Mefi users' extreme locations?

July 9, 2013 9:15 PM

Geographic extremes of all kinds of Mefi users.

I realize that location data of Mefi users is not required, but the Lat/Lon thingy got me thinking about some things.

Any way to find out things such as the following:

Who is the Mefi user who is located farthest north on Earth?

Farthest south on Earth?

Nearest the equator?

Closest to GMT?

Closest to (on both sides) of the International Date Line?

Numbers of users in the northern hemisphere as well as southern hemisphere?

etc. etc.

I would guess this has been covered before, but I did a few searches and didn't find anything, so I thought I would post my questions.

posted by InsertNiftyNameHere to MetaFilter-Related at 9:15 PM (92 comments total)

Well, I'm in Saint Paul, Minnesota, so I'm right in the center of the action.
posted by elmer benson at 9:19 PM on July 9, 2013 [5 favorites]

i live in a pineapple under the sea

for reals though there was an antarctica meetup in 2010 so that's pretty far
posted by elizardbits at 9:21 PM on July 9, 2013 [6 favorites]

elizardbits: "for reals though there was an antarctica meetup in 2010 so that's pretty far"

Really? That is fucking impressive unless you're yanking my chain. (Sorry to express some doubt, but you know people these days.)
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 9:26 PM on July 9, 2013

No, Antarctica meetup was real - a guy stationed at McMurdo (I think) joined the site just to do it.

Previous questions under the locations tag have some answers about this. The most recent one I see in a quick scan is this answer from 2008: here is a kml file you can drag into Google Earth to map all the users. (I'm not sure how often that file is updated.)
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:29 PM on July 9, 2013

found it but the 10thiversary site doesn't appear to be working in a way that i can figure out at 00:37 so *hands*
posted by elizardbits at 9:37 PM on July 9, 2013

no wait i am a glorious genius after all

yay
posted by elizardbits at 9:38 PM on July 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

Yes, good find! It was eotvos who held the Antarctica meetup.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:42 PM on July 9, 2013

I live in the Antipodes, the furthest location from the light of civilization and the Glory of God.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 9:42 PM on July 9, 2013

I can pretty much guarantee that I'm closest to the international date line at 176.6581° W.
posted by charmcityblues at 9:43 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

elizardbits: "no wait i am a glorious genius after all

yay"

That is truly great! Truly a shame we can't all pile on a Russian icebreaker and marvel at the penguins. Thanks!
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 9:45 PM on July 9, 2013

charmcityblues: "I can pretty much guarantee that I'm closest to the international date line at 176.6581° W."

You might be in the running for farthest north, no?
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 9:54 PM on July 9, 2013

Oh, and we're on HAST (UTC -9). American Samoa is UTC -11, but the Aleutians time zone is kind of artificially stretched because of its economic and other ties to "mainland" Alaska-- it would be pretty weird for a state to have three or four time zones, though geographically it should.
posted by charmcityblues at 10:09 PM on July 9, 2013

I live in the Antipodes
We all do - the antipodes of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it.
posted by unliteral at 10:22 PM on July 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm the Mefite who lives in the normalest place.

Except for any who live in Normal, of course.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 10:34 PM on July 9, 2013

The Google Earth .kml says there are members in Antarctica (although their profiles say no other members nearby, sorry):
Joey Buttafoucault
mreleganza
NecroPsyChroNauTron
strawberryviagra [account disabled]
ageispolis
srqpon [account disabled]
Glendale
PaintMeRed9
Marquis
And saving the best two for last:
PenguinBukkake - "Antarctica is teh hawt"
Jennifer Leigh DeHoyt-Hysignell - I'm a complicated persons. Gender: Varies with proximity to Scotland.
posted by unliteral at 11:02 PM on July 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

I live in the Antipodes
We all do - the antipodes of any place on Earth is the point on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to it.

