#5712 - 08/28/00 08:39 AM
Re: North is up, and South is down - sez hu?
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 04/09/00
Posts: 3065
Loc: Jakarta
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In reply to:
why a switch was made from South at the top to North at the top
Max, where did you actually get the information that South used to be at the top? In medieval times Jerusalem, i.e., East, used to be at the top, but I've never heard of South being at the top before.
Bingley
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#5713 - 08/28/00 01:17 PM
which Hemisphere is "top."
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 07/17/00
Posts: 3467
Loc: Marion NC
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Bingley is getting closer to the correct answer, but I think you will find that the first "globes" were not globes of the earth, but globes of the heavens. I think they were called celestial spheres. Certainly a prime feature of them would have been either the pole star or the southern cross, and since most of the "known world" was north of the equator, it would have made good sense to have the depiction reflect the reality the creators could see.
It was different, apparently, in Kentucky. My great-grandfather wrote down the story of the horse breeder there who could not get his race horses to run because these pesky robins built their nests in the manes of the horses. The constant singing of the birds distracted the horses. He (gran'ther) proved that a yeast solution would drive the birds away. Proving, of course, that yeast is yeast, and nest is nest, and never the manes shall tweet.
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#5714 - 08/28/00 03:01 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 08/12/00
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#5715 - 08/29/00 06:43 AM
Re: which Hemisphere is "top."
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addict
Registered: 03/17/00
Posts: 460
Loc: Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
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<and never the manes shall tweet>
You been at the moonshine again, Ted?
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#5716 - 08/29/00 07:27 AM
Re: which Hemisphere is "top."
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Carpal Tunnel
Registered: 07/17/00
Posts: 3467
Loc: Marion NC
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>You been at the moonshine again, Ted?
Still.
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#5717 - 08/29/00 09:25 AM
Re: which Hemisphere is "top."
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enthusiast
Registered: 07/12/00
Posts: 200
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obviously there is no logical reason why north is up. and in many ways, considering the shiraz to be enjoyed post or not post golf in the southern hemispere, south is currently up.
i think the question has to do with who drew the maps, doesn't it? i notice maps from the u.s. show that country in the centre. this is the "customer" issue again. once people get used to the shapes of countries - australia is such a distinctive shape north up! - it's hard to change it.
the political question is really "should we change maps to reflect our "global village" ideas?" (whatever that means), or at least get greenland into size.
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#5719 - 08/29/00 10:44 AM
Re: which Hemisphere is "top."
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enthusiast
Registered: 07/12/00
Posts: 200
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jackie, shiraz is the name of a wine making grape. it's called syrah in france, but some argue in australia it has become different enough to warrant a different name.
it makes beautiful wine in the rhone, famously "chateau neuf du pape", and also in australia, famously "grange".
the grape used to be called "hermitage" in australia (after the northern rhone area), but because the french copyrighted the names of their regions, she name changed to that of a city in iran (which apparently isn't copyrighted)!
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#5720 - 09/01/00 05:39 AM
Re: North is up, and South is down - sez hu?
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addict
Registered: 06/27/00
Posts: 444
Loc: Sydney Australia
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I just stumbled on this thread for the first time and this is what I thought before I read it all: -imagine standing with a compass in front of you, with an arrow on one end. If you rotate yourself around, at some point the compass will face straight to you / away from you. You are now facing either north or south - for simplicity's sake let's say north. (Sorry Max!!!) -if you now map what's in front of you, stuff in the far north ends up at the top of the page. By extension, stuff behind you must belong at the bottom of the page. This makes visual sense to me. It also suggests that maps might have started off with either north or south at the top of the page, then inevitably one had to win out as the standard. (Dangerous aside in a forum like this one, but it's a bit like which side of the road to drive - the only places I know of where you drive on the left are islands...) I find myself much more flummoxed by the idea of a map with east at the top than that of a map with south at the top. Now, has anyone come across maps with west at the top? We need to be sure no-one is disavantaged!!! 
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#5721 - 09/01/00 06:04 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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