YSaC, Vol. 752: Boots and supercool exploderata!
Globe of the World for Sale
Although the colours are a bit faded, this globe is good enough for your child to learn to identify the seven continents. It helped me advanced in my geography course in high school and it is good for vacation planning (helps visualize relationships between distances and leads to efficient planning). Tip: It is much easier to get an “A” in geography class when given to your child during elementary school.
Please contact ###-###-####
Now, we don’t KNOW for a fact that this person didn’t graduate from high school in the last few years. It is entirely possible that this globe is entirely modern, and does NOT include such countries as the U.S.S.R., Zaire, the Belgian Congo, or the Holy Roman Empire, while excluding Kosovo, East Timor, Eritrea, and the Marshall Islands.
How much you want to bet? Me neither. If the kid is VERY lucky it doesn’t have an area in the middle of the Pacific ocean marked, “Here be dragons.”
Dan, you’re imagining the globe at my parents’ house, aren’t you? The one that has a large green patch reading “French West Africa”?
Depending on the age of the globe, identifying all seven continents may be the only thing for which it is still accurate …
Or not. I’m betting this one features Gondwana and Laurasia.
Or Vaalbara.
Possibly Pangaea.
Could be Middle Earth.
How about Narnia?
Xanth!!
Wonder what Sparky’s talent would be?
Miss-spells?
Bad Pun-tuation?
If not Gondwana, then maybe Gondor. Or at least The Shire.
If it has Rhodesia on it, I’m totally buying it.
And the data ghost returns!
Also, I’d be more interested in seeing Rodinia.
Nice! Yeah, sorry about yesterday, I just sort of flit about sometimes. 🙂 I miss you guys!
We miss you too, Graham! Try not to be too much of a stranger.
And now that you’re here, maybe (just maybe) HHNF will come back too.
Well, last night, per f/b, there was an issue with ennui, emo vampire bunnies and the like . . .
‘Course, I’m still fuzzy as to how Europe and Australia qualify for “continent” status and Pluto’s been booted down from “planet” to “big rock that nobody cares about.”
That made me spew coffee.
[planetary corey] the change in status for Pluto is, like so much else in life, both simple and complicated.
Simple is just that. Pluto is smaller than Earth’s moon. It is very close to the size of some of the larger bodies in the asteroid belt (which have been promoted, and demoted as planets). It is also almost twice the distance out that Neptune is, and with a non-ecliptic orbit.
Which then starts edging into the complicated. If we admit Kuiper belt objects the size of Pluto, then there are 6-10 extra bodies of a similar size and orbital position. Which also muddles up the old rule-of-thumb, that, if it has moons, it much be a planet. But, what happens if a moon is near the same size as the planet.
Now, calling out Europe as a separate continent from Asia is similarly complicated. Even if the geology backs that up. That the ethnocentrism that made the split is backed up by tectonics is probably as much accident as observation.
On poor, Australia, we can put some blame upon the much over–used Mercator’s Projection of the world. Which makes Greenland seem so much larger than it is, or southern land masses–South America; Australia, Papua-New Guinea–seem proportionately smaller.
[/corey]
But not, obviously, your English class.
Nah, that’s slang use of advanced. It means, “it totally helped me to the max yo!” *
*I just made that up.
A globe? But…but…I thought the world was flat. I don’t understand!!!
*sob*
Also, where are the elephants? And the giant turtle on whose back the elephants are standing? This globe idea is all wrong!
And where is Atlantis? I demand the Atlantian people not be discriminated against, even if they aren’t protected by Al Sharpton!
Al Sharkton on line 3. He’s interested in meeting with you to discuss your cause and the good people of Atlantis. Should I take a message?
I always felt sorry for the Great A’Tuin. I can’t imagine having 4 elephants on your back as you crawl through space is very comfortable.
Ah, but A’Tuin is afloat in the ethers, and has the buoyancy of all such immersed objects.
It’s the hefelants on top that have the worst of it. Can’t sit, can’t scratch, can’t even roll in a nice gloppy mud hole . . . just stuck between a Disc an the deep blue ether.
It’s llamas all the way down. *nods wisely*
If the Llama-Nun, bees be upon her, says it, it must be so.
Maysherestinbees.
Learn something new everyday.
So, what time is recess?
I’m pretty sure I had some kind of map or globe or something that had pictures of dragons in the middle of the sea. And I wonder why I’m bad at geography.
I had the dragon maps too. And pirate treasure maps with “X marks the spot” that my 5 year old brain thought were real, despite the fact that they were likely the free toy that came with my breakfast cereal.
