24 May 2023

Two geography quiz questions


I missed two on my first read of the cartoon.  Answers are in the reader comments at the GoComics source.

Part two:  
Name the world capital closest to "Null Island" (0 degrees north, 0 degrees east) (five letters).
The number of letters is specified, because I encountered this while working the most recent Sunday NYT crossword puzzle.  Since I was on the clock, trying to finish in 20 minutes, I didn't take time to reason it out and wound up having to back into the answer via crossing clues.

More on Null Island.  You learn something every day.

11 comments:

  1. Null Island? No island. We got no island. We don’t need no stinkin’ island!
    0°N, 0°E = nothing. It’s a made up point on the map, 350 miles from land, in 16k deep Atlantic ocean.
    What do you do for a living? I wake up... necessary for function, but redundant, useless information.
    xoxoxoBruce

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  2. I'm changing my last name to Null. Looks like it could be fun messing with the computer nerds.

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    1. A 2018 story in Wired explains why this would be an unfun idea. A guy bought California vanity plate "Null," and found himself inundated with tickets for parking and traffic violations from all over the state. It took years to straighten it out.

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  3. Sadly I was never required to learn the state's capitals so I don't know all of them but I managed to get 11 .

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  4. Found 'em all! I never thought learning state capitals was going to be useful, but there you go.

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  5. Google Maps does not know about Null Island and you must enter "0, 0" as the coordinates. A restaurant is listed nearby - ေလး ရာသီစားေသာက္ဆိုင္四季啤酒烧烤.

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    Replies
    1. But if you enter "null null" it takes you to an Italian restaurant on the Kongens Gate in Oslo

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  6. So all the time spent committing the state capitals to memory results in the success of winning against a Stephan Pastis challenge. That's in addition to making you a more knowledgeable person, unlike we google dependent masses. Kudos.
    xoxoxoBruce

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  7. The geo displays would sometimes default to 'zero zero'. Of course, that was not obvious. So there you are, trying to set up a missile strike plan, and you would always be 'out of range'. It was a solid "WTF?" until you figured out the display was at default.

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