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Thread: What makes North North? o.o

  1. #31
    Crocodylus Pontifex The Space Pope's Avatar
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    *yawn*

    Quote Originally Posted by rubah View Post
    pole reversal
    Is that how you became female?
    derp

  2. #32
    Ghost 'n' Stuff NorthernChaosGod's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ShlupQuack View Post
    What if my blue is your orange and your red is my manilla? What if we all really have the same favorite color but it's a different name to us?

    WHAT IF?

    I smurfing hate philosophizing.
    I agree. What benefit is it?

  3. #33
    Your Prime Minister Timekeeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mogi View Post
    So, Timekeeper, East was initially up? That's interesting! A search for Ptolemy didn't quite find what I was looking for. Do you have any idea how I can find other information on the topic?
    It's hard to tell what the initial direction used was, I guess it differed from place to place depending on their beliefs, customs and directions they find sacred. For example, one site explains the Arabic choice:

    They put south at the top. This is because when you wake up and face the sun, south is on the right. Because of positive associations with the right as opposed to left, they put that on top.
    Yemen is so named because it is on the "yamin" right of Arabia. And of course, with the sea to the south of them there was nothing "on top" of the country, so they prefered it that way. Europeans learnt mapmaking from the Arabians and flipped the map to make themselves on top.

    And then apparently in Medieval Europe:

    Jerusalem was on top because that was the Holy Land.
    This meant that east was more or less at the top.

    There are some more details on different directional choices by different cultures here.
    I just found that one site with Google, if you want even more, try Googling some sections of the things that I have quoted, they might lead you to more sites who have also quoted that author. Goodluck!

    Quote Originally Posted by NorthernChaosGod View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by ShlupQuack View Post
    What if my blue is your orange and your red is my manilla? What if we all really have the same favorite color but it's a different name to us?

    WHAT IF?

    I smurfing hate philosophizing.
    I agree. What benefit is it?
    I'd explain it in my own words, but this guys says it much better:

    According to Russell Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor of organizational change, the content of the human mind can be classified into five categories:

    Data: symbols

    Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to "who", "what", "where", and "when" questions

    Knowledge: application of data and information; answers "how" questions

    Understanding: appreciation of "why"

    Wisdom: evaluated understanding.

    Ackoff indicates that the first four categories relate to the past; they deal with what has been or what is known. Only the fifth category, wisdom, deals with the future because it incorporates vision and design. With wisdom, people can create the future rather than just grasp the present and past. But achieving wisdom isn't easy; people must move successively through the other categories.
    To reach Understanding and Wisdom you must philosophize a bit.


  4. #34

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kirobaito View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Bunny View Post
    Ptolemy wasn't Egyptian.
    That's unnecessarily splitting hairs and you know it. He was born, lived in, and died in Egypt.
    These three things do not necessarily mean that he was Egyptian. He was a Roman citizen who had the misfortune of being born outside of Rome. By all standards then and now, he was still a Roman.

  5. #35
    Banished Ace Recognized Member Agent Proto's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rubah View Post
    it would depend on when the last pole reversal was and the way they manufactured compasses in ancient china.
    You know, I did read somewhere that the poles will be shifting on that fateful day in 2012. However, I think it's bullocks so what do I know?

    Apparently, I have been declared banished.

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  7. #37
    Free-range Human Recognized Member Lawr's Avatar
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    Yeah, Timekeeper. Thanks for all of the information!

  8. #38
    One Hundred Chimneys Recognized Member Tavrobel's Avatar
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    ITT: Thinkrage

  9. #39
    Your Prime Minister Timekeeper's Avatar
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    No worries guys, it's fun learning all this stuff and then passing it on


    Quote Originally Posted by Bunny View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Kirobaito View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Bunny View Post
    Ptolemy wasn't Egyptian.
    That's unnecessarily splitting hairs and you know it. He was born, lived in, and died in Egypt.
    These three things do not necessarily mean that he was Egyptian. He was a Roman citizen who had the misfortune of being born outside of Rome. By all standards then and now, he was still a Roman.
    Born, lived, died in Egypt.
    He was a Roman citizen of the Roman Empire.
    The name Ptolemy is of Greek descent, and Ptolemy wrote in Ancient Greek.

    "Although a Roman citizen, most scholars have concluded that ethnically, Ptolemy was a Greek, while some suggest that he was ethnically an Egyptian, though Hellenized (that of Greek culture)"


    So yea take your pick...
    I'd say he's Roman by association, Egyptian by location and Greek by culture.


  10. #40

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    Please stop citing Wikipedia as a source.

  11. #41
    Quack Shlup's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mogi View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by ShlupQuack View Post
    What if my blue is your orange and your red is my manilla? What if we all really have the same favorite color but it's a different name to us?

    WHAT IF?

    I smurfing hate philosophizing.
    That's all neat and stuff, and I think that's a very interesting thought, but I'm being serious.
    <input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">
    I didn't say you weren't. Though if you were really serious, you would've posted in EoEO, where no one would be allowed to talk about pole reversals.
    Quote Originally Posted by Timekeeper View Post
    To reach Understanding and Wisdom you must philosophize a bit.
    It only counts if it's something worth thinking about.

  12. #42
    Your Prime Minister Timekeeper's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bunny View Post
    Please stop citing Wikipedia as a source.
    You are right, it's a bad habit to get into. I was purely using it as a source in this case, as I found it summed up the other sites I had been reading better than I could. None the less I should be ashamed, my Ancient teacher would be furious!

    Quote Originally Posted by ShlupQuack View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Timekeeper View Post
    To reach Understanding and Wisdom you must philosophize a bit.
    It only counts if it's something worth thinking about.
    Who deems it worthy? I'd say an expert on the subject; someone who has put a good deal of thought into it.


  13. #43
    Draw the Drapes Recognized Member rubah's Avatar
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    We can use wikipedia as a source for my lab class. It's awesome.

  14. #44
    Score: 0 out of 2 Dignified Pauper's Avatar
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    If you keep going North, sooner or later, you'll start going South.

  15. #45
    One Hundred Chimneys Recognized Member Tavrobel's Avatar
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    Not if I'm rotating the reference axes, I won't.

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