I have a globe that is intentionally made to look antique. It doesn’t turn, but you can lift the top half and there may or may not be ice inside. I love it.
If there may or may not be a dead cat inside, then would it be Schrodinger’s Globe?
Oh! It’s a magic ice filled globe! Now there is ice, now there isn’t. And now the ice is back!
I want one.
Not dragons, KittySharks!
If I had a spare bathtub, I’d totally want me a KittyShark.
KittyShark will live in your primary bathtub.
*This is NOT a trap!
What if I want one for my quaternary bathtub?
Can’t, Kitty Shark, Fiji Mermaid’s using the primary tub.
Fiji Mermaid is the name of my Oasis cover band.
Why are you storing four Canaries in your bathtub?
No, the canaries are in my duodenary* bathtub.
They’re soaking after a hard day of watching out for putty tats.
*I used this word to set up for a joke related to something. If you can make a joke relating to the correct thing, you get a coupon redeemable for one (1) free ($6.00/£12.05) internet.
duodenary=A rather plain two humped camel
Christina’s right…it takes a lot to keep the Fiji Mermaid hydrated.
Let’s see on the globe, NYC and Tucson are two inches apart; I can walk home in no time!
I have a globe. When I was little I’d take it down and play “Alien Invasion” and “Meteor Impact!” on it.
I sadly lost my globe in the Great Water Balloon Battle of ’97.
FYI, it is possible to fill an inflatable globe with water, but it will be very heavy and you will have to either get very close to your opponent or wait on the porch roof for them to walk underneath you. It is also a good idea, after you preform your victory dance on the roof, to check to see if your victim has a concussion.
Is “preforming” the same as practicing? I prefer to
extemporize my victory dances. Always end with a moonwalk.
I blame spell check for that. I didn’t think it was right but it passed it anyway so I just thought I was wrong.
[Language corey] SJ, you need a grammar checker, as preform is spelled correctly. [/language corey] Happens to me often. Errrg.
I had an inflatable globe! I never tried to fill it with water, but it did eventually die…probably at the claws of a cat.
That was Plan A in the Cats’ quest for World Domination. Unfortunately (for them), thanks to their unique brand of arithmetic, they slightly misjudged the size of the object they were intending to conquer.
I want it to play the Alan Parsons Project, “Fire the LASER”
Is your globe noticeably topographically different from most, due to the effects of aliens and meteors, Astro?
Not that I know of.
By the way, on an unrelated note, I someday dream of visiting the massive fist-shaped crater which stretches across China and killed billions.
To be fair, Sparky never says the globe is of Earth, just of “the world.” Maybe Sparky is from Ygkzei in the Galaxy of Ilngao which also has 7 continents and unlike Earth, none of the countries have changed at all, so a globe from 10, 15, even 100 years ago would still be accurate.
Or maybe Sparky is just stupid.
Oh, if he’s not stupid, I want a globe of Lusitania. Or maybe Path.
I need Pern.
I have a feeling Sparky is Stupendular. 8)
In this case he would be “stupendicular”
I want one of Galifrey. Prior to the extermination of the Time Lords, of course.
Prior to 9 or 10, Gallifrey consisted of about 4 rooms.
Plus a lounge chair and sunbrella (sunblubler?) a la White Guardian.
“It’s good enough for your child.”. My child, however, will have a globe that reflects current geopolitical realities.
Geopolitical Reality is nothing but an illusion.
😉
And none of their songs stay the same, either. Makes it hard to sing along in concert.
(They ought get some credit, though, it’s not easy to rhyme Bukina Foso, or Upper Volta, or Mynmar . . . )
Because you know, Istanbul is Constantinople.
And only TMBG can be successful at that {G}
Geopolitical Reality does not have a chance against that fan base {G}
Because your child is only a Gamma, and I’m raising mine to be an Alpha and crush yours under his superior foot!
I thought that was all determined before the babby ingredients went into the bottle?
No, no, that’s not until after the war. Until then, it’s more of a do-it-yourself-thing, and nobody would sell me the kit.
But does it have the Iraq and South Africa and Such As?
FTW
And blonde hair with a tiara?
I would only consider buying it if Ish were clearly marked.
Preferably not in crayon. The calassay cartographers use a Sharpie.
Also, [location] and the rest of the state of Kclhm that lies within the XXX and ### area codes.
You know, England is just a conspiracy of cartographers. Doesn’t exist. I wonder why Sparky spelled “colour” the way they do in that non-existant place?
