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Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by pchristensen on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:35AM (#1581113)
Don't forget Isle Royale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_Royale#Interior_lakes

"Siskiwit Lake, largest lake on the island; cold, deep, clear, and relatively low in nutrients. Siskiwit Lake contains several islands, including Ryan Island, the largest therein, which itself contains Moose Flats, a seasonal pond, which contains Moose Boulder. When Moose Flats is a pond, Moose Boulder becomes the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake in the world."

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by btilly on Friday August 06, 2010 @12:56PM (#1581574)
I know this is straight from Wikipedia, but it is incorrect because the Caspian Sea is the largest lake. If you measure by volume, lake Baikal is the largest freshwater lake. If you measure by area, lakes Michigan and Huron are technically one lake, and that lake is larger than Superior.

So there are a lot of reasons to dispute that Superior is the largest lake in the world.

All the rest is true though. :-)

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by pchristensen on Friday August 06, 2010 @03:22PM (#1582066)
I know, but it's so much fun to say :)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by vibragiel on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:23AM (#1580826)
Somebody should go to Vulcan point in Crater Lake and pee so we could have the largest lake on an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island :-)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by Groxx on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:07AM (#1580897)
And then throw a pebble in the puddle for N+1 goodness.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by mahmud on Friday August 06, 2010 @03:05PM (#1582011)
Yo dog, I put a drop on your pebble.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by Groxx on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:03PM (#1582705)
Oh no you di'n't! (lots of apostrophes for that)

I put a piece of dust on yo drop.

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by maw on Friday August 06, 2010 @11:28AM (#1581274)
Oh, go jump in a lake in an island in a lake in an island in ...
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by mcxx on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:07AM (#1580894)
But then you'd have to use 3 ferries to get there.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by vmind on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:26AM (#1580832)
Just lakes and islands, all the way down.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by jiganti on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:37AM (#1580850)
Classic example of where records are set down to the point where the definitions get hazy.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by niels_bom on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:38AM (#1581124)
Funny, the Elbruz site is made by my employer (http://www.mijnlieff.nl/index.php?c=wie&p=arie&pc=&#...)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by andrewingram on Friday August 06, 2010 @02:50PM (#1581955)
I like this, its awesomeness increase proportionally to its silliness.

It's also interesting that even on a planet as big (or objectively as small) as ours, you can only go a few levels deep with this kind of research.

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by asmosoinio on Friday August 06, 2010 @01:03PM (#1581592)
The Volcano Lake at Taal is a pretty interesting place -- it is a volcano, with the smallish crater lake, all inside the crater of a bigger volcano. Went there last year, a beautiful place.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by AlexMuir on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:23AM (#1581085)
How would you even go about finding this data out?
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by mattcole on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:24AM (#1580921)
How is Australia not an island? It's way bigger than Greenland.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by RiderOfGiraffes on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:50AM (#1580988)
For those who are interested in size comparisons, here's an interesting projection of the globe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dymaxion_map_unfolded.png

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by senki on Friday August 06, 2010 @11:49AM (#1581342)
An interactive version:

http://teczno.com/faumaxion-II/

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by winthrowe on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:35AM (#1580952)
perhaps because it has it's own tectonic plate and thus is no longer just an island?
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by DrJokepu on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:48AM (#1580977)
Using this logic, Eurasia could be considered an island as well. You have to draw the line somewhere. They're all empiric definitions anyway.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by colinprince on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:34AM (#1580946)
In the english speaking world we refer to Australia as a continent, but I just saw a kid's encyclopedia from France which refers to Australia as an island.

There oughtta be 7 continents; without Aust there'd only be 6 :(

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by die_sekte on Friday August 06, 2010 @03:14PM (#1582047)
In Germany Australia technically belongs to Oceania which includes Australia, New Zealand and all those tiny islands. Could be the same in France.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by mattcole on Wednesday August 11, 2010 @03:32PM (#1595787)
It's really no big deal, but in Australia as kids we're taught we live on a continent that is an island and a country :)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by paulitex on Friday August 06, 2010 @01:58PM (#1581770)
Finally - indisputable proof that lisp was, in fact, the language from which the Gods wrought the universe.

http://xkcd.com/224/

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by bosch on Saturday August 07, 2010 @02:18AM (#1583154)
I kept thinking of those Russian dolls...
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by roqetman on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:13AM (#1580911)
Sounds like someone channeling Dr. Seuss
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by Daniel_Newby on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:35AM (#1580950)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by pilif on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:45AM (#1580865)
how is this relevant content for Hacker News?
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by i80and on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:58AM (#1580882)
Bizarre instances of real-world recursion are always relevant.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by mhb on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:16AM (#1580915)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by die_sekte on Friday August 06, 2010 @03:12PM (#1582040)
Which tastes really, really good. A lot better than cauliflower or broccoli. Awesome in soups or blanched. It's just really hard to find.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by NathanKP on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:44AM (#1580973)
It looks to me like something I would go to Reddit to find. It is interesting and I would upvote it on Reddit, but it is certainly not what I would expect at the top of HN.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by jrockway on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:05AM (#1581032)
How is this relevant content for HN?

If you want relevant content, write it and submit it.

