Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Great names! But then there
are other official names that I look at and think, “You gotta be kidding me.” Examples include The
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (commonly called North Korea), The Lao People's Demo-
cratic Republic (Laos), and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Each of these countries is
currently under a virtual dictatorship. In fact, what “democratic republics” seem to have in common
is a lack of characteristics that most people associate with democracy,like periodic honest elections,
secret ballots, and two or more honest-to-goodness political parties. Are we talking bona fide coun-
tries? Yep. But should they be called “Democratic Republics”? Let's take a vote.
The Seven Seas
“TheSevenSeas” isacolloquialism thatroughlymeans“all oftheworld'soceans.” Youwouldfigure
that whomever coined the phrase must have counted something, but what? There are literally dozens
of “Seas” around the world. Maybe it's simply a matter of “The Eighty-four Seas” (or whatever) just
not having the same poetic impact of “Seven Seas.” Someone suggested the term refers to the con-
stituent seas of the Mediterranean Sea — like the Aegean Sea, the Ionian Sea, the Adriatic Sea, and
so forth. Trouble is, my atlas shows the Mediterranean contains at least eight lesser seas, so forget
that.
Then there are the oceans. My atlas shows the Arctic Ocean, The North and South Pacific Oceans,
The North and South Atlantic Oceans, The Indian Ocean, and . . . that's it. Six. Some people speak of
the“Antarctic Ocean” orthe“Southern Ocean” (same water body),whichwouldmake seven.Indeed,
there is a lot of water surrounding Antarctica. Its degree of coldness makes it ecologically distinct
from adjacent oceans and is the prime rationale for separate status. But neither “Antarctic Ocean” nor
“Southern Ocean” has ever achieved formal status, and therefore does not appear on world maps —
at least not ones that take their reputations seriously. So what about “The Seven Seas?” My advice is
that you simply say “the oceans.”
The Flat Earth Society
Some people just don'tgetit.Which istosayyes,there really isaFlat Earth Society.See foryourself.
Get on the Internet and do a key word search. All sorts of things will pop up under “Flat Earth Soci-
ety” including an honest-to-goodness organization by that name. Many (most?) members are motiv-
ated by literal interpretation of Scripture. In the Gospels (Matthew 4:8; Luke 4:5), for example, Satan
tempts Jesus by taking Him to the top of a very high mountain to see “all the kingdoms of the earth.”
That would be theoretically possible on a flat Earth, but not on a sphere-like one.
