any map projection, and then find any three or more matching place names that can be connected by a straight line on that map.

Only you can save conspiracy theorists from God's whooping fart punishment.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

Just pick any map projection, and then find any three or more matching place names that can be connected by a straight line on that map.

Only you can save conspiracy theorists from God's whooping fart punishment.

When I was a student (that's student student at university, rather than when I was a nursey student) we did do something like that: re-created "ley lines" in the old West Riding of Yorkshire (well, we were at Sheffield) using, firstly, post offices and, secondly, pubs. We then refined the latter to tied houses of certain local breweries (Wards and Stones initially, but then we tried Tetleys as well). There were a couple of issues with some intruders from Nottingham (Home Ales and Hardy Hansons), but we hand waved (I say hand waved, more like threatened to glass them) those away.

This is what happens when several geography and environmental sciences students get bored during long, tedious practical sessions and have access to maps and rulers...Not to mention a semi-encyclopaedic knowledge of every pub in a 30 mile radius...And decide they can turn anything into a straight line, which we duly did.

And The Powers That Were, despite their well known liking for pubs, wouldn't let me try a larger scale version of that as my dissertation topic...Insisted on something involving real science.

I just want to see if Bubba's bod stands up to the pros: drunken students from northern England! OK, we did have some assistance from one southerner, but all he did was hold a ruler where we told him to.

 

[Agatha]

When I was a student (that's student student at university, rather than when I was a nursey student) we did do something like that: re-created "ley lines" in the old West Riding of Yorkshire (well, we were at Sheffield) using, firstly, post offices and, secondly, pubs. We then refined the latter to tied houses of certain local breweries (Wards and Stones initially, but then we tried Tetleys as well). There were a couple of issues with some intruders from Nottingham (Home Ales and Hardy Hansons), but we hand waved (I say hand waved, more like threatened to glass them) those away.

This is what happens when several geography and environmental sciences students get bored during long, tedious practical sessions and have access to maps and rulers...Not to mention a semi-encyclopaedic knowledge of every pub in a 30 mile radius...And decide they can turn anything into a straight line, which we duly did.

And The Powers That Were, despite their well known liking for pubs, wouldn't let me try a larger scale version of that as my dissertation topic...Insisted on something involving real science.

I just want to see if Bubba's bod stands up to the pros: drunken students from northern England! OK, we did have some assistance from one southerner, but all he did was hold a ruler where we told him to.

Whilst we await Bubba's place name alignments, may I just say that your work on ley-lines sounds so much more fun than my student days in Sheffield, where our pub-crawls went in strictly alphabetical order (although clubs were exempt from our alphabet - we mostly went to Turnups which probably dates me. My kids went to Corporation and Plug).

 

[Bubba]

I'm not entirely sure, what with the claim being utter bollocks and all, but I think the maps have to be the kind of flat earth maps used by airplane pilots (if such a thing exists). I think OS maps are based on a spherical earth, so you may be disappointed here.

I was told:

a) Aviators use Azimuthal Equidistant Projection


b) AEP is like Portolano, a similar version of the concept, centered on Jerusalem.

c) AEP is also like Mappa Mundi, I was told.


Apparently they also are informally termed "flat earth maps", probably due to the nature of their usage in wayfinding.

The azimuthal equidistant projection preserves both distance and direction from the central point. The world is projected onto a flat surface from any point on the globe. Although all aspects are possible (equatorial, polar, and oblique), the one used most commonly is the polar aspect, in which all meridians and parallels are divided equally to maintain the equidistant property.



https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/help/mapping/properties/azimuthal-equidistant.htm

I really must get busy and acquire better examples of the place names alignments I mentioned

 

[Bubba]

Great circle maps?

Not great circles, according to what I was told. But yes, circles around certain points were also used, later on. Islands, capes, points, seaports, or other features bear the same name.



One may find clues here

 

[Bubba]

OK, then. If no answer, I will take a stab at why it must be "staggering" or "mysterious".


