Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Norfolk Island


Location: Oceania, island in the South Pacific Ocean
Geographic coordinates: 29 02 S, 167 57 E
Area: total: 34.6 sq km
Area - Comparative: About 0.2 times the size of Washington, DC
Coastline: 32 km
Climate: Subtropical; mild, little seasonal variation
Terrain: volcanic formation with mostly rolling plains
Lowest Point: Pacific Ocean 0 m
Highest Point: Mount Bates 319 m
Natural Resources: Fish
Natural Hazards: Typhoons (especially May to July)
Geography - note: Most of the 32 km coastline consists of
almost inaccessible cliffs, but the land slopes down to the
sea in one small southern area on Sydney Bay, where the
capital of Kingston is situated
Population: 2,114 (July 2007 est.)
Ethnic groups: Descendants of the Bounty mutineers, Australian,
New Zealander, Polynesian
Religions: Anglican 34.9%, Roman Catholic 11.7%, Uniting Church in Australia 11.2%, Seventh-Day Adventist 2.8%, Australian Christian 2.4%, Jehovah's Witness 0.9%, other 2.7%, unspecified 15.2%, none 18.1% (2001 census)
Languages: English (official), Norfolk - a mixture of 18th century English and ancient Tahitian
Dependency Status: Self governing territory of Australia

Ok...you're asking...Why do I need to know this much information
about Norfolk Island? Because we played in the first Trivia Night
of the season tonight at Scott Base and the MC held up this flag
and asked us to identify it. To the best of my knowledge, our team
and only one other could identify it. Even though we finished third
out of ten teams, I knew my vast warehouse of useless information
concerning the study of flags (Vexillology) would someday pay off.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That's a nice flag. Memorable. Have you seen Kosovo's?

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/kv-flag.html

I like it a lot.

(I wonder why the CIA world factbook uses an https address? Interesting).