Aug 7, 2022

GREENSBORO, NC (WGHP) – Who is the most famous person in your hometown? Go ahead, guess. If you’re from, say, Randolph County, North Carolina, you’ll probably shout “Richard Petty.” After all, the former stock car driver is known as “The King”. Or maybe you’re from Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley (another king, coincidentally). Nearly 1.4 million saws recalled after multiple lacerations Others may also be well known to US residents. Anyone from Louisville, Kentucky could immediately point to Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay). And those in Omaha, Nebraska would probably nominate Warren Buffet. But no matter where you’re from, from town to town, you probably know at least someone you consider to be the most famous person in your area. If you have no idea – or want to discuss what you do know – now you can search for those names in a pretty spectacular way. American boxer Cassius Clay (now Muhammad Ali) is from Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Harry Benson/Getty Images) A computer developer named Topi Tjoukanov has created a virtual globe that you can rotate, scan, and zoom to find the most famous names from a given region (they’re big and bold), or even someone a little more obscure from your hometown. Fans tell of the dangerous Trash Pandas fireworks At the broadest level of scanning, users can detect names such as Pablo Picasso, Muhammad (not the Louisville one), Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix, Donald Trump, or Barack Obama. But as you zoom in, the map becomes more defined and more names are added. An article for InsideHook, a web technology magazine, says Tjukanov used Wikidata (think Wikipedia) and mapping software called Mapbox to create the map. Entries are based on birthplaces, and the database is meant to be cross-checked and includes 2.39 million people born between the years 3500 BC and 2018. That’s a lot of cross-checking. Downtown Bridge Street under new management Keep clicking With the click of a button, you can sort the data by sport, culture, discovery, science and leadership – a kind of “Jeopardy!” plank before your eyes. When you click on a name, the map provides a thumbnail of information including “notability rank”, gender ID, living/dead determinant, and a link to the subject’s Wiki file. There is rank within ranks Andy Griffith is one of many famous names that appear on the map near Mount Airy, North Carolina. (associated press photo) You can go quite low on the notoriety food chain, and like many things involving Wikipedia, you have to wonder how clearly the information has been sorted and reported. The level of “notability” can also be debatable, depending on how you classify fame. Honolulu-born Barack Obama ranks No. 1, while singer Rihanna comes in at 76.5 and star footballer Christiano Ronaldo at 182 – all higher than Jesus, of Bethlehem, who is No. 204.5 in the rankings of notability. He also gets a ‘no’ under ‘is still alive’, which may be an argument for some. You can read more about the creation of the notability index here. Discrepancies aside, the card should spark lots of conversations – and maybe even a few arguments – with a bit of fun.