....after the guy who said " implies that the person who came up with the idea believes that there is some mysterious world authority which chooses town names and they began playing this game just for their own amusement. " has time to answer:

"Why must it be "staggering" or "mysterious" "?

 

[Cosmic Yak]

Try demystifying the concept. It helps.

Think nothing more mysterious than royals and elites during and after the 'age of discovery' entertaining themselves in their map rooms, naming or renaming places after royals, wives, daughters etc while they 'colonize' or 'discover'.

Its not so mysterious after all.

Well, it is to you.
Did you actually bother to read the link I posted before, about how Lethbridge Alberta got its name, and why it was sited where it was?
Probably not.
Suffice it to say that your description here is totally, utterly wrong.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lethbridge

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Try demystifying the concept. It helps.

Think nothing more mysterious than royals and elites during and after the 'age of discovery' entertaining themselves in their map rooms, naming or renaming places after royals, wives, daughters etc while they 'colonize' or 'discover'.

Its not so mysterious after all.

The idea that royals chose to name or rename obscure little towns after their family members seems kinda mysterious to me. Evidence they did is so far entirely lacking. If they're not obscure little towns the mystery is why you can't you find any. Perhaps you think there was a prince Lethbridge in some obscure little royal family. Perhaps you don't and you recognise full well you've been sold another heap of crap.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

The idea that royals chose to name or rename obscure little towns after their family members seems kinda mysterious to me. Evidence they did is so far entirely lacking. If they're not obscure little towns the mystery is why you can't you find any. Perhaps you think there was a prince Lethbridge in some obscure little royal family. Perhaps you don't and you recognise full well you've been sold another heap of crap.

Amazing how when one looks at a map of, say, New Zealand (which I did recently) one finds lots of evidence of Prince Stockton, Princess Wakefield, King Canterbury, Queen Auckland, Dowager Queen Gisborne, Duke Blenheim, Earl Christchurch, Sir Invercargill, the Marquess of Hastings and Count Plymouth...Nothing what so ever to do with British place names being recycled by British immigrants, no, never could be that...And it couldn't happen that loads of Scots who were cleared and went to Canada took Scottish place names or that a bunch of Geordies arrived in New South Wales, found coal and decided to call their town Newcastle.

Got to be a secretive cabal of shape shifting royals playing nefarious games, whose purpose will shortly be revealed to us.

Any moment now...Just you wait...Very soon...

 

[jimbob]

As a final attempt to try to salvage something of this thread, we're putting it on moderated status - do not derail from the thread topic and do not make personal attacks.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: jimbob

 

[Carrot Flower King]

I spent a chunk of the afternoon (well, the ad breaks in the highlights of Paris-Nice, when Quickstep and Jumbo weren't destroying everyone in the crosswinds) with a ruler and my old AA road map.

Even on one page, covering the southern Lake District and adjoining bits of Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire, I could make loadsa straight lines linking various Crosbies, some Newtowns, a Hutton or 3, the Newbiggins...

If you stretch it out to the rest of the country and include related names (Newburgh and Newborough, Newton and New Town, that class of thing) and allow for near misses (well, most ley line proponents go for that, so I'll follow their lead), why, there are just lines everywhere!

And who would have thought that someone important was soooooo interested in villages called Hutton, Something Hutton or Hutton Something in northern England. I mean, I know Sir Len was revered in certain parts of Yorkshire, but I din't realise it was that much.

Please can someone explain the significance of all my nice lines or how it relates to Fabio Jakobsen's form this season?

 

[abaddon]

I was told:

a) Aviators use Azimuthal Equidistant Projection

Nope. Whoever that was lied to you. Aviation generally uses NDBs, And you have no clue what those are or why they exist.

b) AEP is like Portolano, a similar version of the concept, centered on Jerusalem.

Nope, that does not exist in reality either.

c) AEP is also like Mappa Mundi, I was told.
Apparently they also are informally termed "flat earth maps", probably due to the nature of their usage in wayfinding.

You need to examine whoever is telling you this junk. That is not how it works. That is not how anything works.

