Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!decwrl!ucbvax!VMS3.MACC.WISC.EDU!ANDERSON
From: ANDERSON@VMS3.MACC.WISC.EDU (Jess Anderson)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Flat Brainwaves
Message-ID: <11988390708741001@vms3.macc.wisc.edu>
Date: 16 Jan 88 15:29:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 69


Subject: Flat Brainwaves
Newsgroups: alt.flames


In article <5230@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
jbrown@jplpub1.jpl.nasa.gov (Jordan Brown) writes:

>My map doesn't show any terrain of interest in Indiana.  Admittedly,
>it is a large-scale map, but it does explicitly say that you can fly
>anywhere in the state at 3900 feet and not run into ANYTHING.

Let's fly along, then, 3900 feet, and when we get to Indiana, let's
throw you out.  You might develop a more retailed appreciation of the
relief of the countryside as it rushes up to greet you.  Places with
hills several hundred feet high above the surrounding terrain are not
usually perceived as flat, which was your original bit of mindless
contention.

>The highest thing I can find on the east coast is Mt. Mitchell, NC,
>at 6700 feet.  Most of the Appalachian (so-called) Mountains are below
>6000 feet.

Isn't Mt. Washington (NH) something like 8000 feet?  Seems to me it's
the U.S. highest elevation east of the Mississippi.

>Most of the country east of Denver is less than 4000 feet tall.
>By contrast, the country East of Denver has numerous mountains over
                          ^^^^ (see how flummoxed you are?)
>14000 feet tall, and numerous^2 mountains over 10,000.

Mont Blanc is east of Denver (it's west of Denver too), and it stands
not quite 16,000 feet up there.  One of the neater things about it is
that the peak is over 12,000 feet above the valley floor, so you get a
better feel for the height of it than you would at, say, the Grand
Tetons, which only rise something like 6-7000 feet above Jackson Lake.

>Looking out my window, I can see one of the relatively small mountains
>in the area.  At 4000 feet, it's really only a big hill.  On the other
>hand, it's taller than ANYTHING in Indiana.

Ain't you just *too* grand, though?  Gosh golly gee!

>Maybe you've never seen a mountain?

Not to match your nonsense, I'll admit, but I have stood on the tippy
top of the aforementioned Mont Blanc, a bit higher than any US mountain
until you get to Denali.

>>(We ought to have
>>expected that sort of thing from a *.gov site, I suppose.)

>Can't blame jpl; I only read news here (in exchange for occasional help).
>Of course, from Wisconsin we get your sort of trash...

It's true, we're terrible yokels out here, but we've made do without
*real* mountains rather nicely.  This is a lovely place.  You should
see it some time; it might widen your mind, which looks like it could
stand it.

(Sorry, friends of flames, I had intended to fry this hick, but I'm
in too good a mood this morning; the temperture in good old (flat!)
Wisconsin is going to rise above freezing today for the first time in
ages, and I'm elated.)

==INTERNET: anderson@vms.macc.wisc.edu====Jess Anderson======(home:)========
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