• weariedfae@lemmy.worldEnglish
    691·
    14 days ago

    As someone of the earth sciences it is my opinion that whoever drew this has exactly zero understanding of “natural geographic borders”.

      • imaqtpieAEnglish
        2·
        6 days ago

        Nobody got time for that. But yeah this map seems to be more or less randomly generated, it messes with a lot of borders that are already geographically defined. Seems like they just made everything into an irregular shape and assumed people wouldn’t look too closely.

        US states were in large part created to reflect natural geographic divisions already. They were frequently drawn up on maps before having any significant population centers, so geographical boundaries were the primary focus. A secondary focus being equality, so not making any state too big or small relative to its neighbors.

    • Rooskie91@discuss.onlineEnglish
      29·
      14 days ago

      Right??? This map changes borders that are already based on rivers and natural geographical features.

    • acockworkorange@mander.xyzEnglish
      23·
      14 days ago

      The fact that the Mississippi River isn’t being used as a border anymore in some states bother me. But I’d love to see your take.

    • ItsPlasmaSir@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

      100% agree. As an Oregonian, that border on the Willamette made me wanna cry. Literally no consideration of nature or people with that boundary, and yet it’s called a “natural border”.

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

      Looking at Long Island, I find it interesting that they chose the Hudson River as a natural boundary but apparently Long Island Sound is no big deal

      I can’t figure out what Rhode Island’s border is meant to be but it apparently doesn’t include Rhode Island

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      13 days ago

      I guess it worked for Kansas City, right? Be prepared for NYC NY, vs NYC CT

      • lemming741@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        13 days ago

        I get why rivers and creeks and streams were historically convenient borders, but when we started building cities along them it got weird. Then some mf’er invented the bridge and it all went to hell.

    • Klypto@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      13 days ago

      Deleware River that is as wide as a 33+ lane highway is not a natural border? Wacky.

    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      Mine now. We’ll combine it with Atlantic City and make Gotham which will somehow take up like the entire south part of the state together.

  • agamemnonymousEnglish
    12·
    13 days ago

    My heart wants to like this on principle because that’s how geography should be divided, but it looks like garbage. I never really stopped before to appreciate how tidy and professional those arbitrary perpendicular lines look.

  • Th4tGuyII@fedia.io
    12·
    14 days ago

    Asking the Colonial powers to not make weirdly straight unnatural borders is like asking Russia to stop invading occupying it’s neighbours land

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

      NH missed the opportunity of the Merrimack River as a border…… plus the Saint Laurence Seaway up north, oui?

    • pseudo@jlai.luEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

      I find it beautiful. Something in my subcountious doesn’t compute borders in straight line

      • JackbyDev@programming.devEnglish
        4·
        13 days ago

        I can definitely see the Mississippi River still, so I don’t think it’s watersheds. Unless they’re using peaks and troughs both. I’m sure there’s a term for it. My understanding of water shed is that it means everything that flows into a river so a river would be in the middle. So the borders of watersheds are more like mountains than rivers.

    • funkless_eckEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      well the bottom of Georgia has a weird tab sticking out usually because of a river border, so I assume you’re right