Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

twitter.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 182 posts

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#121

Post by thereddaikon »

thriftwy wrote: post #109
agapon wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russian troll detected.

Seriously though, all of these russophobic eastern european countries are like: "Russia took our lands". First of all, it was not Russia but USSR who took your lands; second, USSR did not give these lands to Russia (even in the form of RSFSR) but to other russophobic eastern european countries . You are grown-ups now. Sort it out between yourselves.

Russia is officially the successor state of the USSR. So legally yes, the USSR is Russia in so far as anyone cares for the purposes of assigning blame.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#122

Post by irrational »

bag_boy wrote: post #118
whycombinetor wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's heartbreakingly tragic about this? Your statements reads as if a county having a high percentage of African American residents is negative.

Most of African Americans who live in the BB are descendants of slaves. They didn’t want to be in the black belt.

Do they want to be in Africa? I doubt it. Slavery is bad, but that doesn’t mean it is tragic that the descendants of those slaves are living in America.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#123

Post by irrational »

test1235 wrote: post #33
thinkingemote wrote: post #7

Peeve: To cause to be annoyed or resentful. synonym: annoy. These are not pet peeves at all, they are the persons pet loves. All examples are a type of "look at this great example, designed not to annoy or cause resentment at all, just the opposite! Aren't they cool and amazing?"

Author admits his mistake: François Valentin @Valen10Francois · 16h I realize that I've used that word completely incorrectly for ages! https://twitter.com/Valen10Francois/status/15241607219023544...

Thank you for the link. I too was confused how this could possibly be a pet peeve. I wonder what term he actually meant? Pet project?

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#124

Post by lrem »

hammock wrote: post #46
alephxyz wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more of a weak indirect correlation between historical map -> economic prosperity -> political preferences. The modern political maps for France, Germany, Portugal and Romania at least are essentially proxies for GDP per capita (not sure about the others).

One might add something to the front of your analysis, as maps don't form out of thin air. In fact, those lines on a map are formally called "political borders." historical governance -> historical map & economic prosperity -> political preferences

Political borders also don't just happen to be drawn on a piece of paper. They tend to snap to physical barriers, mostly rivers and mountain ranges.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#125

Post by tomrod »

bag_boy wrote: post #120
fsckboy wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> heart-breakingly tragic African Americans are glad to be living in the US, and they're deeply enmeshed in the fabric of American society. Slavery was a bad part of history (and of the present where it still exists) but it's not more "heart-breakingly tragic" that a large number of African Americans today live on fertile land in the Old South any moreso than a large number of Aficans living on all sorts of land incl…

I did not know that African Americans got together, had a vote, and decided that they’re happy to live in the US!

Or that they voted that living in the South is tragic!

In fact, let's take a step back instead of escalating the point. OP used a weird term for the context without qualifying the tragedy. Yes, slavery and other systemic abuses existed and we see echoes and displays of it today. That is tragic. But the simple fact where people live isn't tragic. It's the why they live where they live, to a degree.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#126

Post by oceanplexian »

Spellman wrote: post #83
api wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is important to know what those reasons are before attempting to modify the things. People misinterpret Chesterton's fence as an argument against changing things, but it's actually just about what I quoted above. It has no verdict on whether or not something should be changed. It just argues that you should make a strong effort to figure out why it is how it is before attempting to do so. I'd argue that if you d…

Yup. I've often seen Chesterson's Fence trotted out as an argument to never change anything. Or at least place onerous burden of proof on the new change to prove itself. However, some times the circumstances that gave rise to the fence are gone! You still need to do the work to show that this is true, or at least some best effort. But if after a cursory check there is no compelling reason, retorting "ah but there may…

The problem with Charleston's fence is that most of the time the reason the fence needs to be removed isn't "I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.", but that the fence is actively a problem.

Unfortunately, I've seen this play out too many times. There is a trivial fence in the way of solving an expensive problem. Instead of taking action, months, or years pass trying to over- analyze the different ways to take down the fence. Since no one takes any action, the fence falls down on its own, causing severe outages and thousands, or millions of dollars in collateral damage.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#127

Post by tshaddox »

whycombinetor wrote: post #115
daveslash wrote: post #39

Something similar that I find both fascinating and heart-breakingly tragic: The "Black Belt" in the U.S. Deep South. The Black Belt is both a geological term used to refer to the rich & dark soil [0] and a geopolitical term to refer to the high percentage of African Americans [1]. During the Cretaceous period, the shore-line at the time ran through the middle of Alabama and Mississippi, depositing rich organic deposi…

What's heartbreakingly tragic about this? Your statements reads as if a county having a high percentage of African American residents is negative.

It's the chattel slavery that's tragic.

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#128

Post by diordiderot »

odiroot wrote: post #86

Ironically, the first map with Poland although very popular (it comes up on Reddit on a weekly basis) doesn't explain much. It's the part not shown there that matters. The Russian partition (and to a lesser extent Austrian one) was the cause of the area in blue being poor and underdeveloped. There was nothing particularly great in being under Prussian (German) occupation. It's that Russian occupation was so much wors…

It seems you make a claim in the first paragraph... Then provide reasoning to dispute it in the second?

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#129

Post by Robelius »

irrational wrote: post #122
bag_boy wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of African Americans who live in the BB are descendants of slaves. They didn’t want to be in the black belt.

Do they want to be in Africa? I doubt it. Slavery is bad, but that doesn’t mean it is tragic that the descendants of those slaves are living in America.

I think bag_boy was trying to highlight the tragedy that we can still see direct effects of slavery in the United States, not that it's tragic that descendants of Africans live in America

Re: When old historic maps overlap with modern political maps

#130

Post by mistermann »

irrational wrote: post #122
bag_boy wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of African Americans who live in the BB are descendants of slaves. They didn’t want to be in the black belt.

Do they want to be in Africa? I doubt it. Slavery is bad, but that doesn’t mean it is tragic that the descendants of those slaves are living in America.

It isn't absolutely tragic, but there is surely some tragedy within the overall story, including in some lingering after effects.
Post reply on HN