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Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

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Re: Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

#241

Post by lazide »

hef19898 wrote: post #178
seanhunter wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In TFA he tries the geodesic line first before trying the various projections. It doesnt' really fit any of them because even with these extremely cherry-picked seven points, you can't retcon them into having been designed to be in a line when they weren't.

Take a small enough map or globe and a big enough sharpy anf everything is on a line. Agree so, there is no line besides the one people make up.

I wonder what the width is in miles of a chisel tip sharpie on a beach ball sized globe. 100?

Re: Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

#242

Post by buescher »

cryptonector wrote: post #193
buescher wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s historically rooted in Protestant anti-Catholicism, and the most popular version in America of it comes from Washington Irving.

I was taught the same thing by Catholics in Buenos Aires.

Well, now you know where they got it from.

Re: Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

#243

Post by forgotpwd16 »

bowsamic wrote: post #206

What’s with the use of “we” everywhere?

"Authorial we" is/was common in academic writing although its usage has declined nowadays. Shouldn't be mixed with "royal we". Rather it's meant to specify "the author and the reader", that is "I and you" (even if what you do is basically follow along an already done work).

Re: Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

#246

Post by CoffeeOnWrite »

larsrc wrote: post #156
egypturnash wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an interesting point. Wikipedia's page on St. Michael's Sword describes it as "monasteries and other sacred sites" and also notes that they are also "almost all located on prominent hilltops". Only four of the seven locations show up on Wikipedia's list of "churches dedicated to Saint Michael" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_(archangel)#Churches_d... ). Also worth noting: "[Michael's] churches were of…

I would say the next logical step is figuring out the probability that with this many points, what is the likelihood of 7 of them being this close to being on a line? We can assume a uniform random distribution on the unit circle or square for simplicity.

Erm human population is pretty far from uniform, and is a certain population threshold is a pre-requisite for building one of these sites.

Re: Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

#247

Post by fwungy »

SebastianoF wrote: post #222

Hello! Being the author of the blog post commented here, I'm glad it became food for thoughts. Here a few of the salient points: > They are not cathedrals! True! As I learned after writing the blog post, a Cathedral is not simply a large church. As written in several comments there has to be a bishop. > Fallacy of using other projection than the Mercator one. It was known that they are "visually" aligned on the Merca…

Would it be hard to try this on the Azimuthal Equidistant projection?

Re: Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

#248

Post by abofh »

throw_pm23 wrote: post #223
pbmonster wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shitty life-hacks: you can ballpark converting from Celsius to Fahrenheit by multiplying by 2!

This life-hack is significantly improved if you change it to: C->F: multiply by 2, then add 30 F->C: subtract 30, then divide by 2.

At room temperatures, the +32 is significant, at cooking temperatures, who's oven is even accurate to 16/32 degrees? It depends on if knowing the "right" answer is more important than knowing an answer that will get you to what you want e.g., tasty muffins rather than charcoal briquettes :)

Re: Saint Michael Sword: Are the cathedrals really on a straight line?

#249

Post by araes »

SebastianoF wrote: post #222

Hello! Being the author of the blog post commented here, I'm glad it became food for thoughts. Here a few of the salient points: > They are not cathedrals! True! As I learned after writing the blog post, a Cathedral is not simply a large church. As written in several comments there has to be a bishop. > Fallacy of using other projection than the Mercator one. It was known that they are "visually" aligned on the Merca…

Huh. I think St. Michael might be clever. The second line goes through areas where there are many Michael named locations. Often disproportionately.

Cyprus: https://www.google.com/maps/search/st.+michael/@34.8439762,3...

Rhodos: https://www.google.com/maps/search/st.+michael/@36.5898973,2...

Thessaloniki: https://www.google.com/maps/search/st.+michael/@40.9052893,2...

Croatia: https://www.google.com/maps/search/st.+michael/@44.8895084,1...

Switzerland: https://www.google.com/maps/search/st.+michael/@47.0545837,8...

France, almost right through Paris notably: https://www.google.com/maps/search/st.+michael/@48.823467,2....

England, Exeter area (bunch of Michael churches): https://www.google.com/maps/search/st.+michael/@50.7123109,-...

Many are actually kind of notable in that they bunch fairly near the geodesic like in Croatia. They might be the birthday paradox, definitely a possibility. Yet quite a bit of clustering along that route.

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