Talk:1472: Geography

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Anybody notice that he drew an isthmus but didn't label it? 108.162.221.94 05:49, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Does Randall play Dwarf Fortress? Because the perfect map to build your fort on looks about like this. Volcano near the sea is especially neat luxury. --141.101.80.121 06:57, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

1223: Dwarf Fortress suggests he does. --Pudder (talk) 09:00, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Would be nice if there could be an example of the sort of map that Randall is referring to from a textbook for people who've never seen them or don't remember. 199.27.128.91 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Yeah, shame that there isn't one in the comic itself... 108.162.216.109 12:58, 12 January 2015 (UTC)


I'd be interested to hear where in the world people claim matches this best. Boston...? I ain't buying that one. 108.162.225.44 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Southern California. We don't have glaciers. But we do have alpine permafrost. We also have no active volcanoes. Otherwise this is essentially my house on the map. 173.245.48.91 20:00, 13 January 2015 (UTC) BLuDgeons

Examples like Randall was talking about that I found on Google images. 1 2 These appear to be two pages of the same picture: 3 4 I'm not sure if they're good enough quality to add to the main article, but if someone thinks they are, feel free. For someone who's never seen them before, they're fairly common in elementary school social studies or geography textbooks; I remember seeing them multiple times in mine. Tomari7 (talk) 11:10, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

I like the second one, if only for the iceberg sitting at the bottom. Okofish (talk) 09:30, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

Also, no Valley or Fjord. Damn insensitve tropical geography.108.162.254.98 11:21, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

The Region around Vancouver has a lot of the items in the picture. (Sandy) deserts and Mesas are the only missing. 141.101.64.137 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Anyone else noticing the distinct lack of any buildings? I'd call that a reason not to live there... 108.162.216.109 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

...well, there's My House.;) 141.101.98.191 13:55, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Or maybe a good reason TO live there! mwburden (talk) 14:02, 12 January 2015 (UTC)


Please delete these useless musings

Some people, when seeing paintings or pictures of landscapes, tend to dream away thinking ‘Imagine I lived there…’ This may happen even (or perhaps especially) to school children looking at schematic depictions with educational purposes, as in this case one that summarizes as many as possible geographic features on a limited area.

108.162.221.201 16:27, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Penninsula
intentional?

Since I can hardly imagine Randall doesn't know how it's written, the n too much may be a subtle gag. (Just think of what happens in the opposite case ;-) 108.162.230.221 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

I think it's a misspelling. However, the Penninsula would certainly be in Pennsylvania. 108.162.221.201 14:41, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the extra 'n' in Penninsula is a reference to the english version of the Legend of Zelda, specifically the phrase, "EASTMOST PENNINSULA IS THE SECRET". Considering The Legend of Zelda games usually also take place in the type of world shown here, I'd say it's a good guess. 108.162.237.175 21:01, 14 January 2015 (UTC)

"Randall notes that he would least like to live in the farm typically depicted in the background of such diagrams [how tornadoes form]. This is likely because the farm is depicted as being on a vast, featureless stretch of flat prairie, the opposite of the rich landscape in the comic."

Well, perhaps.... Or perhaps it's because tornadoes keep forming there!! --Ab78 (talk) 08:57, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

I think the point is that in the book the farm is very close to the actual Tornado that is there right now and about to hit said farm, quick get into the basement!, not that he objects to the type of area where tornadoes might form. Garemoko (talk) 22:58, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

If the explanation of why he'd like to live in the picture is that it's interesting because it has a lot of different features, it makes sense that he wouldn't want to live on the farm because it hardly has any features. He doesn't seem to have a problem with dangerous forces of nature, since he wants to live next to (what appears to be) an active volcano. However, both the danger and the boredom explanations are included for the sake of completeness. 108.162.221.186 00:17, 15 January 2015 (UTC)

No one has yet mentioned how conveniently named everything in this locality is. The forest is named "Forest" and so on. Someone moving there would have no difficulty when asking for directions! Jim E (talk) 17:23, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

"My House" is actually reasonably well sheltered from a volcanic eruption, assuming the mountain is not a supervolcano like Yellowstone. There are hills blocking the direct route. The lake will buffer mudslides, and "My House"'s location closer to the lagoon than the lake or river - and the likely continuity of the midstage hills and backstage mountains means there would be some low hills in that area, so even a significantly increased outflow from the lake would most likely not reach the house. That leaves ashfall, which is one of the lesser-impact (albeit wider-impact) issues in most cases - and in the Mount Saint Helens eruption, nearly all the major ashfall went away from the ocean. 108.162.221.117 18:06, 21 January 2015 (UTC)

I live on the Big Island of Hawaii. We have all those features and more within a hundred miles of my house. 108.162.215.182 04:10, 1 February 2015 (UTC)