Indonesians, what's with them?

Jared Diamond who wrote Guns, Germs, and Steel, an excellent book about  how Western Civ became the top dog, points out similarly how much of the the southern hemisphere is covered with water, and even when we have a sizeable continent it is linear in a north south direction rather than east west.  In the large land mass of Eurasia you can travel thousands of miles and you will encounter mountains and raging rivers but the temps will remain the same, whereas going north south there will be a wide variance in temps and hence there wasn't as much contact between ancient people there and useful plants and animals weren't exchanged.

How about that Oceania?  I was just about to point out that Malaysia was the fourth most populous nation in the world, but being the scholar (though not enough of a scholar for certain other experts) that I am, I double checked and it's Indonesia which is the fourth most populous nation.  Talk about being an American.

Malaysia, I guess I had my head turned by those Petronas Towers which stole first place from the toddling town.  Well what is the difference between the 4th and the 41st biggest countries in the world?  Damned if I know.  How come Indonesia never built any towers?  They don't even crack the top 50?  What the hell are they doing there?  Who knows?  I am an American.

I got a little dizzy with Beagles' time traveling, but then I get confused twice a year when we go on or off daylight savings time.  I understand it well enough at first, but as I start to think about it I get confused, and finally I just rely on spring forward and fall back repeated by rote with no attempt at understanding.

Eclipses too can be kind of confusing.  It's best to think of them as a sandwich with the sun being the top slice of bread and the Earth being the meat for Lunar and the Moon being the meat for Solar.  For you vegetarians make that a cheese sandwich, but not that awful American cheese, an extra sharp cheddar will do just fine.

 Speaking of which, I will be traveling to St Joseph Missouri where Ruby Dew lives to witness the event.  Uh oh, the Yahoo weather forecast right now is cloudy with a twenty percent chance of thunderstorms.  Well at least it will get dark.  Anyway I will be posting tomorrow, but not again until next Thursday, so you guys carry on.