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by davidw on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:11AM (#1581056)
I can submit 100 stories that'll get people riled up about politics / amazing pics / funny-hah-hah! in the time you can write one article about monads.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by jrockway on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:16AM (#1581073)
How many politics-related stories can you submit in the time it takes "island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island" to become the #1 story?
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by davidw on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:23AM (#1581087)
The point is simple: off-topic content is far easier to submit than good content. There's way more of it, and it's of interest to far more people. It would be very simple, were there no controls, to crowd out "good" content with politics/pics/etc... Which means that doing the opposite: crowding out bad content with good content, is very difficult. It would require a significant amount of work to go find and promote good articles, as compared to "bad" ones.

If anyone actually thinks this isn't so, think about the mental effort and learning required to write a good article about monads vs the effort required to rant about Bush or Obama or post a cool/funny pic.

("good" and "bad" are simplistic. I actually thought this article was kind of interesting; I just don't think it belongs here)

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by Charuru on Friday August 06, 2010 @01:21PM (#1581645)
I find it dubious that bad content is actually 'crowding' out good content. Which good real entry is this one higher than? The off-topic is just filling in the dead time between seriousness.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by davidw on Saturday August 07, 2010 @02:22AM (#1583164)
I don't think it is happening right now; it's just something that could happen easily, and is something of a counter-argument to the idea that instead of just complaining, you should try and 'crowd out' the silly articles with good ones: it's not so easy.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by jerf on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:49AM (#1581165)
http://www.retrologic.com/jargon/H/hacker-humor.html

Not that I want HN to become a joke-a-day site but accidental-hacker-humor like this is a unusual enough find that I can deal with the rare exception.

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by mbubb on Friday August 06, 2010 @01:48PM (#1581735)
Articles in this vein can spur thought which leads to unexpected ideas.

This is perhaps a point of overlap between reddit and HN and really has very little direct relevance to startups, hacking, programming.

The piece in question here was not particularly deep but made for pleasant lunchtime thoughts about recursion and that fun little Linux fractal viewer that I havent played with in ages (xaos). I wondered how the guy figured this out and whether or not the Capian Sea were really the largest lake... Then when I looked at the comments I saw a few good points and this metacomment.

Not terribly deep thoughts. But I am not so sure that articles like this are irrelevant. It is good to have ludic content that generates seemingly random thoughts.

I used to follow a site called everything2.com - which i imagine lots of people remember (or still use).a simple Perl driven site that if I remember well was related to the slashdot engine(slashcode).

Spending an hour on the site following tangential entries could be really fun but beyond that could be a way to get unstuck when in a mental rut.

HN has that ability at times. In recent months articles on airplane safety; playing GTA with one's 4 yr old; pneumatic brass tubes at Stanford; Feynman on Science and religion have had that affect. None of these articles were particularly 'relevant'. But I am glad to have stumbled across them.

Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by chromatic on Friday August 06, 2010 @03:04PM (#1582010)
The Everything Engine which runs E2 wasn't much related to Slashcode at all. It did come from the same company, but it was completely different code. A fork of that still runs PerlMonks today.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by mbubb on Friday August 06, 2010 @03:34PM (#1582101)
Ah right. Thanks for reminding. PerlMonks.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by Jun8 on Friday August 06, 2010 @11:12AM (#1581229)
Oh, for Pete's sake: relax! People thought it's interesting and it is interesting (I had no idea you could go that deep). Hey, maybe if your elevator pitch doesn't work you can try to impress a VC with this tidbit, I bet this would get more attention than a lot of pitches.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by pclark on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:49AM (#1580870)
over 40 people think its relevant
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by paulgb on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:57AM (#1580880)
True, but I bet over 40 people think it's irrelevant, too. Without downvoting, the number of votes does not imply relevance.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by DrJokepu on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:00AM (#1581016)
Those people can upvote other stories they think are more relevant or interesting. The "newest" page at http://news.ycombinator.com/newest always has interesting submissions waiting to be upvoted.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by shrikant on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:31AM (#1580935)
Not really - if over 40 people thought it was truly irrelevant, it would be flagged to death.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by paulgb on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:44AM (#1580972)
Not all users can flag, and flagging is more to deal with spam and trolling. (The guidelines mention offtopic posts as well, but community consensus is that flagging is not downvoting.)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by chc on Friday August 06, 2010 @11:51AM (#1581348)
Flagging is not downvoting, but it is the sanctioned way to register your opinion that some content does not belong on the site. If your efforts to combat off-topic posts are limited to ranting in the comments after they're posted, it's too late.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by Jun8 on Friday August 06, 2010 @11:14AM (#1581235)
Well, then you have an issue not directly with this story but the way HN is designed. Start a submission of your own, citing this example, about this issue and get the discussion rolling, if you feel passionately about this.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by Mz on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:53AM (#1580876)
My first thought when reading the question was "Ooh, shiny!". But I didn't think anyone would get it and it would get downvoted as smart-assed. More eloquently: I think it falls under "anything engaging" (or whatever that phrase is in the guidelines).
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by davidedicillo on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:50AM (#1580873)
If everything in life were relevant, it would be a boring existence. How SMS could be a relevant business for a podcast company??
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by vladev on Friday August 06, 2010 @08:32AM (#1580842)
Pure lake and island oriented.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by timinman on Friday August 06, 2010 @09:09AM (#1580903)
What if I had a dream of a larger island in a lake on an island in a lake? What if I dreamt I had a dream...
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by CountHackulus on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:35AM (#1581117)
I can't believe that no one's tried to make an Xzibit joke yet. This either shows that HNers are 2 years behind in internet memes, or have the common sense to not use them everywhere.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ... by dimarco on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:38AM (#1581129)
yo dawg

--- Ugh, look what you've made me do.