BrE or AmE in your country??

I guess it doesn't mater if you believe me or not Jasper. I never claimed that the American dessert was a mega metropolis. I only stated that it was not as desolate as your assertion that one could travel roads for hundreds of kilometers without encountering a house or passing a vehicle. Your futile and feeble attempts should really end now. You have already admitted that that statement was an exaggeration, you have already been forced by plain, provable facts to whittle that assertion down to dozens rather than hundreds. And I most certainly have spent a good amount of time in the Basin and Range Region of the United States. Its Geology is extraordinary. IT IS DESOLATE COMPARED TO MANY PLACES BUT NOT TO THE EXTENT YOU INDICATED. I HAVE STATED SOMETHING TO THIS EFFECT TIME AND TIME AGAIN. My problem is with your inability to give an accurate description.

You claim that it was an "adventure" to travel from Reno to Las Vegas, stating that one could die if one's vehicle broke down. Well, this is very true. I never argued against that statement. One could easily die in the American desert and people have. One could easily die in the mountains of the U.S. and people have. One could easily die crossing Broadway to attend the latest revival of "Cats" too (or during the performance for that matter). This doesn't indicate that it is an adventure. Hell, my grandmother has gone white water rafting down the grand canyon twice now in her golden years. People have died doing that too. That is far more of an adventure than driving from Reno to Las Vegas. I think gambling in Las Vegas is probably more of an adventure than taking that trip provided that you go to the trouble of maintaining your vehicle and put a survival kit in your car, which is recommended no matter where you are in the U.S.

I never indicated anything that would ever make a reasonable person doubt my statements about the area in question, least of all a person familiar with the area. I take issue with your false statements. That is all I have done. They may have been "similar" to the actuality, but they were not the actuality. A rather simple thing really, dozens instead of hundreds. It is great that you have admitted your mistake, but you should not attack other people's veracity because of it.

Hello I am from India. I have learn t all the sounds of British English. And I would be equally interested to learn the American sounds and the phonetic transcription. If the website can also contain the American Sounds and the basic differences between American And British Pronunciation and Intonation, it would be really helpful.

"You claim that it was an "adventure" to travel from Reno to Las Vegas, stating that one could die if one's vehicle broke down."

Cian, it WOULD be an adventure for a European; didn't I say that in the first post? You have to remember that much of Western Europe is a place where one town blends into another. I don't think many Europeans have a concept of the vastness of the American wilderness without seeing it firsthand.

Apropos downgrading from "hundreds" to "dozens" of kilometers? That's not much of a downgrade. I already told you I travelled from Lovelock to Winnemucca on a back road on a trip that registered about 140 km, without seeing a single car. Do you want an exact itinerary? Look for a ghost town called Kennedy, NV. Many such trips are possible in the desert of Nevada.

Frankly, I believe that your sentiments reflect pedantry, and a possible tendency towards Asperger's Syndrome. Perhaps it would be better if this conversation were to come to an end.

America is a wilderness? Ha! Nothing compared to Canada!

<<America is a wilderness? Ha! Nothing compared to Canada! >>

And Canada is nothing compared to Antarctica. Down there, I guess you could travel 1000s of kilometers (or even 1000s of miles) without seeing anyone, especially at night.

As for Northern Scotland.....I'm sure many of you know that it's normally referred to as the Highlands and that name in itself clearly indicates the type of terrain of the whole area, and if you read through my last ten km long screed you will see my reference to "Lowland" Britain - England in the case of the area I described above. Lowland England is easily the most densely popuated areas of the UK.

The areas of the UK considered "highland" areas - ie not lowland!" - are - going from south to north:

Bodmin Moor, Cornwall - in SW England

Exmoor and Dartmoor - both in Devon and partly in Somerset in the case of Exmoor - all in SW England

Most of inland Wales away from the heavily populated regions of South East Wales and from the coastal fringes and the island of Anglesey in the extreme NW of Wales

The Peak District - the rugged moorland area of North Derbyshire, just to the south east of Manchester and just to the west of Sheffield

The Pennine Range - known as the backbone of England - a range of hills and high moorlands running up from the Peak District up to the Scottish border - it literally divided the eastern parts of Northern England from the west and is crossed by motorways running up across the rugged terrain from the densely populated areas of Lancashire and Cheshire to the heavily populated parts of West Yorkshire

The Lake District - the very mountainous area of extreme NW England with a profusion of lakes and an area famous for poets who have found inspiration in the area - Wordsworth being the most famous of these.

Much of southern Scotland away from the coasts - mostly moorland

The Highlands of Scotland running up from the heavily populated area known as the Central Belt of Scotland - the Forth-Clyde Valley - which includes both Edinburgh and Glasgow plus all the towns strung along the whole area from west to east.

The Highlands are really wild and rugged and contain the highest mountains in the UK but by world standards they are pretty small fry - Ben Nevis, highest point in the UK, is just 1,344m high at the summit.

The islands of Western Scotland are also pretty remote by UK standards.

Many of these areas are known as National Parks.

