

If you’re on the beach, this map shows you what’s across the ocean - fur0n
http://knowmore.washingtonpost.com/2014/05/22/if-youre-on-the-beach-this-map-shows-you-whats-across-the-ocean/

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eurleif
It would be cooler if it took the shape of the beach into account, and showed
what would be across the ocean if you were oriented along the tangent line.

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tmhedberg
That would be difficult, since coastlines are essentially fractal.

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baddox
Of course, in practice such an app would not attempt inspect the coastline on
a molecular level. It would just use vector data from some map source, and I
suspect that would work quite well in practice.

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Calcite
This makes it much easier to relate climate for overseas countries. Ocean
currents and other effects excluded, the weather in Japan can be similar to
California. Another example, Cuba is directly aligned with Western Sahara.

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ipince
Meaning Chile is the only country in the world that completely "owns" a
latitude. Cool..

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baddox
If you don't count small islands like South Georgia and the South Sandwich
Islands (UK), this seems to be the case in reality. However, it wouldn't
necessarily follow from this map, since this map only shows North America.

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taejo
Another commenter claims Denmark (Greenland) also owns a latitude.

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prawn
Suggests a project for someone to make a little play app which lets you stand
on a beach, aim your phone and discover the next landmass in a given
direction.

Or likewise, "looking" down through the Earth. What's on the opposite site of
where I'm standing right now (including detailing the oceans and seas).

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swimfar
Here are two sites which show you the opposite points (antipodes) of the earth
of a given location. One is interactive, the other takes an address.

[http://www.freemaptools.com/tunnel-to-other-side-of-the-
eart...](http://www.freemaptools.com/tunnel-to-other-side-of-the-earth.htm)

[http://www.antipodr.com/](http://www.antipodr.com/)

There do seem to be some phone apps available as well.

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Kiro
I was expecting some kind of augmented reality app I could use on the beach to
see what's beyond the horizon.

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nemasu
Wow, so Chile has a spot where you can go around the globe and end up back in
Chile...that is cool.

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baddox
For one definition of "around the globe," yes.

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eob
This really shows just how "landlocked" [1] the People's Republic of China is
by the chain of islands bordering it -- they have less ocean-facing coastline
than Morocco, Portugal, and even Mauritania. Next time you read about the PRC
(a) trying to assert naval power in the South China Sea, or (b) maintaining
claims to Taiwan despite having never controlled it, think of this map and the
near complete absence of the PRC on it. Access to the Pacific Ocean is
critical to their strategic growth.

edit: [1] see grandchild comment

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jpatokal
"Landlocked" is stretching it. It's >800 miles from Kagoshima to Taipei,
>300mi from Kaohsiung to Laoag, and ~680mi from Laoag to Hainan. Add in the
Tsushima Straits and the bit between Hainan and Vietnam, and that's over _2000
mi_ of ocean that you'd need to blockade to block China from the Pacific.

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eob
Perhaps, if we're arguing word choice, but the broader point is that no
megapower wants to play Red Rover for easy access to an ocean if war broke
out. Until we develop space-based weapons platforms and/or hypersonic
missiles, naval power will remain the key means of projecting power and
buffering coastline vulnerability.

As long as naval power remains so important, unquestionable access to nearby
bodies of water will be primary objects of power projection.

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orik
What about Hawaii?

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justmytwospence
somebody doesn't know squat about map projections...

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ipince
care to explain?

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jagger27
The above poster is mistaking the "rule" that only the Mercator projection
allows for straight lines to represent the meridians and parallels of the map.
While this is true for both longitude and latitude on Mercator, only
longitudes are allowed to be straight on pseudocylindrical projections (like
the one shown in the OP). Since the map in the OP only draws along horizontal
lines it's fine to use that type of projection.

Cylindrical (Mercator):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mercator_projection_SW.jp...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mercator_projection_SW.jpg)

Pseudocylindrical (Wagner):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wagner_VI_projection_SW.j...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wagner_VI_projection_SW.jpg)

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justmytwospence
I do indeed stand corrected. The projection wasn't stated and I presumed too
much without really inspecting it.

