
Agloe, New York - ZeljkoS
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agloe,_New_York
======
kilian
John Green, the author mentioned in this wikipedia article, has a TED talk
that talks about Agloe:
[https://www.ted.com/talks/john_green_the_nerd_s_guide_to_lea...](https://www.ted.com/talks/john_green_the_nerd_s_guide_to_learning_everything_online?language=en)

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danso
One quick FYI: the OP links to the Agloe's entry in the U.S. Geographic Names
Information System database. The database is available as a bulk download
here:

[http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/download_data.htm](http://geonames.usgs.gov/domestic/download_data.htm)

It's a fairly large (2.2M rows) and handy data file that can be used to
extract geo-coordinates and metadata for U.S. geographical features, i.e.
cities, states, counties, parks, even cemeteries, in lieu of hitting up a
geocoder.

~~~
maxerickson
Also note that it is messy (duplicates and rough locations) and contains many
historical features that have not yet been marked as such.

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davidlakata
For fans of Jorge Luis Borges, he has a short story that covers similar
thematic ground:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tl%C3%B6n,_Uqbar,_Orbis_Tertiu...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tl%C3%B6n,_Uqbar,_Orbis_Tertius).

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tootie
Sleepy Hollow, NY didn't exist until after the Headless Horseman was written.

~~~
bbanyc
The modern Village of Sleepy Hollow only got its name in 1996 - before then it
was called North Tarrytown. But it is certainly the place that Washington
Irving was writing about and the Old Dutch Church still stands there.

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thrownaway2424
Recently I found this non-place on Google Maps: Lake Fail, Texas.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3844594,-97.7345006,17z](https://www.google.com/maps/@30.3844594,-97.7345006,17z)

~~~
GaiusCoffee
What do you mean? I went on Street View and there is clearly a body of water
there..

[https://www.google.com/maps/@30.384544,-97.7351451,3a,75y,10...](https://www.google.com/maps/@30.384544,-97.7351451,3a,75y,104.97h,86.08t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sdtnWQVOj3EbLEWTRho_Xgw!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DdtnWQVOj3EbLEWTRho_Xgw%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D33.038887%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656)

~~~
thrownaway2424
Sure, but do you really think it's called "Lake Fail"? It just looks like a
drainage pond.

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glibgil
Happy birthday, this topic:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8500217](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8500217)

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minikites
...In that Empire, the Art of Cartography attained such Perfection that the
map of a single Province occupied the entirety of a City, and the map of the
Empire, the entirety of a Province. In time, those Unconscionable Maps no
longer satisfied, and the Cartographers Guilds struck a Map of the Empire
whose size was that of the Empire, and which coincided point for point with
it. The following Generations, who were not so fond of the Study of
Cartography as their Forebears had been, saw that that vast map was Useless,
and not without some Pitilessness was it, that they delivered it up to the
Inclemencies of Sun and Winters. In the Deserts of the West, still today,
there are Tattered Ruins of that Map, inhabited by Animals and Beggars; in all
the Land there is no other Relic of the Disciplines of Geography.

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001sky
"In Alexandria Drafting Co. v. Andrew H. Amsterdam dba Franklin Maps,[6] the
court ruled that "fictitious names may not be copyrighted" and "the existence,
or non-existence, of a road is a non-copyrightable fact".[7]"

== side note to this story

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personjerry
This reminds me of the story of the Brazilian aardvark
[http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-a-raccoon-
became-...](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-a-raccoon-became-an-
aardvark)

It is a nice reminder that the things we think of as "official" were once made
up by someone. Indeed, that is all language and culture is! We just happen to
agree upon them.

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adrusi
I first learned about Agloe via this beautiful little record (CC BY-NC-SA). No
affiliation but I figured I'd plug it here.

[http://jkirkpearson.com/album/the-curious-appearance-of-
aglo...](http://jkirkpearson.com/album/the-curious-appearance-of-agloe-ny)

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briantakita
The map is not the territory...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map%E2%80%93territory_relation#.22The_map_is_not_the_territory.22)

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anarcat
doesn't look like it's on OSM - should that be fixed? :)
[http://osm.org/go/Zc3OxgB0-](http://osm.org/go/Zc3OxgB0-)

