Pre-Mason & Dixon: on the grid

[Monte Davis]

NASA's Suomi satellite images of global night lighting made a splash two
years ago...

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/news/earth-at-night.html

and are getting fresh play this week with a "Christmas lighting" angle. I
was especially taken with this big image of the US.

http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/712129main_8247975848_88635d38a1_o.jpg

Notice the prominent grid of lights in the Midwest, fading into the Great
Plains -- obviously tracing the old township-and-section surveying layout
that would follow Mason & Dixon's efforts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survey_township

An ordinary map doesn't show nearly the same regularity of small towns
themselves, nor of interstate highway exits. I think most of those must be
simply shopping malls and gas station-minimart plazas at intersections of
major county roads.

Gaze upon our Lines and Vistos, o Universe -- and drop in for a microwaved
burrito and a Big Gulp!
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