Re: East meets West in Las Vegas?

[P3D Michael Kersenbrock <michaelk@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >What you do is find the geographic center of mass of all NSA members
> >and then draw a line of longitude through it and that splits the country.
> >Then you find the geographic centers of mass for each half of the country
> >and that's where you hold the convention on alternating years.
> 
> Isn't that Heckbert's "Median Cut" algorithm?

Ideally, you'd have a vector from each NSA member to the site being
considered, and "cost" each vector with plane-fares from there (when
distance is over some threshold -- calculating maybe 60 cents/mile 
for unidirectional driving distance).  Then
solve for minimum cost overall.  To one or more geographical constraints
perhaps added for a western and eastern optimal point as well as a centralized
point.  An added factor for the consumer price index assigned to the target
city.

Else we'll get an geometric mean site in the middle of a corn field where 
we will  have to erect tents and have projection with projectors with the 
lamps replaced with coleman mantles.

Mike K.

P.S. - If one had an electronic list of the member's locations, one could probably
       do this -- for real (with a bit of patience and maybe Java programming). One
       can get airline pricing info over the web.

P.P.S. - Las Vegas probably would do very well.  Reno might do well too, for
         similar reasons.  :-)




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