I prefer this:

But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say, men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours, that is on no ground credible. And, indeed, it is not affirmed that this has been learned by historical knowledge, but by scientific conjecture, on the ground that the earth is suspended within the concavity of the sky, and that it has as much room on the one side of it as on the other: hence they say that the part which is beneath must also be inhabited. But they do not remark that, although it be supposed or scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical form, yet it does not follow that the other side of the earth is bare of water; nor even, though it be bare, does it immediately follow that it is peopled. For Scripture, which proves the truth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of its prophecies, gives no false information; and it is too absurd to say, that some men might have 316 taken ship and traversed the whole wide ocean, and crossed from this side of the world to the other, and that thus even the inhabitants of that distant region are descended from that one first man. Wherefore let us seek if we can find the city of God that sojourns on earth among those human races who are catalogued as having been divided into seventy-two nations and as many languages. For it continued down to the deluge and the ark, and is proved to have existed still among the sons of Noah by their blessings, and chiefly in the eldest son Shem; for Japheth received this blessing, that he should dwell in the tents of Shem.
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 11:18 PM on July 9, 2013

I'm pretty out of the way, I think (no other MeFites nearby). Makes me wish I had attended more meetups when I lived in NYC.
posted by orrnyereg at 11:23 PM on July 9, 2013

I know of at least one other registered mefite who's been to the south pole. Given the small fraction of the polies I know personally, and the even smaller fraction of friends who've outed themselves as mefites, one might expect there have been many more over the years. There are plenty of traits common to both tribes. (Note that I and the other user are currently living in cities rich with mefites, so the southern extreme goes to someone else.)

Time to start planning for the 20th anniversary low earth orbit meetup. Surely there are at least a few friends of astronauts here.
posted by eotvos at 12:39 AM on July 10, 2013 [7 favorites]

I know of at least one other registered mefite who's been to the south pole. Given the small fraction of the polies I know personally, and the even smaller fraction of friends who've outed themselves as mefites, one might expect there have been many more over the years. There are plenty of traits common to both tribes. (Note that I and the other user are currently living in cities rich with mefites, so the southern extreme goes to someone else.)

But that means... any one of us could be The Thing!
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 1:03 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

If we've got any surprises for each other, I don't I don't think we're in much shape to do anything about it. Until the next meetup.

Meetup. Ha! I'm the only mefite in the village. Or at least that's what my "nearby users" list says. In terms of meetups and extreme locations, I might as well be on the moon. (Not that I think I'd attend a meetup. I'm too socially awkward for stuff like that. But still. I don't even have the opportunity to stealthily walk past a meetup and try to guess which one is "fartypants skidmarks jr".)
posted by pracowity at 1:19 AM on July 10, 2013

So very alone.
Also, balls to geographical accuracy, I am more antipodean than him up there.
posted by Catch at 1:26 AM on July 10, 2013

"But that means... any one of us could be The Thing!"

Nope, I am pretty sure that I am No Thing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
posted by Eideteker at 3:12 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ethiopia checking in. There are no other MetaFilter members nearby, sorry.
posted by Gringos Without Borders at 3:27 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I can get on a bus for 30 minutes and go stand on the prime meridian. But I will only do it if someone buys me an ice cream while we're there. We can also go look at some awesome maritime artifacts if you want.
posted by fight or flight at 3:38 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Elevation is relative. I feel very elevated at times, and a little low at others. Probably that's why it says "There are no other MetaFilter members nearby, sorry," even here.

I mean, wtf.? I'm just 50km out of Gothenburg, the second largest city in this country. It can't be true.
posted by Namlit at 4:16 AM on July 10, 2013

We've got at least one person in chat who lives on the Aleutian islands.
posted by empath at 4:27 AM on July 10, 2013

We spent a day in Gothenburg recently, tootling around the islands out in the Southern Archipelago. It was amazing, one of the most favourite places I've been so far ever.
posted by shelleycat at 4:55 AM on July 10, 2013

You might be in the running for farthest north, no?

They actually seem to be pretty far south. Scotland and like half of England is further north.
posted by hoyland at 5:14 AM on July 10, 2013

it would be pretty weird for a state to have three or four time zones

Do you know how many time zones there are in the Soviet Union? It's not even funny.
posted by exogenous at 5:41 AM on July 10, 2013

I changed my location to Kurdistan (where I'm on short term assignment) and found no other MeFites nearby. I quickly changed it back to Calgary and felt a little less lonely.
posted by arcticseal at 5:54 AM on July 10, 2013

So, Gringos, where's that massive Ethiopian food/cooking thread then?
posted by digitalprimate at 6:04 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me.

