LL-L "Geography" 2009.03.11 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 11 March 2009 - Volume 03
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From: Hellinckx Luc <luc.hellinckx at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Geography"


Beste Paul,

You wrote:
But most imprtantly, rising from the discussion, there really is no "Europe"
in any physical geographic or geological basis; it's an open door.  The
Urals are nominally taken as the boundary, but there is a gap over 500km
wide between the southern end of the Urals and the Caspian Sea, that is
as flat as pool table most of the way.  Plenty of room to squeeze a bagpipe
through!


I crossed that "gap" by motorbike last summer. True, the land over there is
very flat. The roads themselves are quite the opposite though: never seen
worse potholes. Years of neglect, extreme temperatures and heavy trucks
usually made the highway look like Swiss cheese dotted with craters; felt
like WW III had just hit the road.
So much space, and yet, nobody was living there, even Borat was no longer
around *s*...immediately felt at home.

Bridging the gap: there used to be a sizeable Mennonite community in
Orenburg (Southwest Ural).

People in the UK (and in Japan) often think of themselves as being excentric
(even eccentric). In my view, we're all islanders, we're all surrounded by
water. Only difference is that our island (Eurasia) is sooo big that
sometimes words for lake and sea get mixed up. Legend in China and Japan has
it that the latter got populated by a couple of thousands of Chinese (some
sources say 500), leaving the mainland in search of immortality.

http://tinyurl.com/behull

Others believe America (British Columbia?) may have been discovered by
Chinese Buddhist priests at yet another time: 扶桑

Coming full circle: A couple of days ago, a Spanish historian claimed
Christopher Columbus was actually...a Scotsman...named Pedro Scotto

http://tinyurl.com/c7foyn

Kind greetings,

Luc Hellinckx

•

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