The Degree Confluence Project
Category: Just Plain Silly...
Posted Wednesday, July 09, 2003 at 01:22 PM [GMT-6]

From Jessica's Well comes this latest entry in the "Delusions of Significance" category. The goal of the "Degree Confluence Project" is "to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location." An integer degree intersection, in case you're wondering, is any whole number lat and long coordinate. For example, there's one just outside of Midland, at 32°N 102°W, in the middle of a rather drab alfalfa (when it rains) field.

According to the website, there's a confluence no farther than 49 miles from you, if you happen to reside upon the face of the planet. (If you're thinking that whoever came up with this idea was apparently not bound by this qualification, you should be ashamed of yourself.)

In what can only be viewed as sweet irony, Midland's antipode -- the confluence on the opposite side of the globe (32°S 78°E) -- is as yet unvisited, as it falls somewhere in the Indian Ocean, some 400 miles from the nearest patch of dirt.