----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I would say the time-zone of the North- or South Pole is either night or day. Being further a theoretical point on a grid we can step beyond time-boundaries, that is when can make ourselves a virtual entity having neither substance. I get the feeling I'm answering a virtual question without any substance! When the Dutch Cartographic Society existed 25 years in 1983 its commemorative quarterly publication (Kartografisch Tijdschrift) was issued with mostly fiction stories concerning cartography. One of them was by Harry Mulisch (at the moment the best known Dutch writer) called 'The boundary' in which a someone has a car-accident on the boundary between two municipalities. Because medical assistance personell is using a map to define their jurisdiction the victim is left to itself to her own detriment! For those interested. It contained, among others, also a story by J.M.A. Biesheuvel concerning two Norwegian cartographers who created a miniature replica of the globe wherein everything is reproduced, including humans. Also a story concerning Piri Reis by Hubert Lampo. And last, but not least, see my earlier e-mail on Umberto Eco's 'The Island of the day before'. The danger for the uninformed of course is where does fiction cross the border into non-fiction or where is the boundary between virtuality and reality. Some people would classify plans which are not realized under imaginairy maps instead of the real area and embellished unknown areas under real headings instead of under imaginairy areas. Jan Smits Map Curator Koninklijke Bibliotheek, National Library of The Netherlands [log in to unmask]