I really must get busy and acquire better examples of the place names alignments I mentioned

Plenty of promises, no delivery.

 

[SteveAitch]

In my post (now in the Bonfire thread), by Great Circle maps, I was referring to the Azimuthal projections used by radio hams. Like this.

If you generate one (online map generators are available) centred on one of the cities/towns/whatever in question, it should then be possible to draw a straight line through the other two. Whether you can, though, is open to question.

 

[catsmate]

When I was a student (that's student student at university, rather than when I was a nursey student) we did do something like that: re-created "ley lines" in the old West Riding of Yorkshire (well, we were at Sheffield) using, firstly, post offices and, secondly, pubs. We then refined the latter to tied houses of certain local breweries (Wards and Stones initially, but then we tried Tetleys as well). There were a couple of issues with some intruders from Nottingham (Home Ales and Hardy Hansons), but we hand waved (I say hand waved, more like threatened to glass them) those away.
This is what happens when several geography and environmental sciences students get bored during long, tedious practical sessions and have access to maps and rulers...Not to mention a semi-encyclopaedic knowledge of every pub in a 30 mile radius...And decide they can turn anything into a straight line, which we duly did.

And The Powers That Were, despite their well known liking for pubs, wouldn't let me try a larger scale version of that as my dissertation topic...Insisted on something involving real science.

I just want to see if Bubba's bod stands up to the pros: drunken students from northern England! OK, we did have some assistance from one southerner, but all he did was hold a ruler where we told him to.

That reminds me of The Brentford Triangle and the Cerean invasion.

Pooley nodded gently. ‘I’ve found it,’ he said in a distant voice. Omally peered over the map. There being no ink left in the pen, Pooley had pierced the points of his speculation through with defunct matchsticks. A pattern stood out clearly and perfectly defined. It was immediately recognizable as the heavenly constellation of Ursa Major, better known to friend and foe alike as The Plough.

‘What are they?’ Omally asked, squinting at the crucified map.

‘It’s the pubs,’ said Pooley in a quavering voice. ‘Every house owned by this brewery.’

Omally marked them off. It was true. All seven of the brewery pubs lay in the positions of the septentriones: the New Inn, the Princess Royal, The Four Horsemen, and the rest. And yes, sure as sure, there it was, there could be no mistake: at the point which marked Polaris, the North Star in Ursa Minor - the Flying Swan. ‘God’s teeth,’ said John Omally.

 

[sarge]

Nope. Whoever that was lied to you. Aviation generally uses NDBs, And you have no clue what those are or why they exist.

.

NDBs as in Non-Directional Beacons specifically? Or are you referring to all ground based nav systems?

In the US, NDB refers to a specific type of ground-based direction finding equipment. These stations are virtually unused any more.They do still exist, but are being actively decommissioned and they are the least used nav gear in aviation.

 

[Cosmic Yak]

In my post (now in the Bonfire thread), by Great Circle maps, I was referring to the Azimuthal projections used by radio hams. Like this.

If you generate one (online map generators are available) centred on one of the cities/towns/whatever in question, it should then be possible to draw a straight line through the other two. Whether you can, though, is open to question.

Someone (Foster Zygote, possibly?) actually did that: the lines went nowhere near the claimed places. That was one of the reasons Bubba said he would find new alignments, because none of the ones he listed actually lined up.
And we are still waiting for those 'slam-dunk' new alignments.....

 

[abaddon]

NDBs as in Non-Directional Beacons specifically? Or are you referring to all ground based nav systems?

I was using it in a general sense, responding at speed it was merely the first that sprang to mind. Didn't feel the need to list all available navaids.

In the US, NDB refers to a specific type of ground-based direction finding equipment. These stations are virtually unused any more.They do still exist, but are being actively decommissioned and they are the least used nav gear in aviation.

We could go for anything from GPS to dead reckoning.In hindsight, I should have inserted a "such as", but I was more wondering if the protagonist at hand knew anything about navigation at all.