# Things that people get Very Wrong **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 12, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958 "2012-07-12T02:18:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/141 "2012-07-16T15:35:21Z")
New York City gets more rain than Seattle. A lot of places do. But there, it all seems to come down at once. Here, it comes down slowly over a long period. I’m telecommuting today (the office in Seattle is like 110 miles away), and I’m looking out my back door. It’s 8:30 in the morning, so it’s still early. I can see some sun, and the temperature is about 15.6ºC. We had rain yesterday. People do go to the beaches here, though kayaking seems more popular than swimming. Where I live, the bay is famous for its shallowness. At low tide you can walk out about half a mile before getting to the water. At high tide you can walk a long distance and only be waist-deep. The shallow water is relatively warm in Summer. It’s a popular holiday spot, especially for Canadians. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/142 "2012-07-16T15:59:56Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Tourists frequently ask for a town’s elevation? Really? Who on earth, stupid or smart, would be interested in that, or think to ask that question? Pretty much anyone one from the Mountain West…Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, or Northern New Mexico for sure. Canukians probably too, though I don’t know anyone from Alberta. If you are raised in Colorado, as I was, this is pretty normal…people with health issues or even just diesel powered vehicles need to be concerned when a town is at 9’000’ MSL ([Silverton](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverton,_Colorado)) or God help them, 10,000’+ ([Leadville](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silverton,_Colorado)). The altitude is a big part of the tourist draw. Beyond that, a Coloradoan will inquire as to the altitude to get a handle on how severe the winter weather would be, and if they could even go there in January. Also, when you grow up in a state with thousands of feet of elevation differences, and none of it anywhere near sea level, you never, ever, develop a sense that sea-level is, for much of the world, the default altitude where people live. It is just an abstract reference, with no relation to daily life, much like absolute zero. I might have asked the altitude of Nome, if it were a “making conversation” situation where I didn’t really think about what what I was asking. It is not surprising that you asked, though. Automotive engineers designing things that worked poorly in the world above Detroit was standard. Electronic fuel injection that properly compensates for altitude has improved the air quality in Denver by an (estimated) order of magnitude since I lived there in the 1970’s…and there is probably at least 3X the traffic as compared to back then. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/143 "2012-07-16T16:25:55Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > People who think the US federal government created the states and can tell them what to do. But it did. And it can. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/144 "2012-07-16T16:34:15Z")
I have a friend from Maine who says it’s the most northerly state of the contiguous forty-eight. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/145 "2012-07-16T17:16:13Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > I have a friend from Maine who says it’s the most northerly state of the contiguous forty-eight. Well, it’s darned close. I don’t think this is such a bad mistake…although it’s rather worse than it would otherwise be because he’s _from_ Maine. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/146 "2012-07-16T18:13:30Z")
There are five states in the 48 that are more northerly than Maine. At least 110 miles so according to Google Earth. My guess is my friend is another victim of certain map projections. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/147 "2012-07-16T20:49:57Z")
Speaking of Seattle … and latitude. In a TV show set in Seattle, a character mentioned someone going “up to New Hampshire”. All of New Hampshire is further south than Seattle. But that’s nothing compared to the horrors so many people are posting. It really is going to take a lot longer than we thought. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/148 "2012-07-16T21:26:54Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > There are five states in the 48 that are more northerly than Maine. At least 110 miles so according to Google Earth. > > My guess is my friend is another victim of certain map projections. Yeah, he can be forgiven for thinking that. > **[File:Maine in United States.svg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maine_in_United_States.svg)** > > Original file (SVG file, nominally 1,181 × 731 pixels, file size: 3.46 MB) > This SVG map is part of a locator map series applying the widespread location map scheme. Please see root category to browse for more. বাংলা ∙ Deutsch ∙ Deutsch (Sie-Form) ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ English ∙ español ∙ français ∙ Ἀρχαία ἑλληνικὴ ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ 日本語 ∙ македонски ∙ Nederlands ∙ português ∙ русский ∙ Türkçe ∙ 简体中文 ∙ 繁體中文 ∙ +/− > Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/149 "2012-07-16T22:46:37Z")
\*\* > [@](#): > > My fear is that the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize. \*\* The gentleman from Georgia had probably seen the episode of “Gilligan’s Island” where the castaways thought the island was sinking. I wasn’t, of course; Gilligan just kept moving the measuring rod farther out into the lagoon every day to catch bigger lobsters (he used it to anchor his lobster traps). 😃 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/150 "2012-07-16T22:49:02Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Speaking of Seattle … and latitude. In a TV show set in Seattle, a character mentioned someone going “up to New Hampshire”. All of New Hampshire is further south than Seattle. Was the show “Frasier”? If it was, that could have been a reference to his time at “Cheers!” which was set in Boston, MA. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/151 "2012-07-16T22:50:35Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > But it did. And it can. No, it didn’t. And it shouldn’t be able to. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/152 "2012-07-17T01:00:51Z")
[looks at terentii’s profile. it says, “Moscow/Toronto”] … You’re in\* Canada.\* I’m from the USA, I have picked up some sense of the history of settling the west. The original 13 colonies may have formed the union, but most of the rest were pretty much formed out of US territories that were under the federal government to begin with. They are the creatures of the nation, not the other way around. [/hijack] A friend of mine who is actually pretty intelligent once insisted that human beings couldn’t change the climate, because the Earth was too big for us to affect. But a couple of years later, we were talking about sci-fi weaponry, and he thought it was plausible to engineer a planet-killing cataclysm by accelerating an asteroid. Well, which is it? ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/153 "2012-07-17T03:07:09Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > No, it didn’t. And it shouldn’t be able to. OK, answer me this: how does a state become a state? Did Alaska just wish really hard in 1959? Did Hawaii change its stationary and everyone shrugged, said “ok” and they changed the flag? Even the original 13 colonies were just that. Colonies. Not states. It’s not a semantic difference. How does a state become a state? I’ll give you a clue. It starts with “Federal” and ends with “Governme” And with that statehood comes an obligation to obey Federal Law. I’d give you a pass on this since you’re apparently in Canada, but you responded to me. This whole hierarchical system is pretty well established in US law and Constitutional power. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/154 "2012-07-17T03:20:11Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Did Hawaii change its stationary… I think it was established in this thread that islands don’t float around. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/155 "2012-07-18T19:25:08Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > This whole hierarchical system is pretty well established in US law and Constitutional power. Not to mention the labors of Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, et. al. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/156 "2012-07-18T21:06:05Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > There are five states in the 48 that are more northerly than Maine. At least 110 miles so according to Google Earth. > > My guess is my friend is another victim of certain map projections. One of my favorite trivia questions is which U.S. State is closest to Africa? Maine! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/157 "2012-07-19T04:34:53Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > And with that statehood comes an obligation to obey Federal Law. . . . This whole hierarchical system is pretty well established in US law and Constitutional power. An excellent demonstration of _Very Wrong:_ there’s nothing hierarchical about the US federal system. The federal government has no power—none—that it wasn’t specifically granted _by the states._ The federal government may not make any demand of a state except in areas (such as raising of armies, coinage of money, voting rights, or due process) that the states have approved as part of the Constitution. In many areas, such as the conduct of citizens, the federal government has no power at all. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2012, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958/158 "2012-07-19T04:41:48Z")
OK, I think it’s time to take this hijack into Great Debates, where it will continue without resolution. Go on, start a thread over there, we’ll catch up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-people-get-very-wrong/627958.md?page=7)