And people ask me why I love my job...

I was walking back to my classroom when I saw a group of boys clustering around the bathroom.  Thinking a fight or some other tomfoolery was going on, I stopped to investigate.  The young men were suitably embarrassed when a teacher walked in.  It seems that one of the boys just deposited a steamer of biblical proportions in the toilet.

Shaking my head, I left the boys with a reminder to head on to class. (no, I didn't see it).

On  my way out, one of the young men, still laughing, said that the errr, deposit was the 8th wonder of the world.

All I could wonder was, "What would MayorBob think?"

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

And somehow, Ron Jeremy failed to make the list? That man will never get the respect he deserves.

-=Logan
"Spockmate!"

I understand that the number seven has some sort of mystic significance in what is known as the ancient world.  But this is supposed to be an updating to the 21st century.  So, why not go for the Top Ten or like a football pool, the top 25.  Or maybe do it like a Rolling Stone or Pitchfork list and make it the top 100?  Why stick with seven?  And then, how are you supposed to vote, except with your biases, for any you never saw and visited?

You talkin' to me?

What about the International Space Station? Like most of these 'wonders', it's expensive and utterly pointless, but unlike them it's in space. (Think the Eiffel Tower or Angkor Wat will ever make it to space? Good luck with that, dumbass).

I'm also a bit suprised no giant balls of rubber bands made this list, but perhaps I shouldn't be - the list is biased toward things constructed out of stone, which is stupid if you think about it. Imagine a Great Wall of China made out of transparent plastic or a Great Pyramid made out of titanium or a Stonehenge made out of cheese. All would be exponentially more wonderous than this tired old shit we have now.

My personal candidates (taken from Civ IV)

China's Three Gorges Dam
The Internet
Wall Street
The Pentagon
United Nations

and of course....
The Space Elevator (coming soon)

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

Actually, if you register on the new7wonders site, you get seven votes (you get extra if you send money).  My votes went for: the Great Pyramid, the Great Wall, Angkor Wat, Timbuktu, Petra, Machu Picchu, and Chichen Itza.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

No votes for the worlds' largest  cow?  People have no perspective.

So what is a wonder?

The great Wall of China goes with out saying, but something like Kiyomizu temple in Japan? It is very nice, but a wonder of the world - it isn't that impressive. I can think of several places in Japan that impressed me more than Kiyomizu temple.

If we haven't been to these places (yes - I've been to the Great Wall and Kiyomizu) then how can we judge which is most impressive?

I think that the Statue of Christ Redeemer would be impressive, and the Maoi of Easter Island as well. But I thought that about Stonehenge, but was a little underwhelmed by it. So how can I judge?

This will be like the canon - what do the general population, who vote on the website, view these places. If you can find the demographics of the voters, then you'll be able to predict pretty well what is chosen as the top 7 - perhaps with one mistake.

Here's a thought: why are these wonders restricted to architecture? Sure, the Pyramids are an amazing piece of work, I take nothing away from them. But isn't the internet itself an equally amazing accomplishment? It's easy to take it for granted, especially if you've never known a world where you couldn't get in touch with anyone you know (or don't) with a few button presses or mouse clicks. A global communications infrastructure, one so powerful, so ubiquitous, so efficient that everyone who makes their living selling information is desperate to figure out how they'll survive when their 50 cent newspaper, $16 cd, or $30 movie can be reproduced for a fraction of a cent.

We are inspired by the Pyramids, but we're inspired to create things like the internet.

-=Logan
"Spockmate!"

I think it's good to keep wonders of the ancient world around, even if there are things more impressive now.  If we do it that way, my list would include

• The Great Pyramid


• Hagar Qin, the oldest free-standing structures in the world.


• I think that The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is the oldest continually-used building in the world.


• The Great Wall of China, the largest ancient structure

If it's wonders of the modern world, I'd choose

• The World Islands in Dubai, once they're complete.


• Taipei 101, until something taller is built.


• Either China's 3 Gorges Dam, or the Hoover Dam, which was more influential on the modern world.


• Romania's Palace of the Parliament.  Only the third largest office building in the world, but I give it a place here because of the materials used to build it, including about one million cubic meters of marble.


• The Smithsonian complex in Washington DC, which comprises the world's largest museum.

I don't like the Internet as a choice, because it takes away from the way location-specific nature of wonders.  The list was always as much a travelogue and history lesson as it was a list.  If you want to go by impact on the world, you might as well add the US Interstate system or the Refrigerator as items.

(is 3fingerspointback)