Sandy Island, the Undiscovered Country 182
Big Hairy Ian writes "A South Pacific island, shown on marine charts and world maps as well as on Google Earth and Google Maps, does not exist, Australian scientists say. The supposedly sizeable strip of land, named Sandy Island on Google maps, was positioned midway between Australia and French-governed New Caledonia. But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea."
Kate... (Score:5, Funny)
We have to go back!
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Re:Kate... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Kate... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's too late. The joy of Lost was the promise of a satisfactory conclusion to a coherent story arc. Now we know that there isn't one.
Re:Kate... (Score:5, Funny)
That it ended wasn't enough of a satisfactory conclusion?
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It's too late. The joy of Lost was the promise of a satisfactory conclusion to a coherent story arc. Now we know that there isn't one.
TV viewers are like Charlie Brown and the football: for some unfathomable reason you keep hoping that these shows with a mysterious back-story will end up with a grand revelation that is coherent and satisfactory, and despite disappointment after disappointment you always fall for the same trick again.
I'm guessing this is in part due to younger viewers who've never seen it happen before getting mislead by the entertainment industry press, whose job it is to put bums in seats.
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The idea of shows filming their season cliff hangers before a renewal makes it hard for shows to function. Although with Lost building up hype, or the BSG "They have a plan" was just outright lies. TV isn't alone on dragging things out. Any Wheel of Time fan had to feel cheated when it started taking over a page to describe a dress or over 2 decades to finish a trilogy.
On TV Fringe has somewhat closed the hanging threads.I'm glad they managed to get a 1/2 season to work on this. Eureka did the same thing
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I'm afraid I believed Damon Lindelof when he was in interviews -- during the first series, he'd say "We already know how it's going to end; there's a full story arc planned out". Then during the second (or third?) series - "We've been treading water a bit because we weren't sure we'd get the green light to see through the story we'd planned, but now we're going to".
And that convinced me that, unlike (say) The X Files, there was a planned end in sight, and that it was conceived to be a coherent whole.
So it w
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Believe me. He just saved you the horrors of the final episode, where you say, at the end of it, "WTF! I suffered through the fifth and sixth seasons and this is what you hand me as a tie-it-all-together episode?"
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No worries! He didn't actually spoil anything because they don't really go back. :-)
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Obligatory... [theonion.com]
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Yes, a spoiler alert was definitely justified.
SPOILER ALERT!!!!
that hot chick in The Crying Game is really a dude
The white whale lives
Jesus dies.
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The characters are walking through the jungle when they encounter a (rolls dice, gets 45, looks up table) Polar Bear!
Re:Kate... (Score:5, Funny)
No!
That's not true!
That's impossible!
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1.4 km deep. Yeah, that ain't sea level change.
Good. Gooooood.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Good. Gooooood.... (Score:5, Informative)
You are John Galt and I claim my five gold dollars.
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Whose plans?
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GM link to the place (Score:2)
Here is a link to Google Maps for Sandy Island [google.com].
Monsters be here (Score:5, Funny)
It was actually just a really really big whale.
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No. Actually, it was an enormous turtle, with a species of large, alcoholic martial-arts pandas living in elegant splendor on its back.
Had to read the ad (Score:3)
Funny! (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Funny! (Score:4, Informative)
They seem to have a system that matches known land areas (they incorrectly have this identified as land) and remove the 'blue fog' they use in lieu of real aerial photography over most deep water. You can also see this effect any place with shoals, sandbanks, small island groups etc.
Re:Funny! (Score:5, Insightful)
S 19 13' E 156 56'
Re:Funny! (Score:5, Funny)
I'll be surprised if Google doesn't announce their street view cams have been adapted and installed on board ships. That island is out there somewhere, and I trust Google to find it.
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I'll be surprised if Google doesn't announce their street view cams have been adapted and installed on board ships.
That's nothing. They've already gone underwater [engadget.com].
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S 19 13' E 156 56'
Actually, Sandy Island is S 19 13' E 159 56' not E 156, maybe this is the reason why they cant find it!
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S 19 13' E 156 56'
Actually, Sandy Island is S 19 13' E 159 56' not E 156, maybe this is the reason why they cant find it!
Actually, Sandy Island isn't there, either.
