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Interesting how this story shows up just days after Minute Earth and Tom Scott's YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvIpI-1w84 https://www.youtube.

Interesting how this story shows up just days after Minute Earth and Tom Scott's YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvIpI-1w84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvIpI-1w84

space_fountain 10y ago
Thought the exact same thing, really expected them to mention it too. Not that there's really anything legally wrong with it and they did look at a different angle on the story but still.
- dalke 10y ago
  That MinuteEarth video from 7 July was after Atlas Obscura covered it in May (http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/null-island-is-one-of-the-most-visited-places-on-earth-too-bad-it-doesnt-exist http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/null-island-is-one-of-t... ), which got mentioned on Fark (http://www.fark.com/comments/9138647/Null-Island-is-one-of-most-visited-places-on-Earth-Too-bad-it-doesnt-exist http://www.fark.com/comments/9138647/Null-Island-is-one-of-m... ) and 99% Invisible's tumblr (http://99percentinvisible.tumblr.com/post/144266916879/null-island-is-a-nickname-for-the-spot-on-the http://99percentinvisible.tumblr.com/post/144266916879/null-... ). The piece at AO was in turn a repost of an article Tim St. Onge wrote in April for the Library of Congress blog, at https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2016/04/the-geographical-oddity-of-null-island/ https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2016/04/the-geographical-oddity-o... . The article was further covered by ScienceAlert (http://www.sciencealert.com/welcome-to-null-island-the-most-visited-place-that-doesn-t-exist http://www.sciencealert.com/welcome-to-null-island-the-most-... ) . The WSJ journal is strongly based on the St. Onge's article, including re-use of the depiction of Null Island and quoting St. Onge. It does not contain anything which comes from the MinuteEarth video. It's as if the WSJ and MinuteEarth were independent works based on ideas that were floating around a few months ago, where both sites thought it was worth more coverage. Interesting how these things move around and become part of the zeitgeist, yes? I see no need to cast aspersions upon the WSJ. EDIT: the comments in the LoC article point to a 2009 tweet about Null Island, at https://twitter.com/chriscurrie/status/1546199025 https://twitter.com/chriscurrie/status/1546199025 and that nullisland.com was registered in 2008.
  - brokentone 10y ago
    Nice research on the topic! I wish there were a way to algorithmically do this. Cluster content, show on a timeline, show quotes and obvious rewording to make clear what influenced what...
mintplant 10y ago
This is the fourth time a story about Null Island has frontpaged on HN alone, so it's not as if it's a particularly unusual or unique topic to write an article about. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=null%20island&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=null%20island&sort=byPopularit... I'd bucket it as one of a standard set of "quirky" subjects that get covered again and again on slow news days.
- mgalka 10y ago
  That is a lot of activity on Hacker News. But I wouldn't put those other sites in the same category as the WSJ. Doesn't look like any of them are even news sites.
mc32 10y ago
Reminds me of this other story https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11466849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11466849 At least this is a fictional island, albeit in a real place, rather than coordinates in an inhabited place bringing unpleasantness to unwilling participants.
- mirimir 10y ago
  It's the same issue, except that you know some geographical area.
- ryanschneider 10y ago
  And that reminds me of this gem: https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/ https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/
- elaus 10y ago
  I find it really astonishing that law enforcement is using IP geolocation to raid homes or investigate. In western Europe this would be unthinkable as police or state agencies solely rely on requesting customer information from providers (based on the IP address).
xchip 10y ago
nice video, definitely much better than the bloated article

Interesting how this story shows up just days after Minute Earth and Tom Scott's YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvIpI-1w84 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvIpI-1w84

space_fountain 10y ago

Thought the exact same thing, really expected them to mention it too. Not that there's really anything legally wrong with it and they did look at a different angle on the story but still.

dalke 10y ago
That MinuteEarth video from 7 July was after Atlas Obscura covered it in May (http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/null-island-is-one-of-the-most-visited-places-on-earth-too-bad-it-doesnt-exist http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/null-island-is-one-of-t... ), which got mentioned on Fark (http://www.fark.com/comments/9138647/Null-Island-is-one-of-most-visited-places-on-Earth-Too-bad-it-doesnt-exist http://www.fark.com/comments/9138647/Null-Island-is-one-of-m... ) and 99% Invisible's tumblr (http://99percentinvisible.tumblr.com/post/144266916879/null-island-is-a-nickname-for-the-spot-on-the http://99percentinvisible.tumblr.com/post/144266916879/null-... ). The piece at AO was in turn a repost of an article Tim St. Onge wrote in April for the Library of Congress blog, at https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2016/04/the-geographical-oddity-of-null-island/ https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2016/04/the-geographical-oddity-o... . The article was further covered by ScienceAlert (http://www.sciencealert.com/welcome-to-null-island-the-most-visited-place-that-doesn-t-exist http://www.sciencealert.com/welcome-to-null-island-the-most-... ) . The WSJ journal is strongly based on the St. Onge's article, including re-use of the depiction of Null Island and quoting St. Onge. It does not contain anything which comes from the MinuteEarth video. It's as if the WSJ and MinuteEarth were independent works based on ideas that were floating around a few months ago, where both sites thought it was worth more coverage. Interesting how these things move around and become part of the zeitgeist, yes? I see no need to cast aspersions upon the WSJ. EDIT: the comments in the LoC article point to a 2009 tweet about Null Island, at https://twitter.com/chriscurrie/status/1546199025 https://twitter.com/chriscurrie/status/1546199025 and that nullisland.com was registered in 2008.
- brokentone 10y ago
  Nice research on the topic! I wish there were a way to algorithmically do this. Cluster content, show on a timeline, show quotes and obvious rewording to make clear what influenced what...

mintplant 10y ago

This is the fourth time a story about Null Island has frontpaged on HN alone, so it's not as if it's a particularly unusual or unique topic to write an article about. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=null%20island&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?query=null%20island&sort=byPopularit... I'd bucket it as one of a standard set of "quirky" subjects that get covered again and again on slow news days.

mgalka 10y ago
That is a lot of activity on Hacker News. But I wouldn't put those other sites in the same category as the WSJ. Doesn't look like any of them are even news sites.

mc32 10y ago

Reminds me of this other story https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11466849 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11466849 At least this is a fictional island, albeit in a real place, rather than coordinates in an inhabited place bringing unpleasantness to unwilling participants.

mirimir 10y ago
It's the same issue, except that you know some geographical area.
ryanschneider 10y ago
And that reminds me of this gem: https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/ https://gimletmedia.com/episode/53-in-the-desert/
elaus 10y ago
I find it really astonishing that law enforcement is using IP geolocation to raid homes or investigate. In western Europe this would be unthinkable as police or state agencies solely rely on requesting customer information from providers (based on the IP address).

xchip 10y ago

nice video, definitely much better than the bloated article