eytanz
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In about one hour, I'm finally leaving for my vacation, heading down to Sydney to visit my family... It's been four years since I was last in Australia and one of my cousins has a brand new baby for me to meet, so I'm very excited.

Anyway, other than sharing this because it makes me very happy, I'll probably be away from the board for a while. Or not, depending on how jetlagged I'll be and what else I'll have to do at four o'clock in the morning when I can't sleep (I suffer very badly from jetlag, so this is quite likely).

I'll be back to New York and my regular computer in two weeks.

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I got my avatar back! Yay!

Oneiromancer
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Aww...I wanna go! Don't worry, we won't talk about you too much while you're gone.

Game on,


[Edited by Oneiromancer on 12-23-2003 at 07:14 PM GMT]

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"He who is certain he knows the ending of things when he is only beginning them is either extremely wise or extremely foolish; no matter which is true, he is certainly an unhappy man, for he has put a knife in the heart of wonder." -- Tad Williams

DiMono
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Be sure to drop in on Matt while you're down there, he said yesterday that he's out of cheese.

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Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

Schik
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eytanz today -

eytanz tomorrow -

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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

Scott
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Other way around Schik its you guys that are upside down not us

The_Red_Hawk
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I assume you live in the southern hemisphere?

- to bring science in, nobody is really upside down, as the earth is spherical, so its gravity pulls us all inwards. So in your [school of thought](?) you could only be standing straight on the North Magnetic Pole. However, there is no up or down in space. So there is no-one to say which way is the top on the Earth. The maps are only shown that way because it is traditional to show north as the top of the map - turning it upside down would still be absolutely correct. Ptolemy (a Greek philosopher, lived somewhere around 100 AD) was the first to make a complete map of the world as it was known, and he used north as up, so we have continued to this day.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Scott
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The_Red_Hawk wrote:
I assume you live in the southern hemisphere?

Yeah I live in Australia best place in the world IMHO

The_Red_Hawk
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If we vote on that.....




.....unless it turns out that the majority of the forum is Australian.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Schik
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5383
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

The_Red_Hawk wrote:
I assume you live in the southern hemisphere?

- to bring science in, nobody is really upside down, as the earth is spherical, so its gravity pulls us all inwards. So in your [school of thought](?) you could only be standing straight on the North Magnetic Pole. However, there is no up or down in space. So there is no-one to say which way is the top on the Earth. The maps are only shown that way because it is traditional to show north as the top of the map - turning it upside down would still be absolutely correct. Ptolemy (a Greek philosopher, lived somewhere around 100 AD) was the first to make a complete map of the world as it was known, and he used north as up, so we have continued to this day.

Yeah, right. The next thing you know you'll be telling me that I won't fall off the edge of the earth if I go too far in any direction.


____________________________
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.
--Mahatma Gandhi

The_Red_Hawk
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Schik wrote: Yeah, right. The next thing you know you'll be telling me that I won't fall off the edge of the earth if I go too far in any direction.

Sorry, science again. You're probably getting bored by now.

Look up "sphere" in the dictionary (but maybe we don't have the same dictionary...). I know the earth isn't a perfect sphere, but it's good enough. A sphere (and same with circles, except 2D) is a round 3D object with an infinite number of indistinguishable sides (or something like that). This means that you "fall off" an uncountable number of edges every time you take a step.






____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Mattcrampy
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A tip, Eytan: While in Sydney, there's a creature you should watch out for, especially in the mornings.

It is easily distinguishable by its fast gait and Vodafone branding. Be sure not to cross it, or else it will declare war on you or charge you ten percent GST.



Apart from watching out for our Prime Minister, you may want to be careful under trees. You get drop bears very rarely in Sydney, but they're far more common outside. Lethal things, drop bears.

While you're in Sydney, check out Taronga Zoo (if only to go over there and go 'my, that's a lot of trees!', the ferries, and the New Year's Eve fireworks on the harbour. One of the best displays in the world, and a damn site better than that 'dropping ball and lots of glitter' crap New York pulls.

I guess you could check out Darling Harbour, Centrepoint Tower, the bridge (climbable for a fee) and Sydney Opera House, but they're obvious.

I guess there's also Canberra, but I find it harder and harder to recommend ever since they stopped letting people climb on top of it.

(Australia's Parliament House is an artifical hill, with grass on top. Until recently, tourists were allowed to walk up it, take a look around, roll back down, what have you. It's a hill with politicians underneath. An innovation in tourism!)

The kangaroo public transport is also a great find.

Matt

[Edited by Mattcrampy on 12-24-2003 at 06:15 AM GMT]

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

DiMono
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Hawk, I think you are in serious need of an injection of "sense of humour" as you take things far, far too seriously for this forum. I mean seriously, next you're going to post the definition of sarcasm...

____________________________
Deploy the... I think it's a yellow button... it's usually flashing... it makes the engines go... WHOOSH!

The_Red_Hawk
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DiMono wrote:
Hawk, I think you are in serious need of an injection of "sense of humour" as you take things far, far too seriously for this forum. I mean seriously, next you're going to post the definition of sarcasm...

No, I'm not. I knew Schik was joking, I just though it would be interesting to say that.

And Matt, are you sure that Eytan was able to access your message? because apparently he already left. (Or will he have a computer in Australia?)

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

Mattcrampy
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IP: Logged

Hmm... it may be difficult to access the Internet, because Telstra sucks. I mean really sucks. They changed the definition of 'broadband' so they could say that 90% of people had access to broadband.

(Remember, Australia is quite spread out. Half the population lives in small towns/urban sprawls far away from capital cities, so unlike in America covering the majority of the country is unprofitable because no-one really uses it. I mean, who has a mobile phone out in the desert?)

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

Mattcrampy
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DiMono wrote:
Hawk, I think you are in serious need of an injection of "sense of humour" as you take things far, far too seriously for this forum. I mean seriously, next you're going to post the definition of sarcasm...

sar·casm (sär'kăz'әm)
n.

1. A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound.
2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.
3. The use of sarcasm. See Synonyms at wit.

Hey, someone had to.

Matt

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What do you call an elephant at the North Pole?

The_Red_Hawk
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I thought of doing that after DiMono's post just for fun, but decided against it.

____________________________
Slashing, whirling, diving, twirling,
Snapping, turning, rising, swirling,
Screeching, flipping, gliding, sliding,
The red hawk's dance of death.

.....the king of the skies.....

mrimer
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