Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdahl!cit-vax!elroy!jplpub1!jbrown
From: jbrown@jplpub1.jpl.nasa.gov (Jordan Brown)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Flat Brainwaves
Message-ID: <5299@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Date: 27 Jan 88 08:49:30 GMT
References: <11988390708741001@vms3.macc.wisc.edu>
Sender: news@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov
Reply-To: jbrown@jplpub1.UUCP (Jordan Brown)
Organization: Me?  Organized?
Lines: 87

In article <> ANDERSON@VMS3.MACC.WISC.EDU (Jess Anderson) writes:
>jbrown@jplpub1.jpl.nasa.gov (Jordan Brown) writes:
>> [all of Indiana is at less than 3900 feet]
>
>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.

I assure you, I wouldn't care in the slightest whether the terrain is
a little bumpy or not.  Is a "retailed appreciation" the appreciation
you get after buying the property?

>                                                         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.

Everything is relative.  If you're used to the Sierras or the Rockies,
everything else (in N. America) is puny.  Even the San Gabriels are
bigger than anything in the east half of the country.  And yes, hills a
few hundred feet high are pretty flat.  I regularly hike medium hills -
only a thousand or so feet tall.  How can you call something a hill
when it's smaller than a good-sized building?

>>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.

At least I'm referring to a map.  Do you know how to read maps?
Mt Washington, NH is 6288 feet.  Mt Mitchell, NC is 6684.

>>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?)
                           Yup, I blew it.
>>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.

Sounds like a real mountain.  On the other hand, I think it was pretty
clear that I was referring to North America, not Europe.  If you want
to be silly, Asia and Mt Everest are east of Denver, too.  For that
matter, if you go far enough, the Rockies are east of Denver.
(If somebody is going to spin off a flat earth discussion, PLEASE
change the subject line.)

>>[the little mountain outside my window is higher than anything in IN]
>Ain't you just *too* grand, though?  Gosh golly gee!

I just can't get impressed at hills you could see over from the top of
a good-sized building.

>>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.

Which is, of course, west of Denver...

>>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.

I can imagine that it's a nice place to visit.  To live there, though?
No mountains?  Weather where if you're not adequately bundled up you'll
die instead of just catch a cold?  Proxmire?  No way.

>(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.)

It's cold here too.  I think it's been getting down into the low 40s
and high 30s at night.  (Went skiing the other day... on one of the
little mountains in the local range... base of the lifts was at about
6600', just slightly lower than the top of Mt Mitchell.)