I went down that road, James, but every dictionary except my geographical dictionary defines an island as "A land mass totally surrounded by water too small to be considered a continent." My geographical dictionary leaves off the last 7 words.

Interestingly, under continent, my dictionary says "One of the principle land masses of earth."

The geographical dictionary says "The large land masses of Earth, universally held to include Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America and South America and more recently held to include Australia."

So apparently Australia only "became" a continent recently

In any case, I found picking the arguments apart more fun than challenging the facts.

But I'd better shut up now, 'cause I wouldn't want to continue "really...making a KOKONUTZ of yourself re total lack of historical knowledge IMHO."

Particularly since, as I go back and re-read the threads, Oz pretty much ends up agreeing with all of my arguments either by admission (Dutch in Oz) or omission ("shortest colonised history"). Besides, if I say any more my free bier may be placed in jeopardy .

[This message has been edited by kokonutz (edited 08-02-2000).]