6 ms·

Funnily enough, it's also close to the 0,0 GPS coordinates https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/0°00'00.0"N+0°00'00.0"E https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/0°00

Funnily enough, it's also close to the 0,0 GPS coordinates https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/0°00'00.0"N+0°00'00.0"E https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/0°00'00.0"N+0°00'00.0"E

iso1631 6y ago
0°00'00.0"N+0°00'00.0"E Funny how it's N+E, not S+W
- codetrotter 6y ago
  Why? The natural “up” direction is north, and east goes great with it like that’s where the sun comes up and also arrows pointing to N and E look like the coordinate axes in a default oriented graph.
  - splitrocket 6y ago
    Why is north "up"?
    - krferriter 6y ago
      Because some people hundreds and thousands of years ago drew it like that on maps, and people kept doing it that way for cross-compatibility reasons, and now it's a convention.
      - Zancarius 6y ago
        And the best part is that it depends on culture. In ancient Hebrew, east was venerated for a variety of reasons and was given the distinction as "up" (although I'm not sure that distinction really maps to our concept of up). https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/philosophy/east-time-eternity-the-universe-and-the-origin-of-all-things.htm https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/philosophy/east-time-eternity...
        iso1631 6y ago
        Perhaps because the sun comes up in the East (at that latitude at least)
        Zancarius 6y ago
        I would imagine so, yes. Hence the cultural implications of "beginning" or "origin" since the sun was no doubt viewed as the locus of life. One of the interesting implications is how they view the past as east and the future as west (or conversely, the past as in front of you and the future as behind you). I'm not precisely sure I yet understand why this is, but I wonder if it's a matter of visibility? e.g., we can "see" the past but not the future.
  - radu_floricica 6y ago
    Instead of downvoting this comment you'd better downvote its parent for starting the whole completely useless conversation.
jjoonathan 6y ago
Wasn't the infamous natural nuclear reactor near 0,0? A seam of fissionable minerals that millions of years ago would periodically fill with water, heat up, boil it off, cool down, rinse, repeat -- and that sounds an awful lot like what's happening here. EDIT: It was at -1.5780591, 13.
- koheripbal 6y ago
  > It was at -1.5780591, 13. ...at least at the surface.
Chris2048 6y ago
Also funny that the island near it happens to be "São Tomé and Príncipe" which I got familiar with only this month b/c the non-ascii chars caused an issue at work.

Funnily enough, it's also close to the 0,0 GPS coordinates https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/0°00'00.0"N+0°00'00.0"E https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/0°00'00.0"N+0°00'00.0"E

iso1631 6y ago

0°00'00.0"N+0°00'00.0"E Funny how it's N+E, not S+W

codetrotter 6y ago
Why? The natural “up” direction is north, and east goes great with it like that’s where the sun comes up and also arrows pointing to N and E look like the coordinate axes in a default oriented graph.
- splitrocket 6y ago
  Why is north "up"?
  - krferriter 6y ago
    Because some people hundreds and thousands of years ago drew it like that on maps, and people kept doing it that way for cross-compatibility reasons, and now it's a convention.
    - Zancarius 6y ago
      And the best part is that it depends on culture. In ancient Hebrew, east was venerated for a variety of reasons and was given the distinction as "up" (although I'm not sure that distinction really maps to our concept of up). https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/philosophy/east-time-eternity-the-universe-and-the-origin-of-all-things.htm https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/philosophy/east-time-eternity...
      - iso1631 6y ago
        Perhaps because the sun comes up in the East (at that latitude at least)
        Zancarius 6y ago
        I would imagine so, yes. Hence the cultural implications of "beginning" or "origin" since the sun was no doubt viewed as the locus of life. One of the interesting implications is how they view the past as east and the future as west (or conversely, the past as in front of you and the future as behind you). I'm not precisely sure I yet understand why this is, but I wonder if it's a matter of visibility? e.g., we can "see" the past but not the future.
- radu_floricica 6y ago
  Instead of downvoting this comment you'd better downvote its parent for starting the whole completely useless conversation.

jjoonathan 6y ago

Wasn't the infamous natural nuclear reactor near 0,0? A seam of fissionable minerals that millions of years ago would periodically fill with water, heat up, boil it off, cool down, rinse, repeat -- and that sounds an awful lot like what's happening here. EDIT: It was at -1.5780591, 13.

koheripbal 6y ago
> It was at -1.5780591, 13. ...at least at the surface.

Chris2048 6y ago

Also funny that the island near it happens to be "São Tomé and Príncipe" which I got familiar with only this month b/c the non-ascii chars caused an issue at work.