What? The Amazon basin covers nearly half the country, and two thirds of that is dense jungle.
This is one of those times when location and pronunciation are everything.
Ha! What a moron!
A few years ago a friend was talking about some contest at her job where the winner would get a free Blackberry.
I asked why they would get only one instead of, say, a pint of them. Yes, I was serious.
And how well does stuff grow in tundra and desert?
Dense jungle can probably be tamed or farmed. Tundra and desert, not so much IMO.
For that matter, even suburbs in former tropical jungle is probably better than suburbs in former tundra. Desert might be a wash if you have enough water you can bring in.
Desertification is reversible. It’s not really any tougher than turning jungle into arable land… or a subdivision. Anyway, the point is not whether you can “make stuff grow in it” or make it a subdivision. Useable land is land you can plant tomorrow, not in 10 years - and the Amazon makes much of the jungle inaccessible anyway.
Says you.
You missed the whole point. It aint just about square footage. For that matter it aint just about right NOW. Its more complicated than that. That was the point which flew over your head.
I confess I didn’t (heck, still don’t) know the technical definition of wind chill, but I thought that was odd as well: the idea that it’s only a perceived effect on warm-blooded creatures. If that were the case, how could they measure it? (Other than drawing straws out at the weather station to go stand outside: “Can you hear me, Bob? Yeah, it feels like it’s minus ten below out here. Can I come inside now?”)
I work for a popular celebrity entertainment magazine you can find on your super market checkout line, so while my coworkers aren’t astrophysicists, they’re all college educated and very bright. A coworker and friend of mine over-stepped her bounds and tried her hand at redesigning a spread herself (she was not a designer, but rather worked in the photo department). After she was unsuccessful (and caught, and told not to mess with the layouts), I commented to her, “Ah, much like Icarus, you flew too close to the sun.”
Blank stare. “What’s Icarus?”
“Um,” I continue, “you see, your hubris got you into trouble, you thought you were a better designer…”
“What’s hubris?”
“You’ve never heard of Icarus? Greek kid, dad was an inventor? Wings made of wax? They… melted, and…”
“You think I’m dumb!” She exclaimed. I didn’t, she’s definitely smart and does her job well (she’s just lousy with InDesign), but I definitely felt bad. For both of us. I mean, Iron Maiden wrote a song about it for Pete’s sake!
Yes, I often have difficulty grasping points which are not actually expressed.
Some women don’t realize how willing men are to make spanky
When I was a little one in UK school we called it “real writing” as opposed to printing.
The Nuns made us do loops and curves with a fountain pen which we filled from ink wells which were placed in the desks.
This was in the late 1970’s to early 80’s.
They had their standards and my handwriting (if not my typing) is complemented to this day.
“No, I think you’re ignorant. moron” 
I agree 100% - if Iron Maiden writes a song about it - we should all know what they’re singing about! I truly love Maiden!
Speaking of time zones . . . I once had a friend who thought people in different time zones actually lived at different times. E.g. he thought that you couldn’t have a phone conversation with someone in a different time zone, because you’d have to wait hours for their response. Otherwise you’d be answering their questions before they were asked.
Yes, I have known some mind-numbingly stupid people over the years.
Around here “pasties” would be in the “sexual paraphernalia” section . . . not found in a standard supermarket.
I grew up never hearing the term cursive writing. We printed, or we wrote; that was it. It wasn’t till about 6 or 8 years ago when my daughter started writing that I heard the term for the first time.
One of my good friends had a girlfriend who was clueless. Among the things she had never heard of (at the age of about 30 at the time):
James Bond
The Wizard of Oz
Genghis Khan
There are more, but that’s all I can think of now.
Wow, that’s weird. But it would be totally cool. I’d play the lottery in different time zones, because I’d already know the winning numbers.
Did someone in some thread once upon a time talk to someone who had never heard of Hitler?
We have a friend who is married to real winner. When a group of us were playing a game she honestly had no idea what the San Andreas Fault was and asked if it was new!!! I wish I could say those were the stupidest words ever to come out of her mouth, yet sadly I would be lying.
I just asked Mrs. kidneyfailure how many states there are in the US. She said 56, then 52, then 50. She also thought the White House was in New York.
She has an excuse, though.
Google has enlightened me. Different pronunciation, though.