Talk:Alaska

Interactive map doesn't show Aleutian Islands past the 180th meridian
I think this is because polygons that span the 180th meridian have some undefined behavior with geospatial libraries. GeoJSON in particular is a bit iffy about this, not sure if that is used here.

Wcedmisten (talk) 22:09, 25 May 2023 (UTC)


 * Still not corrected. It's a mistake to call the article A class in light of this glitch. Martindo (talk) 11:46, 1 September 2023 (UTC)

COVID section
The section I removed in March in Special:Diff/1143124233 appears to have been re-added to the article by an IP editor. But I see no reason why we need such a section; and with that context an edit summary saying Added very new information seems to be trolling. Walt Yoder (talk) 22:52, 2 August 2023 (UTC)
 * I only edited the page to provide attribution, since I found it via CopyPatrol and the section appeared to have been copied from COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska. I don't have a very strong opinion either way and I'm not going to get into a long-winded dispute over it. I think it's reasonable to include some information about the pandemic, although a few sentences or a short paragraph with a hatnote directing the reader to COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska would probably be sufficient. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major historical event with broad implications and I don't see why it shouldn't be mentioned in the article. I really don't think re-adding the passage was a trolling attempt&mdash;sure, it's possible, but absent clear evidence to the contrary we should assume that the IP added the passage in a good-faith effort to improve the article. — SamX &#91;talk · contribs&#93; 03:22, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * The word-for-word copy of material I removed in March was not "very new information". The IP could not have thought it was. Walt Yoder (talk) 04:26, 3 August 2023 (UTC)
 * They could've easily copied it from COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska or noticed that the section had been removed and re-added it without checking the history, and "very new" could just mean "very new relative to the other events described in the article". I really think you're reading into this too much, but I'm not going to engage further. — SamX &#91;talk · contribs&#93; 05:07, 3 August 2023 (UTC)

Exclave?
this article says Alaska is an exclave (correct) "slightly comparable to the country of Iran", or words to that effect.

No references or explanation are given.

I struggle to understand this. How is Iran an exclave and/or how is it similar to Alaska?

Okay, so reading down I see it is stated that *if* Alaska were a country, it'd be a similar size to Iran. Regardless of whether or not Alaska is a country (it's not), it's still a comparable size to Iran. But this is neither helpful nor encyclopaedic. If my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.

I imagine few people have a clear idea of the size of Iran,except insofar as it's huge. It's really a nonsensical comparison. And saying that Alaska is slightly comparable to Iran, without specifying one is talking about area, is ridiculous.

2A00:23EE:1C28:3BCE:59C8:D012:E395:8CF1 (talk) 00:05, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
 * I've clarified the sentence in the lead section. I don't see the harm in including that comparison in the article, but I won't object if you remove it. — SamX &#91;talk · contribs&#93; 00:19, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
 * thank you Sam. I shan't remove anything, I know better than to edit a WP article. Personally I think the size could be better conveyed with reference to another US state, eg "Alaska is the largest US state, approximately 2.5 times the area of Texas (which is second largest)"
 * As I mentioned before, I don't reckon most folk have any sense of the size of Iran. And there's the issue of comparing a State to a country.
 * This kind of comparison is usually done using something relatable, as opposed to something of nearly the same measure (but not as relatable) . For example, "the adult Blue Whale is roughly the length of two double decker buses" instead of "the blue whale is as long as a Predator drone is wide". 2A00:23EE:1C28:3BCE:59C8:D012:E395:8CF1 (talk) 19:49, 26 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Cut accomplished. The comparison is quite clear in the first sentence of second paragraph of lede. Martindo (talk) 00:29, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Good edit. I was also struck by the oddness of comparing it to Iran, and was considering make a similar edit to remove it. (I would like to know how many bananas can fit in Alaska though, I bet it's a lot.) Beeblebrox (talk) 17:05, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
 * For the benefit of Iranian readers it would be more pertinent to consider how many figs could fit into Alaska :) Glad to see this tided up, thank you @Martindo 2A00:23EE:1C28:3BCE:81D0:3A56:D9F4:AD76 (talk) 21:26, 28 August 2023 (UTC)
 * Technically Greenland is an exclave of Denmark, separated by international waters over 500 km, so wouldn't greenland be the largest exclave in the world? 2A00:23C7:9588:B301:6190:59FF:3CDC:F139 (talk) 06:45, 1 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Yes.. but its autonomous .. and not recognised as equal to its mainland.
 * Eg it left the EU but denmark didnt.
 * Compare alaska,a fully normal and equal state of the USA.
 * Not sure what that really matters.
 * Eg Its not a dodgy microstate like Vatican city, which is indistinguishable from an autonomous ( or special rules ) area of Italy. 2407:E400:8047:8000:4877:6696:407:DF33 (talk) 11:17, 10 January 2024 (UTC)
 * its not like Greenland could be said to be part of Canada... Its certainly external territory.
 * But oh, all islands are naturally exclaves of any other mainland ..
 * Is Okinawa an exclave because its not a main island of japan, by what definition of main island or main land do we work ? Is sumatra an exclave of Indonesia, is tasmania an exclave of Australia ?
 * So making greenland a continent not an island would make it an exclave of greenland ? 2407:E400:8047:8000:4877:6696:407:DF33 (talk) 11:24, 10 January 2024 (UTC)