Make up a really dumb quote/question

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"You can do anything you put your mind to." (No, you can't).

why can't slobs be neat?

If ceilings represent the limits of our imagination, why do leaks from the clouds via the dodgy roof tiles ruin my carpets?

if nobody really knows which end of the universe is up, then how can Australia be thought of as "down under"?

"up" has many meanings. but the fundamental meaning of "up" (my interpretation) is "all directions directly perpendicular to the centre of gravity in the earth".

so most people would point straight up to the sky and say that that is "up", but another person on the other side of the world would also say the same thing pointing in another direction.

another less substantial meaning is "north" is up and "south" is down.

that is why the southern hemisphere is referred to as "down there " by people in the northern hemisphere.

whatever..... there is no up and down in intergalactic space.
there is only "proximity".

off topic:

some people get a vestibular complaint that renders their life horrific.
they no longer can sense up or down or sideways because in their minds, they are perpetually
1. spinning around.
2. somersaulting. and
3. cartwheeling.

all three directions of spin which of course promotes life long motion sickness in all varieties.

wow.

but that is not dumb i guess so it is not relevant to the topic of the thread.

very philosophical it is helpful to parse [what we call] local reality in such ways.

Don't know if Blabby meant it as a serious question, or meant it as a joke question to fulfill the requirements of the thread,but....

Obviously up and down can only be defined locally by orientation to the local gravity on your particular planet/moon/star.

So "down" means "toward the center of the earth" for us on earth.

So obviously Australia is not literally "under" anything else on the Earth's surface. Its actually slightly farther from the center of the Earth than America and Eurasia because the planet is slightly fatter in the southern hemisphere.

But the reason Australia is called "the land down under" is simply because of the convention of putting north at the top of both flat maps, and of setting up globes so that the North Pole is at the top. Its just an arbitrary convention with out any scientific, nor geographic accuracy behind it. It would be just as accurate to do the opposite.

The reason for the convention is that Europe is in the Northern Hemisphere, and that's the continent where the explorers of the last five centuries who mapped the globe set forth from, so the side that has Europe is stuck on the easier to read top side of the globe. Australia is in the southern hemisphere. so its forced to be on the less user friendly downside of the globe, and is thus kinda hidden "down under" (the underside of spherical globes). Hense the nickname.

You could just as easily set up a globe the opposite way with Antarctica at the top, Australia near the top, and with Europe "down under" near the north polar ice cap upon the Arctic Ocean at the bottom. But most of even the noneuropean world's population lives on land, and most land masses are in the northern hemisphere. So the "north equals up" convention is not likely to change soon even as the world becomes less Eurocentric. The Chinese and the Asian Indians are also north of the equator and have the same vested interest in keeping globes "north side up" as do North Americans and Europeans. Australians, Africans, and South Americans, will just hafta live with being seen as clinging to the planet's underside and living on the hemoroids on the Earth's fat ass for centuries to come!

Sorry, southern hemispherians but you just don't have the votes to be depicted as being on the top of the world!

But center of the galaxy we live in is in the sky above the Southern Hemisphere. So if you're an astronomer its the southern hemisphere that is the front row seat for observing the cosmos, and we in the north have the blocked view cheap low status seats.

^^^as spock might say, "fascinating..."

Why can't John McEnroe keep his stupid mouth zipped?

why can't sports be not like sports?

when i switched on the TV this afternoon, there was some telethon happening to get donations for some cause, and the bloody stupid compare said "to donate now, just jump on your phone and ring...(the number)"

well i jumped on the phone and then i could not make a donation.

Will my orange get dengue fever if I spray it with sunblock?

If pillbugs are angels, why aren't more of them in the sky?

"I need to charge my phone, hold my beer."- Alexandre Dumas

"deadly house fire" just in as a news story.

so if it was a deadly house, then everyone should be happy that it burned down.

Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon, in 1959, really did get into an argument over the relative stinkiness of pig plop versus horse plop. in a more sensible world, that would have to have been made up.

"No news is good news." That's not how it works out for me. The longer the wait, the worse things are when the news finally comes.

Poor people are so stupid! If they're having trouble with bills, why can't they just buy more money?