Subject: outstanding question from nov 12 message 16066<br/>
Date: Feb 04, 2005 @ 00:55<br/>
Author: aletheiak (&quot;aletheiak&quot; &lt;aletheiak@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-2008560344"><blockquote><span title="ireply">&gt; Why the need to divide the world into continents?<br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; Regards,<br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; Kevin Meynell<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>good one<br/>
<br/>
the need exists probably <br/>
o n l y <br/>
because <br/>
for most purposes<br/>
the world is too big to comprehend or too unwieldy to handle all <br/>
at once & in a single chunk<br/>
<br/>
however<br/>
there doesnt seem to be much need that such a subdivisional <br/>
system be very sensible<br/>
<br/>
& so the 7 nominal continents <br/>
being already a bunch of weirdoes & misfits<br/>
of course plus or minus that other weirdo oceania<br/>
are really only a convenience & a sort of filing system<br/>
but without any particular intrinsic orderliness or rationality<br/>
<br/>
<br/>
the subdivisional & filing system of choice might as easily be <br/>
alphabetical as regional<br/>
but in that case you get the benefits or drawbacks of a <br/>
breakdown into as many as 26 rather than only 7 or 8 parts<br/>
<br/>
or the system might be strictly geometric<br/>
in which case you get 4 semihemispheres<br/>
or perhaps 12 or 24 orange slices or time zones<br/>
etc<br/>
<br/>
or the system could be purely whimsical & even more blatantly <br/>
arbitrary than any or all the above<br/>
based on anything else anyone likes or finds convenient<br/>
<br/>
so i dont think there is any real need for such a division<br/>
other than that which habit & tradition tend to impose</div>