(This is a lie; I was in Portland, ME, once.)
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:10 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

Has anyone heard from Meatbomb lately?
posted by slogger at 6:28 AM on July 10, 2013

I'm reasonably close to the westernmost point of continental Europe.
posted by chavenet at 6:35 AM on July 10, 2013

I live in the Antipodes

I actually work in the Antipodes. Sophia Antipolis, to wit. Just north of Antibes, which comes from the Greek "Antipolis" (thus its recuperation for Sophia Antipolis).

Then I go home to Nike. (Nice. Nikaia.) And I'm originally from Oregon, home of Nike. (The shoes.) I lived in Springfield, the one Groening finally admitted was his inspiration.

*waltzes off*
posted by fraula at 6:53 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I was living on the prime meridian last week.
Now I am not.

But it is better.
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 7:21 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh man, I applied for a job at McMurdo a while ago. If I ever make it there, I will totally have a stage a second mefi meetup in Antarctica!
posted by inertia at 7:48 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm in Qanaaq!

Not really
posted by Mister_A at 8:07 AM on July 10, 2013

I live in a city which, according to our city council website which does not cite sources, has the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe.

I might not live in the highest or lowest or coldest place but I may live in the nicest place!
posted by emilyw at 8:24 AM on July 10, 2013

According to Google Maps, I am The Thing.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 9:12 AM on July 10, 2013

I am the MeFite who lives closest to my side of the bed.
posted by Zed at 9:25 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'm in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, the most easterly city in North America (geographically excluding Greenland) and just under 20km from my house to the most easterly point in North America (Cape Spear). We also have our own time zone with a half-hour deviation from normal standard time (Newfoundland Standard Time = UTC -3:30).

Apparently St. John's gets more fog and rain than anywhere else in Canada. We're also one of the windiest cities in the world. That's not a brag, it kinda sucks sometimes.

Sadly, meetup opportunities are limited here and I have yet meet another MeFite in person. Visitors welcome!
posted by futureisunwritten at 9:43 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I might be the MeFite who lives closest to the Pacific Ocean but is still on the continent. You'd have to live in a hut on the beach to be any closer.
posted by Lynsey at 9:44 AM on July 10, 2013

hahahah @ the Antarctica meet-up map
posted by en forme de poire at 9:49 AM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm willing to wager that I'm the MeFite closest to the geographic center of Washington, DC (it's just down the hall -- there's a large indentation in the (stone) floor from the throngs of people who like to do a little dance on the spot).

So, there's that....
posted by schmod at 10:08 AM on July 10, 2013

Chicago set a few records awhile back.
posted by eamondaly at 10:11 AM on July 10, 2013

I wouldn't call my location "most extreme", but the closest MeFite is listed as 310 miles north of me (ODiV), though Google Maps says it's 445 miles from my town to that city. My town has 3,700 people and the climate is considered "sub-arctic" (the 2.5 months of summer are awesome, though, and you get good at ignoring the bugs). I can drive 5 hours in any direction and see only farmland, reservations, and bush. In the summer I can watch the sun set in the far northwest and come up again a couple of hours later in the far northeast, with only a brief dusk in between. During the long winters it's easy to start to entertain the idea of murdering strangers even while taking copious amounts of vitamin D. But there are the Northern Lights so that helps.

So maybe not extreme, but definitely remote!
posted by mireille at 10:17 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Wow, some of you live in some really interesting places. One of the things I’m most fascinated with is how people end up where they end up. I’m also really curious about the quality of internet service in some of these places.
posted by bongo_x at 10:32 AM on July 10, 2013

I may be the MeFite closest to sea level. According to Wikipedia, the elevation of Long Beach, NY is 0 feet (0 meters). Which is uh, you know, absolutely....ordinary. Oh well.