And New Zealand is just a mistake no-one owned up to. If you look at the map you can clearly see it was caused by two wax drips from a candle set over Asia Minor to ward off the abominabubble snowmen. Similarly most of Micronesia is just the result of someone incautiously reading YSaC while drinking soup.
I had Micronesia, I only forgot my name for a nanosecond…
[True story Corey]
I once worked with an engineer named Clay Marrs.
*Phone rings*
Me, “hello?”
Caller, “Is there a Clay Marrs there?”
Me, “No, but I have a nice paper mache globe of the earth”
Caller, *Several seconds of silence followed by uncontrollable laughter and a click*
A little while later Clay comes into the lab…
Clay, “HAMCAN!!!”
Me, “what?”
[/True Story Corey]
I thought Clay Marrs were a type of explosive device used primarily in the jungles in Viet Nam?
[military corey] The M18A1 is still in use by US forced (among others). It’s also been imitated by a number of other militaries for their use.
Try and run this, “claidheamh mòr,” through a spell-checker; the SC seems to not care whether a person means a two-handed mid-evil[sic] or a basket-hilted boardsword of more recent vintage.
[/corey]
They are no longer “forced”, Cap’n. We have an all volunteer military now.
“Boardsword”? To fend off pirates while surfing?
Egad, undone by my own reliance on speelczech!
Actually, they’re the Czech Republic and Speelvakia nowadays.
In Soviet Russia, vak speels YOU!
Is your friend six feet tall, slender and metallic, and does he come with a scabbard? Does he need to be wielded with two hands?
Your last sentence is trying to step over the line.
I was always a little leery of him exploding or stabbing me in the back…
Could have possibly been because his name was so puntasic and I just can’t resist 🙂
Helen EveReddy
Sparky’s son, what’s that sphere, you have one?
Could it be a faded globe from eras gone by
And did I hear you say it was good enough for my babby
To make vacation plans in his minds-eye
He’s forty-one and Sparky still calls ‘im “babby”
All the folks ’round Snarksville say he’s crazy
‘Cause he walks downtown with his planet in his hand
Tryin’ to make vacation plans with passersby
In his younger days they called him Tweedle Dumb
Stupidest man you ever laid eyes on
Then he got his geography degree, his world at his side
Promised Sparky his ball he would hide
Sparky’s son, what’s that sphere, you have one?
Could it be a faded globe from eras gone by
And did I hear you say it was good enough for my babby
To make vacation plans in his minds-eye
To be fair, our globe is a little unclear on the existence of Israel and how many Germanies there are. Of course, now our son believes that Australia and Canada are both salmon-colored…
*looks out window* No, actually Canada is looking more green today. And in need of mowing, but that may just be my portion of it.
I figured most places would only be this particular shade if it got the Red Tide (no, not THAT Red Tide!)
Tip: It is much easier to get an “A” in geography class when given to your child during elementary school.
Actually, I always find the best way to get a “A” in geography class is to be enrolled in one. And study. See, if your kid gets an A during elementary school, it doesn’t help you get one at all, because that is not your A, but your kid’s.
Alternatively, you can get your A the non-academic way (and frankly, I’m thinking for this poster non-academic is the way to go). Google “Hester Prynne” for details. It’s a nice big A, but it only comes in scarlet.
(Tangent) When my nephew was in Afghanistan, he bugged me by e-mail to send him a letter. He recieved about a week later an envelope addressed from me to him. He opened it and found inside a folded piece of paper with a post-it note attached. On the post it note was written, “Here is your letter, love Aunt Kelli.” He unfolded the note and written on it was a very large A. (/Tangent)
I once mailed somebody a letter. It was a blue construction paper B. No explanation was included. I was going to follow it up by sending a card, but I didn’t want to break up the deck.
Just testing a theory, pay no attention.
Explanation: There’s a blue and white pattern that shows up a lot in the old comments with different names attached to it. At first I thought it was a sock puppet, but the more I read, the more the pupets had distinct personalities, writing styles and spelling abilities. I then thought it might be the pattern for a generic email so I just tried name @ email.com, which is not it.
**grabs popcorn, sits down to watch.**
Ooh, Science!!!111!!!elebenty1!!!
Ah, the vigilance theme “wants” an avatar so that each comment formats the same.
There’s an off-the-shelf fractal image generator that will make the ‘quilt squares’ for a person. There is an algorithm which flips the triangles from on to off, and defines a color to display in. The math is fractal in that the resolution of the triangles is selectable, at one resolution they can be solid, other time piebald.
There are some ‘start’ biases in such things, like if 1 = blue, then the first use, first email login, etc. might bias to blue. Number of people using a fractal instead of an avatar seems to matter, too.
