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OP
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I bought a circular poster from the Bay of Islands Maritime and Historic Park, Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, but nowhere on it does it say who wrote it. Can anyone help? I really like it:
"If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter, floating a few feet above a field somewhere, people would come from everywhere to marvel at it. People would walk around it, marvelling at its big pools of water, its little pools, and the water flowing between the pools. People would marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at the creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and at the creatures in the water. The people would declare it as sacred because it was the only one, and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt. The ball would be the greatest wonder known, and people would come to pray to it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty and to wonder how it could be. People would love it, and defend it with their lives because they would somehow know that their lives, their own roundness, could be nothing without it. If the Earth were only a few feet in diameter."
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Thanks for this, Angel. Hm. Whom to believe?! Think I'll go for Anonymous. That Anonymous. What a prolific creator. 
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Dernit Mostmodestgodess and Angel too,
Must I be the one to point out that if the world was a six foot diameter ball the great oceans would be less than a silly millimeter thick, hardly a moist slick spot for our smug contemplation and self-hug-ment on how wonderful we are who recognize the special nature of the planet Earth?
Dernit, I'm in enough trouble already.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Milum : Must I be the one to point out that if the world was a six foot diameter ball the great oceans would be less than a silly millimeter thick...(Huge sigh -e) Must you, indeed, dear Milum? You must have been infected by that dreded Literal-itis bug! I think the imagery is lovely ... Idealistic? True. But what did that ever hurt? Ah, well. I guess the prosaic has it's place ... just sign me an unrepentant idealistic romantic at heart. And here's a kiss for you, Milum.  P.S. Couldn't the measurement thing be solved by substituting "a few miles" or even "a few yards" for "a few feet?" Maybe it got shrunk in transcription?
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Carpal Tunnel
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if the world was a six foot diameter ball the great oceans would be less than a silly millimeter thick
The largest animals would be about 15 millionths of an inch long. As for having it floating in a field, if it happened around here during hunting season I'd give it a half an hour.
Literal-itis bug shmiteral-itis bug. Innumeracy is innumeracy.
BTW, I've sung this thang, music by a woman I know (who didn't study under Nadia Boulanger).
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Carpal Tunnel
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But literal or not, what a lovely post, m-goddess. And a toast to your journey-person status. So glad to have you with us.
Milum, are preparing to teach the secret handshake?
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SECRET HANDSHAKE?!
but how cooool!
Milum, how CAN you maunder on about millimeters when there is a SECRET HANDSHAKE to be taught!
Orright, I takes yer point. Still an' all, though, I really hadn't thought about the size/shrinkage issue (perhaps because I am a woman. Insert smug-e here....and comment: "I don't know how you guys walk around with those things...."). Wot if people were marvelling at it through high-powered magnifying glasses?
After all, people marvel at teeny-weeny things through high-powered magnifying glasses all the time. (ingenuous-e)
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"I don't know how you guys walk around with those things...."
You don't know how we walk around with those things!!!
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Reading what Milo wrote brought back a mental flash of one of those educational programs I saw years and years ago. The narrator, someone famous I've long forgotten, showed the viewing audience a big metal ball--I've forgotten its size, but it may have been between the size of a softball and a basketball. Anyway, he said that if this metal ball were the earth--then he blew his breath on the ball--that the film of moisture he'd just blown would be the depth of the oceans. I thought that was pretty cool.
Breath regards,
Wordwindy
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Here are the numbers if you guys want them (rounded to a sensible decimal place): Radius of earth = 6 000 km (so diameter = 12 000 km) Mean depth of oceans = 4 km Deepest depth of ocean = about 11 km (Mindanao Trench) Highest peak of mountains (for comparison) = about 9 km (Mount Everest) Ratio of mean ocean depth to Earth's diameter = 4 / 12000 = 0.0003 So a globe of diameter 1m (3.28 feet) would have ocean depth of 0.3 mm = 12 thousandths of an inch. You can scale this for whatever size globe you like. Just doing my oceanographical duty. Cheers!
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addict
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"I don't know how you guys walk around with those things...."You don't know how we walk around with those things!!!Oh, Faldage, darlin'! Can't wait to meet you at Wordapalooza! [he has no idea-e] 
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