"... since South America is connected to North America through Panama, North America is connected to Asia through the Bering Strait, and Asia is connected to Europe, Africa and Australia through the Urals, the Sinai and Indonesia, respectively."
From "How Many Continents Are There? You May Not Like the Answers" (NYT)(free-access link so you can read the definitions and so forth).
I've quoted the position of one geologist, but another says that there could be a third continent, Zealandia, which might not be sufficiently connected to Australia to deserve inclusion in the everything-but-Antarctica continent. There are also geologists who say 6 or 5 or 8 or 9. Just don't say 7.
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93 comments:
And if you look at a polar projection, Antarctica looks like a rubber ducky.
Widespread incontinence.
A pressing conundrum. Guess I'm going to have to stop thinking about the Roman Empire every day.
First they went after the nine planets and now they want to reorganize the continents. Can’t we just leave things alone?
This reminds me of the “Is Pluto a planet?” debates.
Science!
Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
First thing I thought of as well.
Whatever nerds. My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas, so I'm still ride or die on Pluto being a planet.
Why would I 'not like the answers'?
Which experts are we to believe?
I thought I'd try this as an exercise. First we need a definition: What would a continent be? A non-ocean tectonic plate seems like as good a definition as any. Okay, quick trip to Wikipedia. Hmmm. Looks like there are Major, Minor, and Micro plates. Let's just count the major plates. Throw out the Pacific plate since it's ocean. So: 6 if you count India and Australia as one plate, but not everyone does, so maybe 7. So 7 is perfectly fine answer. Damn click-bate headline. I guess I'll go skim the article now.
Brought to you by the same people who said Pluto is not a planet.
Pluto is a planet
There are 7 continents
THERE. ARE. FOUR. LIGHTS!
There is no Platonic essence of "continent" any more than there is a Platonic essence of "planet" and "minor planet" or "major tectonic plate" and "minor tectonic plate" and tectonic micro plate". You use a definition that is useful and that the people you communicate with can agree to.
One: terra firma. Also, one heavenly body connected by dark matter imperceptible to the seances.
I thought Antarctica was major because it's the one that sits on the turtle's back.
Everything’s interconnected,
The foot bone's connected to the leg bone
The leg bone's connected to the knee bone
The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone
Doin' the skeleton dance
The thigh bone's connected to the hip bone
The hip bone's connected to the backbone
The backbone's connected to the neck bone
Doin' the skeleton dance
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dancing bones
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dancing bones
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dancing bones
Doin' the skeleton dance
This article is useful to this extent: scientists can’t even agree how many continents there are - I’m certainly not going to believe there’s anything approaching “consensus” on anthropogenic climate change.
The Vault Dweller
“Whatever nerds. My very excellent mother just served us nine pizzas, so I'm still ride or die on Pluto being a planet.”
But all the Experts say “My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nonsense.”
TBC, I prefer the pizzas.
Today, I feel there are 27. I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow
Today, I feel there are 27. I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow
Ironically, people believe there is a universe inferred from signals of unknown fidelity and origin, in what can be characterized as indulgence of a god complex, and accompanying religion narrated in a handmade tale to selfie.
North America and South America are two separate continents that are swooshing past each other at slow geological speeds. The geology and history are different. Event the biome’s flora and fauna differ on either side of the Darien Gap.
I identify as the 12th continent. My pronouns are Panga/Pangis
It's intended to keep us all off balance, keep the ground shifting. It's why "they" are constantly redefining words. We're the other members of Pink Floyd trying to learn "Have You Got It Yet" from Syd Barrett. Frank Herbert had thoughts on this: "In all major socializing forces you will find an underlying movement to gain and maintain power through the use of words. From witch doctor to priest to bureaucrat it is all the same. A governed populace must be conditioned to accept power-words as actual things to confuse the symbolized system with the tangible universe."
Hold up ... even *this* science isn't settled?
I’m going with Ficta, but combining Australia and India.
