this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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Today I Learned

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[–] GCanuck 138 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I couldn’t get a good vibe for the actual size so I looked it up so you don’t have to.

Area: 2000 m^2 Population: 131

That means every person gets about a parking space (15 m^2) to themselves.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

Off-topic: If the top comment is exactly the additional detail I wanted to know about I have an old school Reddit moment, in the very best way.

[–] Lamedonyx 24 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Ummm, either you mixed units or your parking spots are very large.

15m² is slightly less than a 4m x 4m square, that's basically a small flat (larger than the smallest legal flat in a lot of developed countries, in fact)

[–] TheSporkBomber 29 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

15m^2 is 5mX3m. Or ~9ft by ~15ft. Parking spots in the US are 8.5ft by 18ft.

https://asphaltindustrial.com/blogs/asphalt-industrial-blog/parking-space-dimension-guide#:~:text=The%20standard%20parking%20space%20that,8%20%C2%BD%20feet%20in%20width.

So actually smaller than a parking spot.

For reference, a honda civic is 6ft wide by 16ft.

[–] Mr_Blott 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

If we're talking internationally, please don't use fridges and shoes as measurements

WTF is that in the sizes that 97% of the planet uses? 😂

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

There's very close to 3ft in one meter so the Civic is 2Mx5M.

Thing is they included Metric at the top of their comment so I don't know why you couldn't extrapolate.

[–] JGWentworth 7 points 1 year ago

Who said anything about fridges and shoes?

[–] somethingsnappy 4 points 1 year ago

I won't downvote because obviously we should be using metric, and also it was funny. However, they put it in metric first. We can't help you if you demand metric but can't figure out how big that is.

[–] TheSporkBomber -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Really? You're afraid of a little math to convert when you speak a language that decided 96 (Ninety Six) should be said four-twenty-ten-six?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

a language that decided 96 (Ninety Six) should be said four-twenty-six?

You should probably double or triple check your math while ripping on folks for not doing mental math.

Also, maybe he’s Belgian where they say nonante for ninety…

[–] Mr_Blott 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Native English speaker, my apologies for being bilingual

I default to that which most people understand. That doesn't include pedal extremities

[–] TheSporkBomber 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The foot isn't an SI unit, but the US influence on the internet and social media as a whole means it isn't some obscure unheard of unit. Besides, the foot has been defined by SI units for a while now, and the survey foot being done away with makes it publically official. It's just a conversion factor.

Then again being that pedantic is totally a reddit thing, so it's good to see that hasn't been lost in the migration.

[–] GCanuck 9 points 1 year ago

While I’m just using data from the web and not actually measuring the spots in the parking lot atm, the basic size of a parking spot is 8x16 feet (128 sq feet). That works out to just over 11m^2 if Google can be trusted with the conversion.

Larger spots can go up to 10x20 feet which would work out to just over 18m^2.

And a 4mx4m room is not a small flat, that’s a small room in a small flat. But we may have cultural differences in what we determine small here.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

larger than the smallest legal flat

I truly don’t think I can believe this. That’s exponentially tiny, smaller than my childhood bedroom and that room was 10x5ft (3 x 2) which was a single bedroom, not having to accommodate space for a toilet, shower, kitchen, counters, etc. I barely had a dresser and a twin bed in that room

[–] Lamedonyx 2 points 1 year ago

The smallest living space you're allowed to put for sale/rent in France is 9m², and those absolutely are a thing. They're very common for example for student housing, but also former maid quarters, especially in older buildings.

The English Housing Act considers that one person living in a 70sqft room makes it legally "overcrowded", although there aren't any legal minimal sizes to sell or rent a flat.

[–] dogslayeggs 2 points 1 year ago

15m2 is also 5m x 3m. Standard French parking spaces are 5m x 2.5m depending on the angle of parking.

[–] BigPapaE 8 points 1 year ago

My own personal hell

[–] Valmond 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah those numbers are (probably) technically correct, but if I have 15m2 isn't really the same as 1million people doing it together on 15M m2.

[–] mkukiwamagere 65 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I’ve been there a couple of times! My uncle used to be a buyer for a fish factory supplying Nile Perch. The reason it is so densely populated is because the lake around there used to be loaded with fish, being far from the mainland, most people fish for weeks based off the island and then sell to the buyers and head off to the mainland for r&r until the next tour.

[–] danhasnolife 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You say "used to". Has it been overfished?

[–] mkukiwamagere 11 points 1 year ago

sadly the entire lake has been depleted of fish stocks, pollution has taken care of what overfishing didn’t destroy

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So, @[email protected], who owns Migingo? From one East African to another. :)

[–] mkukiwamagere 6 points 1 year ago

If you ask when in Kenya, it is ours but when you are there, we are all Ugandans hehe

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] mkukiwamagere 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

hehe asante, hio mbao moja ushaspend ama bado unafikiria utapea nani? 😁

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Haha. Pole bana, hii uchumi haiwezi kubali nipate mbao hivyo tu.

[–] carl_dungeon 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is true, but keep in mind that it’s home to 131 people. That density number makes it sound like thousands but it’s just that the island is very small.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The fact that the island being so small is what makes the density so high is what's cool to me.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

You will also be amused at the extremes the two countries that claim it, Kenya and Uganda, have gone to assert their rightful ownership.

Migingo is the stock of Kenyan and Ugandan jokes -- to imply something so minor yet amplified by politicians.

[–] IphtashuFitz 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looks like it’s right out of Waterworld…

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I came here to comment the same thing

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago
[–] PineapplePartisan 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Looks smelly. Can’t imagine the sanitation or trash removal is very good.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Upon seeing the image, I immediately thought "what's the fresh water / sewage / garbage situation there like?" I would doubt there's any electricity at all outside of portable batteries or gennies.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

It's in the middle of the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the world, I assume they dump everything in the lake and get their water from the lake and can only hope they do those two things on opposite sides of the island

[–] sblanziko 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What if there's rough sea?

[–] Piecemakers3Dprints 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you bothered to click, you'd quickly learn it's in a lake. 🤦🏼‍♂️

[–] SaakoPaahtaa 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What about a rough lake then huh

[–] meeeeetch 5 points 1 year ago

Not that lakes don't get rough (just ask Gordon Lightfoot), but they tend to be a bit more limited.

It looks like there are some larger (and as such probably more protective) islands nearby that they can evacuate to.

[–] glorious_albus 3 points 1 year ago

Looks like that Island I made in rollercoaster tycoon to banish complaining guests to.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The island has a population of about 131 (according to the 2009 census), mostly fishermen and fish traders, who are served by four pubs, a number of brothels, and a pharmacy on the island

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migingo_Island