In the height of summer season the road network of the Highlands of Scotland can be really busy - busier than you would imagine, even in the wilder areas which confirms what I said earlier. Stand on the top of a ben in the middle of the Cairngorms, with wild deer and ptarmigan and ospreys and wild cats as company you would most probably see cars streaming along a road in the far distance - glinting in the sunlight you're really, really lucky! ;-)

Much of the lowland areas of Scotland is very much more highly populated than are the Highlands

American English in China predominates!

<<You guys have room to expand - something which is very much at a premium here in the UK.>>

It looks like 4 states in the US are more densely populated than England:

New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Even NY state is 2/3 as dense as England, and my county (Dutchess) is half as dense. None of these states/counties are wall-to-wall people, so I have to conclude that England isn't really all that crowded (yet).

The population of England would have to almost double to 100,000,000 to be as crowded as New Jersey. The population would have to grow to 400,000,000 for England to be as crowded as Long Island, NY, which is a mixture of big city, suburbs, and country. It looks like there's still plenty of space in England, not to mention the whole UK.

<<Stand on the top of a ben in the middle of the Cairngorms, with wild deer and ptarmigan and ospreys and wild cats as company you would most probably see cars streaming along a road in the far distance - glinting in the sunlight you're really, really lucky! ;-)>>


Any (brown) bears, moose, elk, mountain goats, wolves (coyotes), up there in the wildest parts of the Scottish Highlands, or Western Islands?

I assume deer must be everywhere in the UK, eating up everything in sight?

Cian, I have been doing some research.

That pollution map somebody posted is worth its weight in gold; it shows some surprises. For example, there's a vast area in Eastern Oregon that's as desolate as Nevada, and apparently Eastern Washington isn't as empty as I once thought it was.

Taking this into account, and doing some practice itineraries on maps.google.com, it appears that my original statement of "hundreds of kilometers" was accurate, after all. If you want one example, plot a path from Burns, Oregon to Winnemucca, Nevada. That's a stretch of drive about 450 miles SEEMINGLY without a single settlement in between them. 450 miles translates to 724 kilometers: "hundreds of kilometers", as you so vigorously deny. (Other such itineraries can be plotted.)

To put this in perspective, in parts of York, England, it's 50 miles (80 kilometers) from coast to coast.

Admittedly, such a long itinerary is harder to plot than one of 100—200 kilometers, but I do feel vindicated to a certain extent.

I want to make a correction.

The distance between Burns, Oregon and Winnemucca is 221 miles (355 kilometers). I misread Google Maps, and apologize for the mistake.

"And Canada is nothing compared to Antarctica. Down there, I guess you could travel 1000s of kilometers (or even 1000s of miles) without seeing anyone, especially at night."

Lol.

<<That pollution map somebody posted is worth its weight in gold; it shows some surprises. For example, there's a vast area in Eastern Oregon that's as desolate as Nevada, and apparently Eastern Washington isn't as empty as I once thought it was.>>

Things to take into account:

1) The data for these light pollution maps was taken from satellite measurements back in 1998. Light pollution could be worse now, depending on how fast an area is growing.

2) The data is "sea-level" total light pollution. At higher altitudes light pollution is less.

3) Natural airglow (like low-level aurora) varies from minute to minute, depending on solar activity. It's not clear if the data takes into account the reflectivity of natural airglow from light-colored desert areas, vs. dark forested regions. (Snow is especially bad for brightening the sky, and heavy forests are good for making it darker.)

4) It's not clear if the map takes into account blocking by hills/mountains of light pollution from nearby or distant populated areas.

5) The extremely dark areas in the Isle of Lewis and Harris are probably terrible for stargazing, despite being dark. (rain, clooud, too far north, etc.)

OK, Jasper, I will be the one to vindicate you even though you have thus far accused me of being a lier and having aspergers. A five minute search on google yields the following: http://travel.yahoo.com/p-interests-27068123
America's scariest drives. Apparently the longest drive in the U.S. without services is in Alaska, as I thought. It is 400 + miles without services. As is always the case, it seems that neither of us is entirely correct. Facts yield that, though there are places where one can drive in the U.S. for hundreds of k. without "services" it is very difficult to find such roads, one deliberately has to look for such places. There is also one that goes through Carson City Nevada if you look.

Cian, I didn't mean to call you a liar exactly, it's just it was hard for me to believe you'd been in the backwoods of Nevada.

The thing is that I think we view things differently. You seem to be a man of detail (I wonder if you're a computer programmer or an accountant?), while I have a strong tendency to look at the big picture—often being mistaken about details.

The big picture in this case was that Nevada—and much of the West—is extremely empty by European standards—empty enough to imperil people who drive through it without taking the proper precautions. (I'm sure you will agree with this.) The Great Basin is empty enough to be beyond comprehension to the minds of a Brit, for example.

Which goes back to Damian's original point. I think we both got too caught up in our tete-a-tete, and forgot the main point, which was: There's much more open land in the US, so one-story bungalows make a whole lot more sense there than they do in the UK, where everything's compact and land is at a premium.

We can probably both agree on this point, too.

Peace out.