Fun fact: Thurgood Marshall's clerks, knowing he had bladder problems, used to refer to him as "The Dark Incontinent."
True story. Trust me.
What about Hawaii- which of the two continents is it connected to? What about any island in the middle of our singular ocean- are those just islands unlike this New Zealand continent?
"COUNTING CONTINENTS: YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT WRO--" (click)
This is not a question of geology.
There are only 2 kinds of people in the world. those who think there are only two kinds of people, and those who do not.
And the point is? Nothing. Y'know like saying there are only 2 continents.
“
Bushman of the Kohlrabi said…
“Today, I feel there are 27. I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow.”
You’re thinking of the correct number of original Baskin Robbins flavors: it’s 27 not 31. For example, French Vanilla is just a variation on Vanilla. I can’t tell you what the others are, though. I am not a Food Scientist.
This entire article revolves around the definition of "Major Continent". Personally, I consider Austrailia and Antarctica figments of peoples imagination. Neither place really exists.
Scott M said…
"COUNTING CONTINENTS: YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT WRO--" (click)
Maybe the other 5 continents simply didn’t answer the phone when the pollsters called.
Wait until they start fucking with the periodic table…
I will point out, that North America is actually separated from Asia by the Bering Strait. But I don't guess you could expect anyone employed by a university to know that.
did these people flunk geography,
What the browser AI says:
In conclusion: The definition of a continent is multifaceted and context-dependent, encompassing geological, biological, ecological, and cultural aspects. While there is no single, universally accepted definition, the seven continents listed above (Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia) are widely recognized and used as a standard classification.
So basically continent is not a scientific term at all.
Is it a continuous land mass not separated by water?
Is it based on the tectonic plates upon which the above water mass rides?
Is is based on geopolitical associations?
Is Madagascar it's own continent?
What is really cool about this is that if Trump makes a claim that "Continent is defined as...", we can then have shouting debates, riots, and hate fests about the meaning of continent. And Matt Walsh will make a movie where he goes about asking "What is a continent?" (hopefully he uses a better disguise or takes a cue from O'Keefe and uses attractive women to honeypot unsuspecting scientists.)
There's too much emphasis on water.
By this reckoning there's only one ocean.
You think that's crazy? Did you know that all cats are fundamentally either black or orange?!
There is no tactical advantage for an academic in a borderline obsolescent discipline like geography to put forward claims that are intuitive, traditional, or common sense. Unless you are willing to pretend that your views are an astonishing departure from the past, you are not justifying your campaign for tenure or department chair.
You think that's crazy? Did you know that all cats are fundamentally either black or orange?!
You don't have that quite correct. Cat's are both orange and black, but we can't tell until we open the box.
continent deniers.
Many oceanographers believe that. See The Blue Machine (2023), by Helen Czerski
There are 9 planets. Pluto counts..
Things must be opening up in the Grant World,
Gotta get that name out there somehow.
Hell if they can't define a woman by a unanimous Supreme Court decision there's a chance! College Degrees!
Take it up with Cartographers For Social Equality.
Now that's funny! A Schrödinger joke. Funny or not funny depending on whether or not you understand it...
How do you get published/funded if your answer is “Yep, 7 seems about right.” ?
Momentarily read that as Zoolandia and thought of Blue Steel.
If you're a globalist working towards the elimination of national borders this is the next logical step. Then there will be no reason why anyone should not be able to go anywhere except Antarctica which is reserved only for scientists and a few wealthy tourists.
Ask the writer whether Brooklynites are Long Islanders.
This can lead into a discussion of different geographies; eg political, social, geologic, etc.
So you're unburdened by what has been?
All cats are grey in the dark.
One.
Pangea, the mother of all continents.
Mötley Crüe World Tour ‘24: Incontinence on 7 Continents
"Only two major continents"!!! Damned Globalists.
As a world famous geologist said "I thought this was America."
Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. What more do you need?