I'm also about 100 feet from the Atlantic Ocean, but I bet there's others who are closer...
posted by inertia at 10:38 AM on July 10, 2013

I believe I am the MeFite who lives the closest to the site where HP Lovecraft was born. This is fitting, since the summer heat is leaving my skin... well, rugose would be a nice word.
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:48 AM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

HP Lovecraft wasn't born, he was spawned.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:54 AM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

And just as an update - pb says that kml file should be current now. Clicking that link will download it.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 11:31 AM on July 10, 2013

I bet sometimes I'm the highest MeFite. (The sometimes is important.)
posted by Benny Andajetz at 12:16 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Oh man, I applied for a job at McMurdo a while ago. If I ever make it there, I will totally have a stage a second mefi meetup in Antarctica!

I am doing this next March, so if anyone happens to be around here I am totally on board.
posted by psoas at 12:21 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

(Er, um, here.)
posted by psoas at 12:27 PM on July 10, 2013

psoas, that is so badass, I am jealous.
posted by inertia at 12:35 PM on July 10, 2013

I live among the Amish so while I may not be at a geographic extreme, I do live in a technological extreme.

It's not easy to organize a meet-up in an Amish community. Last one was just me and and the stoultzfus of twists and turns, but the milk was really fresh.
posted by Toekneesan at 12:58 PM on July 10, 2013

futureisunwritten, I'll be in SJ in late August for a wedding! We'll have a meetup!
and I grew up in Corner Brook, so don't get any thoughts about calling me a CFA!

I...live nearest the oldest flowing water? That's all I got.
posted by Lemurrhea at 1:05 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I am the most directly above the center of the Earth.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:08 PM on July 10, 2013 [3 favorites]

I see I'm not the only one who lives inside the Soldiers' and Sailors' monument in the center of Indianapolis.

Help. There's not much room in here.
posted by double block and bleed at 1:19 PM on July 10, 2013

Yo.
posted by Meatbomb at 1:27 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

But that means... any one of us could be The Thing.

On the Internet, nobody knows that you're The Thing.
posted by maudlin at 1:28 PM on July 10, 2013

I'm all alone where I live, MetaFilter tells me so. Not a single one of you here.
I think I live somewhere between most extremes. But it's still an interesting place. It's pretty here. Come visit. We have a guest room and a sunny terrace.
posted by ipsative at 1:43 PM on July 10, 2013

So I kept playing with the setting for what "nearby" means. All alone until 2003 miles, and that member (Robert Frost) is in... Japan. Makes one feel a little isolated.

[Although, I'm not sure that feature quite works because Anchorage is closer than Japan and there are definitely Anchorage MeFites...]
posted by charmcityblues at 2:28 PM on July 10, 2013

schmod: "I'm willing to wager that I'm the MeFite closest to the geographic center of Washington, DC (it's just down the hall -- there's a large indentation in the (stone) floor from the throngs of people who like to do a little dance on the spot).

So, there's that...."

Is it the center if DC were actually a square? Or the center of mass (if density is constant or something)?
posted by hoyland at 3:27 PM on July 10, 2013

Y'all live in some interesting places!

Can I crash on your couch?
posted by maryr at 4:12 PM on July 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Squares have centers.
posted by maryr at 4:12 PM on July 10, 2013

...Although given my location, I may have a distorted definition of square.
posted by maryr at 4:19 PM on July 10, 2013

I'm all alone where I live, MetaFilter tells me so. Not a single one of you here.
posted by ipsative
You need to increase your nearby field in your profile - e.g. michael ka has you as nearby.
posted by unliteral at 4:53 PM on July 10, 2013 [2 favorites]

And just as an update - pb says that kml file should be current now.
Why does a disabled account with no location in their profile still appear on Google Earth?
posted by unliteral at 4:58 PM on July 10, 2013

I'm not sure exactly what the file contains. When an account is disabled, the profile information is all hidden, so my guess would be that was the account's stated location before it was disabled. And, just from this account, we can guess that the file includes disabled accounts. But I'll ask pb.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 5:03 PM on July 10, 2013

maryr: "Squares have centers."

