275
xkcd: Dubious Islands (imgs.xkcd.com)
submitted 11 months ago by otter@lemmy.ca to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world
top 22 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] quindraco@lemm.ee 72 points 11 months ago

Alt-text OP inexplicably refused to give us:

Running for office in Minnesota on the single-issue platform 'dig a permanent channel through the Traverse Gap because it will make this map more satisfying.'

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I deserve this, even promised to remember last time

[-] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 3 points 11 months ago

I will await you're return with an upvote in hand

[-] Encromion@sh.itjust.works 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Fun fact, that traverse gap separates the red river of the north from the MINNESOTA river - which eventually drains into the Mississippi. The Mississippi starts at Lake Itasca.

Fun fact #2, the Minnesota/Mississippi drains into the Atlantic via the Gulf, but the red river eventually drains into the Arctic Ocean via the Hudson Bay!

[-] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

I wonder if they were connected, hypothetically, if the Hudson would drain into the Caribbean or the other way around. The North American plains bisect the entire continent so it's feasible; I just don't know if the two bodies of water are at the same elevation, and due to gravitational effects, etc, large bodies of water aren't always at sea level.

[-] Nudding@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago

As a Newfoundlander, I've never felt more insulted.

[-] Kichae@kbin.social 0 points 11 months ago

Yeah, I'm wounded by the ~~commission~~ omission of Cape Breton. But I think it's just that there's nothing dubious about our islands.

Edit: Sausage fingers and rogue autocorrect.

[-] Unforeseen@sh.itjust.works 0 points 11 months ago

Yeah seen that first and then realized PEI was missing too. Dubious free Islands.

[-] Nudding@lemmy.world -1 points 11 months ago

Ahhh, true true

[-] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 14 points 11 months ago

So what I'm hearing is that Lewis and Clark were idiots and you totally can go from coast to coast in a canoe

[-] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 8 points 11 months ago

Which one inherits the name Turtle Island?

[-] ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Chehalis-Blacklake is pretty dubious. It's a long stretch of wetlands. There is a sign and everything and technically it counts but there's development and roads going through it without bridges.

[-] dessimbelackis@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Don’t worry, give it 50 years and the waters will rise enough to make it navigable

[-] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 11 months ago

XKCD is usually more astute. The lack of the Colorado River, and The Grand Canyon, is a glaring omission.

[-] SoylentBlake@lemm.ee 21 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

"XKCD is usually more astute. The lack of the Colorado River, and The Grand Canyon, is a glaring omission."

Does the Colorado cut off a land mass? I don't think the Colorado even reaches the sea anymore, let alone psuesocleave apart a part of the continent.

That was a fun last sentence to say.

[-] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 11 months ago

What could possibly cleave the continent more than the Grand Canyon? In many places it’s a barrier that can’t be crossed except by flight.

It’s a prominent river until Yuma, AZ, which is not too far from the Gulf of California. And even if the water doesn’t always flow, it forms the boundary between the Mexican states of Baja and Sonora.

[-] CodeInvasion@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

Yes, but you fail to understand the difference between a peninsula and a psuedo-island (a piece of land entirely surrounded by any body of water, artificial or manmade).

The Colorado River starts in Colorado is does not flow over the continental divide.

[-] antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago

No river can be traced all the way up to a dividing ridge. As the contributing drainage area gets smaller it will be a stream, then creek, trickle, gulley, and by the time it’s on a mountain ridge it’s nothing.

[-] CodeInvasion@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago

You would think so, but there is one river that happens to flow and split over the continental divide called North Two Ocean Creek. It’s the tiniest technicality that makes this map technically true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Ocean_Pass

[-] Destraight@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

We supply you guys with OUR lake water. Don't forget that

[-] otter@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 months ago

Who is our in this case

[-] bingbong@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago

Or else what 😠

this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023
275 points (94.8% liked)

Comic Strips

12031 readers
3699 users here now

Comic Strips is a community for those who love comic stories.

The rules are simple:

Web of links

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS