29514: Leiderman: comment: Pliche's neighbors (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

Stuart Leiderman <leiderman@mindspring.com>

15 November 2006

dear Jon and readers:

thanks for the followup about Pliche, the location of Jaqueline Charles' article and photographs in the Miami Herald, November 14: <http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/16005895.htm>   yes, I guess we're in a cusp these days where the old latitude and longitude measurements (sixty seconds to a minute and sixty minutes to a degree) and the decimal-based Global Positioning System (GPS) are on the scene at the same time.  I was just surprised to see the GPS given down to 7 decimal places.

according to <http://plantwatch.sunsite.ualberta.ca/determineloc.php> the nice
Plantwatch website (where there's a link to Haiti = Port-au-Prince: 18Â 33' North, 72Â 20' West) -- "On the surface of earth, one degree of latitude is about 110 kilometers (69 miles)."  this means 69 mi/degree x 5280 feet/mile = 354,320 feet.  so dividing that by seven decimals I think brings you to a spot plus or minus a few inches.  on the longitude side, the distance between units is a little less for Haiti, being somewhat more than a thousand miles above the equator, but still in the inch range.  talk about not seeing the forest for the trees...those numbers could put you in someone's bed or on top of their refrigerator.

I went back to the Falling Rain site and found Cavaillon at 18.3 North and -73.65 West, at 360 feet elevation and population 38387.  that places Pliche to Cavaillon's southeast, quite uphill and just a little less populated.  but then I found <http://nona.net/features/map/placedetail.2386911/Pliche/#>  the real picture started to sink in: "distance to places near Pliche, Haiti :: // 0.4km to Argan // 0.4km to Bory // 0.4km to Josà // 1.1km to Gargite // 1.3km to Nan Seau // 1.5km to Bobis // 1.5km to Polain // 1.7km to Carrefour Libo // 1.7km to Robuste // 1.9km to Bellevue // 1.9km to Poliard // 2.2km to Petin // 2.3km to Bonne Fin // 2.3km to Manoir // 2.3km to Buris // 2.6km to Piron // 2.7km to Rombeau // 2.8km to Ducourt // 2.9km to Plaisance // 3.0km to SÃnac // 3.3km to Desforges // 3.3km to Caducou // 3.3km to Biston // 3.6km to Rousseau // 3.7km to Fourreau // 3.7km to Tetu // 3.6km to Mandon // 3.7km to Libo // 3.8km to Carrefour Gras [all distances 'as the bird f
 lies' and approximate]"

thanks again,

Stuart Leiderman
leiderman@mindspring.com