Never Heard of Nauru? Join 'Geography Olympics'
NEW YORK (Reuters) - America may dominate the world but in
one arena, the ''Geography Olympics,'' the United States was 88th behind
minnows such as Madagascar and the Marshall Islands.
More than 46,000 Americans have taken part in this online
geography competition started by a man with a mission : Roger Andresen, who
quit his job as a fiber optic engineer two years ago when he realized most
Americans have never heard of Nauru and don't know Cameroon is in Africa.
Working from his home in Georgia -- the U.S. state, not
the country -- he created a jigsaw puzzle with pieces shaped like the
countries of the world and launched what he calls the ''world's biggest
ongoing geography puzzle'' on the Web.
Players have 200 seconds to locate 10 randomly selected
countries on a map of the world with the names blanked out.
The site
<>www.geographyolympics.com<http://www.geographyolympics.com/> has attracted
more than 300,000 players from 179 countries so far. National rankings
fluctuate throughout the day depending on the latest scores.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters.
----- Original Message ----- From: Gene GeRue<mailto:genegerue AT ruralize.com>
> >a short history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson.
> I've been meaning to buy that book.
People mention books over and over -
seems like I'm the only one who goes
to the *library* - homesteaders, if you
don't patronize your library system/branch,
it will be taken away from you ... I live
in a huge city, and the branch libraries
have people in them all day every day,
nevertheless, library hours have been
cut, library staff has been cut, and the
latest measure was to close all branches
one week each *quarter* so no more
people would be laid off - I am waiting
to see if that's enough or if branch use
is going to be monitored next to determine
where branches may be closed.
[Homestead] "what's (wrong) with this picture ?",
Toni Hawryluk, 11/29/2004