Re:Funny! (Score:5, Interesting)
My Times Atlas (big papery thing, pub. 1992) has a long thin ellipse-ish shape with a couple of small blobs on it in about the right place that might indicate something was once there.
Called 'Sable' (French for 'sand') and just to the left of the 160 line, looks like it got washed away or fell over some time in the last 20 years.
Assuming it existed - or is this the 'copyright check' glitch added? It is not a nautical chart, just a home atlas.
Times atlas of the world, concise edition, 6th ed.
ISBN: 0 7230 0493 5
Re: It's on maps over 100 years old (Score:3)
There's a pretty clever blog that has found even older references to the island right where it shouldn't be:
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Sandy, you're drunk. Go Home.
Re:Funny! (Score:5, Funny)
The funny thing is Google seems to have doctored the satellite photos to put a dark blob where this fictitious island is supposed to be.
I doesn't show up on my new iOS 6 Maps app ... and here I thought this missing island was Apple's fault.
Re:Funny! (Score:5, Funny)
It is, a bunch of Apple fanatics with shovels actually removed the island rather than admit Apple was wrong.
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Re:Funny! (Score:4, Informative)
FWIW, it's common for map makers and atlas makers to include some false streets and features. This is to enable them to prove that someone else copied from them. Perhaps this is one of those receiving publicity?
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Copyright Trap, perhaps? (Score:5, Insightful)
Putting non-existent features onto published maps to provide proof of future copyright infringement is a well-known practice, after all...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictitious_entry [wikipedia.org]
Re:Copyright Trap, perhaps? (Score:5, Informative)
RTFA
A spokesman from the service told Australian newspapers that while some map makers intentionally include phantom streets to prevent copyright infringements, that was was not usually the case with nautical charts because it would reduce confidence in them.
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Yes but when I encounter a "fictitious street" on a map - I assume its a shitty map, not that they were protecting their copyright.
I then get a new map that looks up to date, or at least competently made.
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RTFAMC: the nautical charts the ship's crew was using were correct. The /. summary is misleading and wrong (boy, that's a surprise!)
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Very good, reply to the RTFA comment without RTFA.
The island appeared on their nautical charts, which is the original reason they went to see.
Re:Copyright Trap, perhaps? (Score:5, Interesting)
That are normally dead-end streets in the middle of nowhere that are not likely to cause any issues other than raised eyebrows, and someone thinking "oh, a piece of road to no-where gone". Putting a complete island on a map where the sea is supposedly 1400m deep, that's a totally different thing. Such an island could be used as orientation point: a single island in the vast ocean is great for that. Not finding an island where it's expected, can give serious problems.
Serious Safty Error? (Score:5, Insightful)
If this is on navigational maps, it could be a serious safty issue - not in avoiding it, but if for example a ship in distress navigated to it verses a actual existing piece of land...
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Send Captain Cook (Score:2)
Alexander Dalrymple insists.
Pumice? (Score:5, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumice_raft
Re:Pumice? (Score:4, Interesting)
We obtained worldwide elevation data from NOAA [noaa.gov], for our BattleCell [battlecell.com] land conquest game. (a super-evolved version of Risk) Game coordinates for Sandy Island are: -1911,15956
Sure enough, the NOAA data shows an elevation of 1 meter, for the entire Sandy Point island.
Possibly, the island was a dynamically generated object, based on the original NOAA elevation data. What else, besides pumice could generate such readings?
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Are you suggesting that the Dharma Initiave did their experiments on a pumice raft? Nonsense.
Some folks will believe anything... (Score:5, Funny)
But when scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they found only the blue ocean of the Coral Sea.
April Fools!
ship? (Score:2)
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Or someone mixed up imagery from different scales.
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Look at the scale. That would be one rather large vessel.
I think the earth got Photoshopped.
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Of course I'm not saying this *is* photoshopped, but try and find somewhere else on the map with similar properties.
That's exactly how I felt (Score:5, Funny)
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It doesn't seem to be news... (Score:4, Informative)
Given it doesn't appear on the nautical charts of the HO responsible for the area, I would suggest that it was already proven not to exist.
Google Satellite View is interesting (Score:2)
So there is a non-existing island on the map, happens.
