In article <m25y2ttbg3.fsf@kelutral.omcl.org>, spcoltri@omcl.org (Steve
Coltrin) wrote:

>
> > and I'm sure I recall an early Heinlein novel that uses wrong count.
>
> _Beyond This Horizon_?

Could be. I have read it, but nearly fifty years ago.

On Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 3:01:20 PM UTC-4, Tim Merrigan wrote:
> On Thu, 26 Oct 2023 01:42:42 -0000 (UTC), "Keith F. Lynch"
> <k...@KeithLynch.net> wrote:
>
> >Kerr-Mudd, John <ad...@127.0.0.1> wrote:
> >> Charles Packer <mai...@cpacker.org> wrote:
> >>> What about our middle school American history textbooks? Where did
> >>> they start? Mine started at 1500 -- the Age of Discovery.
> >
> >> How much of the world had been discovered by then?
> >
> >> All but Antarctica would be my guess.
> >
> >> NZ was discovered just a bit before that c. 1280AD (says wikipedia)
> >
> >"Age of Discovery" refers to when people learned about the whole
> >world, or at least about most of it. For most of history, almost
> >everyone only knew about the part of the world that they lived in.
> >For instance New Zealanders living before 1500 had no clue that any
> >such places as Europe, Asia, Africa, or the Americas existed, or
> >any ocean except the Pacific. They probably didn't even know of
> >Australia, or that the world was round.
> >
> >But thanks for reminding us that aboriginal people haven't all been
> >around since time immemorial. Tasman discovered (and named) New
> >Zealand in 1642, which means that that island group has been known
> >to Europe for most of the time that it was known to anyone.
> New Zealand was the southwestern corner of the Polynesian cultural
> area, a rough triangle the other corners of which were Hawai'i and
> Easter Island.
>
> I'd be surprised if they didn't know about the Indian Ocean, I mean,
> it's right there on the other side of their islands.

New Zealand was the last habitable land body of significant size to be
discovered by humans.

One of my favorite 'odd facts' is that the same culture that settled Polynesia
also went west and settled Madagascar. Malagasy is related to Hawaiian.
A pre-technological culture spread more than halfway around the globe.

Pt

In article <lscljipf19p4k8u0caej962traj1siaisu@4ax.com>,
Tim Merrigan <tppm@ca.rr.com> wrote:
>If most of the 19th century was the Victorian period, most of the 20th
>century should be the second Elizabethan period.

[Hal Heydt]
Well...slightly less than half.

Tim Merrigan <tppm@ca.rr.com> wrote:
> I'd be surprised if they didn't know about the Indian Ocean, I mean,
> it's right there on the other side of their islands [New Zealand].

No, it's right there on the other side of *Australia*. Australia is
more than a thousand miles from New Zealand, and is more than two
thousand miles wide. So the Indian Ocean is further from New Zealand
than California is from Maine. *Britain* is about as far from the
Indian Ocean as New Zealand is.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

On Monday, October 23, 2023 at 12:19:25 AM UTC-4, WolfFan wrote:

[snip]

> The worst modern prez prior to The Orange One was Boy George Bush, and he’s
> a bottom third kind of guy. Bad, but not terrible. The last terrible prez was
> Wilson. The bugger was more racist than actual slaveholders. He made Andie
> ’Trail of Tears’ Jackson look positively progressive. Almost.

[snip]

I concur re: the awfulness of Woodrow Wilson. Edith was awful at being de facto
Prez, also.

As far as kings of England/Great Britain, Séamas an Chaca (James II/VII)
screwed over Ireland at the Boyne.

--
Kevin R