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> The main problem with seasonal rationales is that our planet has a southern hemisphere, whose seasons are all out of phase. It's kind of like that map of the world I saw once which was upside-down from how they're usually displayed, so that Australia was up at the top. It looks wrong, but it's no more wrong than what we usually see.

So which way is up? If you extend the up line far out into space, you will find that even your next door neighbor has a slightly different up. When you get as far away as a different continent, up becomes radically different from the up you have at home. Which hemisphere you are in will also make a difference. The earth doesn't have a top and bottom, just a bazillion different ups.

And all rivers don't flow south toward the "bottom" of the map. Very few maps are completely correct. I'm pretty sure that Alaska and Hawaii are not in a little box off the coast of California.

I know things are improving, but when I was still teaching, I found a lot of students who were geographically challenged. We are about half way between Ashville and Nashville and many of them didn't know the difference.

I even had a kid ask me why I had maps on the wall of a science classroom. That was the beginning of the school year. I'm sure that he understood after a few weeks. I taught earth science.

In this day of fast, easy transportation, I think it's great to have a part of the earth where the seasons are reversed. I've never been south of 6 degrees north latitude, but I know it's there if I ever get seasonally depressed.
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