The recent flare-up on this forum — of near-obsessive measurement of longitude and latitude with or
without the aid of a sextant (or an octant); of precise pinpointing of what part(s) of Niku lie on the
latitude line that is 281 nautical miles south of the equator; and,
where the “integer degree confluence” of 5S/173W is in relationship to Niku — is something that has happened
periodically throughout the life of TIGHAR. I’m sure
Ken Jennings (yes, he of “Jeopardy” fame) would applaud.
If your significant other is pleading with any of you who are obsessed with such matters, to create a wish list in order to facilitate shopping for a gift for you in the coming week (when Santa will visit your household precisely at midnight no matter which of
the 25 letter-designated time zones you live in—or one of the additional unnamed two that Kiribati observes,
UTC+13 and
UTC+14), then I strongly suggest you put at the top of that list Ken Jennings’ entertaining new book,
Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks, that delves exhaustingly into all things cartographic.
There’s a paragraph in
Maphead (shown by Google Books via
this link) near the very end of the book that gives hope that our obsession with such matters is not just “normal” but also therapeutic. Enjoy!
Ho, Ho,
Ho and Merry Christmas (or
whatever)!