Posts by Ross Mason
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To give you a guide if you use google maps, the short vertical piece of the Texas Oklahama border just to the west of Oklahoma City is 100degW.
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More wierd Map stories.
Years ago, my significant other and I rode bicycles from Ottawa to Vancouver. (6000km, 3 months, burning sun, snow, snakes, tornadoes and bears). While passing through South Dakota, we came across a sign that indicated 100degW. On the sign it mentioned that the British Insurance companies would not insure anything west of 100degW. They said it was a desert and therfore worthless.
I thought nothing of it until years later when a satellite piccy of the lights of the world was published. I was stunned.
The significance of this "line in the sand" and its effect on the populating of the USA can arguably be shown by looking at this map of the USA at night.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Usa_night.gif
What is illuminating (hehe) if you go to Google Earth and check along the 100deg W meridian, there are an awful lot of towns that were very significant in the Wild West days that sprung up just to the east of the line. They are all in a north south line.
Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Dodge City, Witchita, Omaha, Souix City, Fargo
My recollection of the country when we passed through was just a continuation of cropping and farming as if the 100 W line did not exist. Google earth suggests lots of cropping all the way to the foothills of the Rockies.
So much for the desk jockeys in London.
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Yes yes I know. ...I couldn't lie about being too sharp you see....
Desperate for a fillip.
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You think that I like a pun
With a mind (not quite) as sharp as a pan
I’m stabbed by a pin
I'll write with the pen
How Cholmondeley gets turned into chum. -
Re Sean's Pasta Rasta:
We have a history of underground digs at the establishment. A good "scientific" one is here:
A nice dig at CRIs and GNS in particular. A wee bit dated but seems someone is keeping a modicum of update.
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That's sadly. ...very true. Sigh. Keep it up!
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For Brits in a blazer and boater
To ask for a spade is most proper
But to us yobs down under
Such polite talk’s a blunder
It’s a fucking shovel and that's oh so much clearer! -
What Scandinavia might be, I wouldn't care to think.
It looks like it always looks like - right way up.
A flacid penis with a pimple.
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Ah,,,,Clouds....
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/reindeer-cloud/
And don't forget 911.....oh dear...
http://www.surfingtheapocalypse.net/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=1343
Or even pieces of toast for christs sake!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4019295.stm
We are truly, truly programmed to identify shapes, faces etc.
I found a fascinating one the other day. It seems that if you show a picture of a snake for a few milliseconds to anybody, an instantaneous reflex action of scrariness occurs within the human brain. Oooooooooo.
And here is the really really interesting bit. Even blind people who have their visual system out of action but all the bits from the eye to the brain still working respond in the same way!!!! They don't "see" it but whatever controls their reflex actions does.
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I know you have trouble with the man in the moon and us standing on our heads, but you are dead right. It does!!!
It reminds me of the Wizard's Upside Down Map of the world that he was promoting way back in the 70s.
http://flourish.org/upsidedownmap/mcarthur-large.jpg
A potted history of this esteemed fellow is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizard_of_New_Zealand
The story of him claiming to be invisible during the NZ Census was a good yarn. He argued in court that he could not fill the form at midnight because he did not exist at that precise time! In fact he took a launch and chugged out past the 12 mile zone of NZ for the night.
I always thought the map a cracker 'cos all the continents have upward pointy bits that looked like they had dripped their detritus into the large mass at the bottom.
Speaking of which....Alaska looks like it is suckling up to Siberia....or is a it an enlarged nipple of the breast of USA/Canada being touched by an appendage of the old USSR....or the pursed lips of a head that has just spat out Russia??
And of course...lo, there at the top is the Broken Boot.
I saw a cow in a cloud once....