(But if we got off our cultro-centric butts and admitted that Europe is just western Eurasia, we wouldn’t have to make up stories about the supposed continent of Europe.)
Tom~
Cecil covered this at
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_166a.html
There was also a rather long thread associated with it as I recall.
According to my Encyclopedia Britanica if Antarctica did not have its ice cap it would be the smallest continent.
Maybe Antarctica is the larges ICE CAP in the world.
Hmm.
Well clearly I don’t know shit about this subject, so I’ll just leave this thread suitably small and embarrassed…
shucks
A “continent” is obviously more than just a continual landmass. If that were the only criteria, then there would be only four continents: Old World (Europe, Asia, & Africa), America (w/ North & South lobes), Australia, and Antarctica. Overall cultural identity is also an important factor. This raises the question of whether Asia should be sub-divided, continent-wise, but that’s a subject for a new thread.
“I had a feeling that in Hell there would be mushrooms.” -The Secret of Monkey Island
As to the Ownership of Antarctica, I’d vote with my daughter & leave it to the penguins.
We can visit & set a few minimally intrusive camps, but leave it as much as possible the way we found it.
One thing that GuanoLad might have heard that would be correct about this continent is that Antarctica IS the world’s larget desert.
Sue from El Paso
members.aol.com/majormd/index.html