SwitchIt - Turn Your World Upside Down
September 22, 2010 12:58 PM Subscribe
SwitchIt - Turn Your World Upside Down
Enter a town or city and click SwitchIt to see a list of towns and cities on the same latitude but in the opposite hemisphere.
The idea for this came about last year when I was travelling through Patagonia in Argentina. The town of El Bolson makes a big deal about being situated on the 42ยบ Latitude South and it struck me that I didn't know what was on the corresponding Latitude North. Now the geography nerd in me has a way of finding out.
For towns/cities in the US you need to add a comma and the 2 letter state code, eg "Portland, OR", for everywhere else, just the city/town name, no country needed. If you enter a place not in the database it gets saved and I'll go through them and add new places manually.
As every site needs a quiz, I've also added a quiz and, once you've switched, the ability to see towns and cities on the same latitude as your town.
Enter a town or city and click SwitchIt to see a list of towns and cities on the same latitude but in the opposite hemisphere.
The idea for this came about last year when I was travelling through Patagonia in Argentina. The town of El Bolson makes a big deal about being situated on the 42ยบ Latitude South and it struck me that I didn't know what was on the corresponding Latitude North. Now the geography nerd in me has a way of finding out.
For towns/cities in the US you need to add a comma and the 2 letter state code, eg "Portland, OR", for everywhere else, just the city/town name, no country needed. If you enter a place not in the database it gets saved and I'll go through them and add new places manually.
As every site needs a quiz, I've also added a quiz and, once you've switched, the ability to see towns and cities on the same latitude as your town.
Cool! I think it would be even better if you included a large zoomed-out map of the globe with the places found by SwitchIt marked.
posted by Salvor Hardin at 4:56 AM on September 23, 2010
posted by Salvor Hardin at 4:56 AM on September 23, 2010
Heh. Of course, I enter Chicago and get ... El Bolson.
Cool idea. Nicely done.
posted by veggieboy at 1:21 PM on September 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Cool idea. Nicely done.
posted by veggieboy at 1:21 PM on September 23, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh my god, I made something like this way back before the Milennium and it got tanked thanks to data tightening post-9/11. Yay to see something like it again. Nice work.
posted by jessamyn at 9:01 AM on September 25, 2010
posted by jessamyn at 9:01 AM on September 25, 2010
Antipodr is a another version of the dig through the earth idea.
posted by jontyjago at 5:04 PM on September 25, 2010
posted by jontyjago at 5:04 PM on September 25, 2010
Huh. Belfast :: Ushuaia. That Gulf Stream is kee-razy.
posted by kittyprecious at 2:58 PM on September 26, 2010
posted by kittyprecious at 2:58 PM on September 26, 2010
I love this idea. In execution, I was expecting a map of the opposition, side-by-side with the entered location. Also, you might want to improve your location parsing (los angeles ca didn't process, while Los Angeles, CA did, and with google maps et al parsing the location data so well, you'll have to keep pace or improve the way you notify users of the requirement.)
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posted by davejay at 11:45 PM on October 17, 2010
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posted by davejay at 11:45 PM on October 17, 2010
How interesting; your results for Los Angeles CA actually list some land, while Antipodr (which has the side-by-side maps and better text parsing, btw) puts the opposing location somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Makes me wonder which one's accurate.
posted by davejay at 11:46 PM on October 17, 2010
posted by davejay at 11:46 PM on October 17, 2010
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posted by gomichild at 6:07 PM on September 22, 2010