[Theforum] culture-differences (was: Roll Call - Madhu)

[Bob Davis]

At 9:48 AM +1030 10/31/01, you wrote:


>oh, and not that anyone's done this on thelists, but (it happens everywhere
>else -- especially cia.gov) please don't describe something as being "as big
>as texas". i don't know how big texas is.
>
>aside: why compare everything to texas? is it a nice square shape or
>something? is the size of texas in square metres the first thing american
>children are taught at school?

It's really big - but not square at all.

261,914 square miles (about 8-9% of Australia)

678,354 Km^2

67,835,414.58425 hectares

29,101 square leagues

678,354,145,842 square meters

Here's a map from 1990:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/united_states/texas_90.jpg

(it is, of course, 3036x2952....)

More maps here:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/texas.html#state

It's more cultural metaphor than anything. Everyone knows (here at 
least) that things are bigger in Texas. Dex became "Texas Sized" 
during evolticon2 (I don't think anyone would consider him petite). 
Texas Sized just means big.

bob

-- 
bob davis
bobd at members.evolt.org
http://www.bobdavis.org/