The Science Is Settled™
Experts once believed in phlogiston, so they had that nailed down, too. No wonder they cut off Lavoisier's head. Attention, Elon Musk!
Perhaps some Earth, Wind & Fire?
https://youtu.be/7tuJfud4W6U?feature=shared
It's a magma pool with a single lava field, albeit disjointed to the seances.
Of course!
You know there are a lot of "answers" in the New York Times that I don't like. Ho hum another day at the silly factory dealing in its own reality.
We need to start sending more of these applicants to trade schools.
I don't know how many continents there are but there are definitely 5 elements.Big Badda Boom
OT
ABC accidentally aired election results of Harris winning PA by 5% with 100% in
There are four lights. Right?
Well, it's technically a fruit. But a wise person does not make a fruit salad with it.
There are 21 major consonants in the English language.
Some letters, however, can represent more than one sound, including both consonant and vowel sounds. These letters are known as “sometimes consonants.”
That canal in Panama is a deal breaker for me - two continents!
All cats are gray in the dark. And that's gray spelled with the "a" not the "e" me boyo.
"Education" uses all the vowels, but so does "War & Peace."
I may not like the answers? I may not care one way or the other.
Well it is in the NYT, so just click bait. Obviously a subject that only 'experts' are concerned with, one which does not really affect the rest of us. So just make up your own number and criteria and go with that.
I've always thought that Europe is only a continent because the map makers were European.
https://www.britannica.com/science/world-map
Old world.
New world.
Third world.
Cold world.
Plus that place where we dumped all the prostitutes.
I count 5.
No, in the world of Plate Tectonics, one is over-burdened by what has been (eroded).
Bingo!
Was the Roman Empire located on one continent or two?
There, now you can keep thinking about Rome like any decent heterosexual American male.
I don't normally hold grudges, but I will never forgive Neil DeGrasse Tyson for leading the battle to take away Pluto's planet status. It doesn't affect my life in any way, but for some reason it just felt really wrong to demote Pluto.
No, Antarctica sits on four elephants, who in turn stand on a titanic turtle, who swims in Cosmic waters held in a basin on the back of a yet more titanic turtle. Then it's turtles all the way down... but none are called Gamera.
Tomatoes are berries.
Long before the word "Eurocentrism" was common it seemed daft that Europeans counted America as one continent because of the narrow land bridge between North and South America and thought Europe and Asia were two entirely different continents.
I suppose "Zealandia" is the product of similar chauvinism. While it's a great name, Madagascar has as much claim to be a continent and Greenland has more of one.
"Plus that place where we dumped all the prostitutes."
Vegas, or DC?
Brooklyn and Queens are Europe to Nassau and Suffolk's Asia.
Or maybe it should be other way around.
“And tell me grey seal
How does it feel?”
What’s all this then?
Back 40 years ago, when I got my BS in Mining Engineering, Plate tectonics was just getting a hold on the structural geology field. There still needed a few old guys to die to make it fully accepted.
Continents are ambiguous because some people define them as the continental plates floating on the mantle that sometimes come together as "Pangeas." Pangea is a meta continent, a continent of continents. Some define continents socially, where all folks in a continent should be pals, and if not you are off the continent.
Why is Asia a separate continent than Europe? Who The F Knows, whitey vs the yellow man? In the end it is all political. China wants Taiwan to be in Asia, the Philippines must be in Asia and not grouped with Australia/ SWPA.
Pluto was demoted so some guys could get a highly influential paper published.
"There still needed a few old guys to die to make it fully accepted."
Careful, now. You're going to upset the Climate Cult crazies by suggesting that the science isn't settled.
There are 9 planets. Pluto counts.
If “Pluto counts” as a (greater than “dwarf”) planet, then Eris—basically exactly the same size as Pluto; but a quarter-again as massive; while orbiting up to twice as far from the sun—must also be a (full-blown) “planet.”
In other words, if Pluto is a planet, then there are (at least) ten planets, not (never again!) just nine.
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