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#87469 11/20/02 11:15 PM
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Hearkening back to an earlier thread on this forum which is too long to resurrect (hey! my first very own reinyartnation® since I coined it! ), there was just a story on the CBS Evening News that a new study shows that 13% of US 18-24 year olds couldn't find Iraq on a map! And that 11% of the same age group could not point out here the USA was on a map of the world! Good God! And yikes! And, and...


#87470 11/20/02 11:29 PM
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Don't feel so bad, W'ON. Almost nobody where I live knows where Te Ika a Maui is either - and 75% of my country's population lives there.

As to USn geographic aptitude, a little yart gratia yartis for you:
http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/geography.shtml


#87471 11/20/02 11:49 PM
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wwh Offline
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One of the biggest disappointments on the Internet is the paucity of maps. I have many
times spent many minutes fruitlessly looking for maps, particularly since many countries
have had their names changed since I had geopgraphy seventy five years ago.


#87472 11/21/02 12:02 AM
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Dr Bill, have you tried Mapquest.com? I'll ask Faldage when he gets home. Surely there are updated maps to be found.


#87473 11/21/02 12:42 AM
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Dear AS: Mapquest appears to have US maps only. I tried National Geographic site again,
and they appeared not to have maps, though there was brief text available. Several times
I have sent members yarns about places I was in Philippines and new Guinea (Indonesia)
and had no way of refreshing my memory of those places. Considering the wealth of info
of other types, map info seems very skimpy. Thanks, Bill


#87474 11/21/02 01:16 AM
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formerly known as etaoin...
#87475 11/21/02 01:28 AM
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Dear etaoin: Those are better than any i found before, but still disappointing. For instance I
wanted to describe Leyte, but could not find it. I wanted to see if I could figure out where
it was between Leyte and Luzon that the Dutch skipper disobeyed his sailing instructions,
thinking to save fuel, and put us between a Naval landing force and the beach they were
shelling. I wanted to see a map that would show where Finschafen and Hollandia were on
New Guinea (now Indonesia). It's disappointing. I wanted to see on map relationship of
Samar to Leyte. etc, etc.



#87476 11/21/02 01:42 AM
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Bill, these might get you a bit closer:

http://www.sitesatlas.com/Atlas/PhysAtlas/D14.htm

http://www.sitesatlas.com/Atlas/PhysAtlas/index.htm

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=mmfn&&zz=1037846242755&

the expedia maps seem especially good; you can zoom in and move the map around, and make it bigger. I think you'll be able to see what you want. good luck!


formerly known as etaoin...
#87477 11/21/02 02:02 AM
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wwh Offline
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Dear etaoin: Those look much more promising. Notice that you can hardly see the strait
separating Leyte from Samar. The first month I was on Leyte, I was helping out at a
Field Hospital, and say a Navy patient with a bandage on his nose. I asked him what happened,
and he said a Jap hit him with a bolo. I said bullshit, if a Jap hit you with a bolo, you would
have lost half your head. Then he explained. He had heard that his brother had been killed
in an invasion way north, maybe Okinawa. He was on Samar, and took a jeep and drove out
to where some MPs were guarding Japs clearing brush along a road. He told MPs he wanted to
shoot some Japs, so MP said be my guest, and handed him Tommie gun. He killed several Japs,
but one of them got close enough to strike with bolo, and sailor was drunk enough he only
managed to deflect the blow with the Thompson. The edge of the bolo caught on sight or
something, and blade rotated so dull edge only hit him. The other MP blew Jap away.
Not all atrocities were committed by Japs. I wish the map of Leyte showed where
Tacloban was, because I had a yarn about airport there. Oh, well, can't have everything.
Thanks, etaoin. Bill


#87478 11/21/02 06:12 AM
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enthusiast
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>>Dear AS: Mapquest appears to have US maps only

No, I am sure having used it to find European maps and driving directions.
written MapQuest, anyway.


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