What is stranger is that on Google maps' satellite view at that exact location there is a black area, which looks like as if someone has gone over it with an eraser, wiping out a part of the image. Roughly the size of the land mass indicated on the normal map.
Wonder why they did that.
Re:Google Satellite View is interesting (Score:5, Informative)
What is stranger is that on Google maps' satellite view at that exact location there is a black area
For lands, Google Maps is displaying satellite/aerial imagery. For seas/oceans, they're displaying a seabed topology map. The black is just the color of the ocean as seen by satellites, showing through the sea/land mask.
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So there is a non-existing island on the map, happens.
Much?
An idea (Score:2, Funny)
I propose we call the island "Amercia" and put Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich on it. That's the "New Amercia" Mitt was talking about. I'm sure there's plenty others we can put on the new island.
That's where .... (Score:4, Funny)
R'lyeh (Score:5, Funny)
ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
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ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
A translation for all heretic non believers. R'lyeh only rises when the stars are right. All other times Cthulhu lays dreaming on the bottom of the ocean. I have a feeling it may rise on December 21st, fingers crossed.
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FTFY...
For Sale: Sandy Island (Score:3)
Dolphin lure (Score:5, Funny)
This is just a marketing stunt by the area's resident Dolphin community. They want to lure tourists to this patch of the sea, so they can do some backflips in return for loose change and hearty gifts of plankton.
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Dolphons are toothed cetaceans and thus, do not consume plankton.
It's as if the phrase "so long, and thanks for all the fish" was never penned.
You're thinking of Dolphins.
Dolphons are elementary sound particles invented by Mattel.
It was never added to OpenStreetMap (Score:2)
Another reason to prefer OpenStreetMap. There's no pressure for contributors to add fake map features in the name of copyright enforcement.
Re:It was never added to OpenStreetMap (Score:4, Insightful)
Pumice? (Score:4, Interesting)
Perhaps it was just a floating pumice island.. http://blogs.smh.com.au/science/archives/2006/12/post_3.html [smh.com.au]
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Interesting, such islands.
But I can hardly imagine them to form in 1600m deep water.
Obvious (Score:4, Funny)
The truth should be obvious to any Doctor Who fan. The "it's only ocean" that the scientists saw was obviously a perception filter. The island is being used as a staging area for a Dalek assault.
Re:Obvious (Score:5, Funny)
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The truth should be obvious to any Doctor Who fan. The "it's only ocean" that the scientists saw was obviously a perception filter.
Any Doctor Who fan should have read h2g2, where the perception filter is much more funnily known as "Somebody Else's Problem" field.
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True, but the perception filter was first mentioned after DNA died.
The Tardis wiki page [wikia.com] has some interesting things to say about this, including that Life, the Universe and Everything was at first supposed to be a Doctor Who serial. The plot becomes wibbly-wobbly.
By Jingo! (Score:2)
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Obligatory (Score:4, Informative)
map [google.com]
Should have used Apple Maps (Score:2)
No sign of the fake island on Apple Maps. In general Apple Maps have more recent satellite coverage for lots of areas, which makes sense as they bought it more recently...
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It probably is on Apple maps, just in the middle of Lake Ontario or something.
Less of an "Undiscovered Country"... (Score:2)
The Friends of Carlotta have struck!! (Score:2)
QUESTION! (Score:5, Interesting)
I get that an error or bad pixel matching might have misdetected the island but... who named Sandy Island?
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Probably the person who first put it on the map - which is exactly the next thing these researchers are going to try to figure out, according to TFA.
False item planted for copyright fingerprint? (Score:3)
Didn't encyclopedia and dictionary authors in days gone by add spurious entries to ensure they could back up any copyright violation claims?
Google maps. Hmm...
Or perhaps it's the Island of San Seriffe...
Life of Pi (Score:2)
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It's the result of french nuclears tests in the Pacific
TFA says the sea is 1400 m deep at the place the island should be. If that figure is correct, it rules out island suppression caused by nuclear tests IMO. I am not sure one could have wiped out that amount of land with a nuclear nuke without causing a tsunami on australian beaches.
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That's because you are expecting a city, where in reality there is just a field where they grow Jessicas.
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Steve Jobs, is that you?