The U.S. is more than just the US (according to the ISO)
22 points by jumex
22 points by jumex
Reads
Encounters AI-generated image of an island with a sign on it that says 'island', pointing, incredulously, away from the island
Sighs, closes tab
There are so many public domain photos of actual atolls, why not use one?
And a bad projection of a world map, ridiculously centred on Africa rather than the Pacific Ocean or even USA, admittedly generated by ChatGPT after multiple bad attempts, that looks a little off in places but it’s hard to judge because of the stupid projection, and we’re supposed to trust that the places marked are correct?
sigh. I guess I can remove the ai picutres. I just thought it was silly when I googled "island with a palm tree on it" I got that silly picture.
There. Fixed. No AI images anymore. All those words are my own.
I mean, it's your blog. Do what you will. I just think it's worth noting that a lot of people take AI-generated imagery as a marker of poor quality or a disregard for the time of the reader. Perhaps that's not true in this specific case, but I think it's worth noting. Thanks, by the way :)
As an aside, I did enjoy the post!
No, I appreciate your feedback. I don't want AI images to detour from the article. It is a good callout.
I once tried to solve the similar problem of identifying places that are “US states”, at least in the sense of having “state” postal abbreviations the US postal service will accept for delivery.
"Falsehoods programmers believe about geography"
I think I could rework this Coupling Language and Geography into "falsehoods programmers believe about geography" since I could never figure out how to land the core conceit at the end.
The slop on this article really sucks, but it touches on a fascinating subject. One of my favorite non-fiction books I've read in recent years is How to Hide an Empire, which goes into great detail about the US possessions outside the "logo map". Fun fact, many of the islands they staked a claim to were claimed due to their rich guano deposits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guano_Islands_Act
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250251091/howtohideanempire/
Slop removed by popular demand. :)
OMG, that book looks so interesting! I'm buying it right now!
How does it work for the antarctica bases? Do they appear as US on maxmind?
That's a really good question. I'll dig around.
How does it work for the antarctica bases? Do they appear as US on maxmind?
From what I found searching around, it is based on the IP ranges of the bases themselves (McMurdo, Amundsen-Scott, Palmer, etc.). I think all the Military bases clock as US, but if you are outside their jurisdiction, Antarctica is AQ. Though I wonder what, if any, IP ranges are registered under that country code.