Missing word... "as if DC were actually a square". DC was conceived of as a square, but ended up not square.
posted by hoyland at 6:03 PM on July 10, 2013

I live in a city which, according to our city council website which does not cite sources, has the highest ratio of trees to people of any city in Europe.

I might not live in the highest or lowest or coldest place but I may live in the nicest place!

It is, however, the slopeyist place on earth. If you walk up to Stanedge and fall backward, you don't stop rolling til the Wicker.
posted by Jehan at 6:28 PM on July 10, 2013

Yes, disabled accounts were showing up in the KML file—that was a mistake. The current version of the file should be up-to-date and it will be correct going forward.
posted by pb (staff) at 6:38 PM on July 10, 2013

I think adipocere has the lowest covered - Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.
posted by unliteral at 7:54 PM on July 10, 2013

I'm in Perth nowadays, but for most of 2011 I was living in American Samoa (and nearby islands). We did a meetup and drank beers whilst looking over Pago Pago harbour and feeding sashimi to the resident bar cat.
posted by Alice Russel-Wallace at 7:57 PM on July 10, 2013

64.8N, checking in. Apparently there are several MeFites nearby...but no recent activity from most of them. (And that's if "nearby" is 900 miles. If I expand to 1700 miles or so, then I have lots of "nearby" folks in Vancouver and Alberta and stuff. But I couldn't ever find charmcityblues in the Aleutians listed as being nearby. They're long. )
posted by leahwrenn at 11:38 PM on July 10, 2013

11! thank you unliteral!
posted by ipsative at 1:35 AM on July 11, 2013

... and 101 others.

this is embarrassing.

I need to learn how to read.
posted by ipsative at 1:39 AM on July 11, 2013

So, Gringos, where's that massive Ethiopian food/cooking thread then?

I’m not a huge fan of Ethiopian cuisine. It’s okay but I wouldn’t want to eat it every day.

Anyhow, the only things people tend to know about Ethiopia are the food, the famine, and maybe the women. I’d rather do a post on something that most people don’t know about.
posted by Gringos Without Borders at 2:48 AM on July 11, 2013

It's 14 blocks from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean here. Does that count?
posted by halfbuckaroo at 3:58 AM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

halfbuckaroo: "It's 14 blocks from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean here. Does that count?"

Florida keys, I would guess? Regardless, very cool, just watch out for sea level rise.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 4:00 AM on July 11, 2013

I’m also really curious about the quality of internet service in some of these places.

Nairobi, Kenya, currently. 4 meg line, unlimited bandwith (though traffic shaped), 99% uptime. About £20/$30 a month.
posted by Hobo at 9:44 AM on July 11, 2013

-Hobo

Interesting. I entertain thoughts of moving somewhere far away, but rely on broadband for work now. So everywhere I look I’m thinking "I wonder how the internet is there?"
posted by bongo_x at 10:42 AM on July 11, 2013

> I see I'm not the only one who lives inside the Soldiers' and Sailors' monument in the center of Indianapolis

Google Maps used to show me living at the tippy-top of the Space Needle, but I seem to have fallen.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:32 PM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Yessssss... this thread inspired me to move to the Revolutionary War powder house of rotary-fame up the street. Sweet.
posted by maryr at 4:14 PM on July 11, 2013

I live in the center of a big Pacific Northwest city. I'm sitting at my dining room table and can see 2 different domiciles of Mefites through the window. I am officially the least extremely located Mefite.

I am usually the least sober mefite as well.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 6:33 PM on July 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

We all live in a yellow submarine.



A yellow submarine.




A yellow submarine.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:25 AM on July 12, 2013

You remind me of a man from the land where I was born.
posted by maryr at 8:45 AM on July 12, 2013 [1 favorite]

You mean in the TOWN where you were born?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:41 PM on July 12, 2013

Eh, sure. I'm more a fan of Ringo's work on Shining Time Station.
posted by maryr at 8:59 AM on July 13, 2013 [2 favorites]

I'm a stickler for lyric accuracy.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:38 PM on July 13, 2013