Or some such like.
I’m not sure I follow, Cap’n. The patterns, to my knowledge, are unique, but assigned to an email address, which is why my normal brown square would show up whether I was posting from work, home or phone.
Ok weird, that was no @ email.com. Someone’s registered that.
Also, email.com doesn’t provide their own email service.
While we’re experimenting, I’m suddenly tempted to use yousuckatcraigslist@gmail.com, but I know impersonating our Llama-Nun (bees be upon her) is a no-no.
More testing (having had my curiosity piqued by christina), now seeing if I can use an e-mail that I neither use nor check as a link.
And it works!
At least until I refresh the page.
So, if you want to post as several avatars without the avatars all changing at once, you need to use seperate email accounts with Gravatar, right? I get so confuzzled.
Yes,
that’s how
it works.
Well, but the patterns seem to be assigned on a rotating basis, based on how the formula flips the image about.
Now, I have not done enough testing with Jestro’s Vigilance; and given the depth of fractal math, it may be that each IP gets its own image. Given the amount of processing power and machine time available, creating one of these on the fly is simple stuff. The display here averages to 32 x 32 for wedges.
But, that’s back to speculating, my poking at Vigilance has been in testing of additional, added-on features, not the engine that runs it.
But, I’ll admit to having a raised level of curiosity now. That, and I keep coming up with ways to code the wedges that would neatly scale in powers of 2 in hexidecimal.
Not IP based, at least not now. Like I said, my pattern is the same from any machine as long as I use the same email address.
I know they have to repeat at some point, but we’re talking upwards of 10 people with the same fractal posting in the same day. Either they were all using the same generic email address or that was a serious case of multiple personality disorder.
I’ll stop blabbering now. I have no idea why this is perplexing me.
Ah, terminology confusion. A given email in [name]@[service provider] format also resolved to a specific IP, just as the access to the service provider has an IP. The sense of email subnets just gets less attention while typing into address bars.
And a limited number of fractals is not case, a 32 x 32 fractal runs to 2,654,208 combinations (if I got the math right) with either 16 or 64 possible colors.
And. similar fractals would be very similar. A body would either need a quick way to convert them to a numeric identity, or do some screen capturing to “eyeball check.”
But, having run an eye back, I think you may be on to something. I just have no good way to help you to a satisfactorily binary (yes/no) answer.
That, and your most recent pale green fractal may kibosh my math–those ‘squares’ suggest (to me) needing 128 x 128 (and powers of two could mean I’m off, and it’s 1024 per side–harumph)
Christina, can you link me to the day in question? I can tell you whether it’s email based or IP address based.
My assumption was that at some point in the past, and email address was not required in order to comment. So that repeated quilt square is put in for anyone who commented without an email address.
Alas! Hogwarts is unplottable on this or any other globe.
You’ll all get this.
Eek! I was just reading Hacked IRL, and guess who I saw in the ads on the bottom of the page!
The winking 6 dollar shirts hobo!
It freaked me out!
I hate that guy! Down with hipster hobo!
I think hipster hobo was the inspiration for Depressey.
Also, hipster hobo gets my vote for band name.
Harhar.
Is Mr. Winkey the hipster hobo? I’ve never seen the ad, but Mr. Winkey looks like about 5 different guys here in town. No, none of them are homeless, our homeless guys all look like David Caradine.
“Mr. Winkey” sounds like a child’s euphemism for … specific anatomy.
Hipster Hobo tonight at the 40 Watt
Cover: 1 can of vegetarian, fair-trade, organic beans to be heated over a fire or a bindle wrapped in a fair-trade, organic cotton handkerchief and tied to the end of a fair-trade, organically-farmed stick.
We Are a Faded World
Written by: Cardboard Micheal Jackson and Lionel “cheesehead” Richie
I have a world
To teach your children
It can help to get a better “A”
So let’s start learnin’
There’s a choice You’re makin’
when using an old globe
It’s sure to be out of date
In political geography
Derher.
Psst! Hammy, I started a forum thread for songs, I thought for sure you would have added about twenty by now.
I have to go find them in the archives, that takes some effort N stuff 😀
Ok, I posted a few 🙂
-Is.An.Avatar! Congratulations! Now I have proof when people try to tell me Avatar sucked, I can say, “Nuh-uh!” Early Sunday Evening Punchity Punch Punch!
Good Night, Holy Roman Empire!
‘at was a wee painful Windrose, but felt sae guid. Quite an honur – ah am nae worthy……….