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[opsis]

Sorry, grendelrob, how did I miss that one?

[badbarry]

[sirichj]

I know this might sound stupid but has anyone tried

[manleym]

I can confirm that the answer is

[sirichj]

Thanks for trying back to the drawing board again for the fiftieth time lol

[macro]

Another idea, which has got me nowhere (yet) - has any one person visited all of these countries ?

I wondered about pope john paul, who famously kissed the tarmac wherever he landed, and tried his 'mother tounge' (he may not have visited them all, but a fair few seem to crop up in his travel list)

second odd idea for the day, I was looking at the card upside down, and if you take the two bits of america as eyes, it looks a bit like a snakes head, with a long forked tounge hanging down (russia)

[Lilian]

looks like sum 1 bein sick 2 me

[kniteli]

i also thought about people who may have visited all these countries and looked into old explorers(ala magellan and friends) ran into the same problem we always run into with this card, there are an unmanagable number of possibilities, but I could also find noone who fit having gone to each of these.

[EvilGenius]

Has anyone tried "Adamic" yet? This was the supposed first language according to the bible. Or 'philosophy". Or "Edenic". Or "lapsarian". Or "Volapük". Or "Characteristica universalis". No card for me yet . . .

[Bendover]

Sorry EvilGenius but philosophy,lapsarian and Adamic are not the answer. Keep on pitching though.

[Marcus Interuptus]

Wood for the Trees ?

[chimera245]

Morning Marcus.

You are probably right about the wood for the trees thing - though I'm still trawling my way through treaties looking for common links.

As I hadn't tried todays guesses I ran Arthur H Robinson, French and German through - all were rejected.

[Marcus Interuptus]

Significant Background?

[EvilGenius]

I would have to agree that language may not be the core of this. There is little to distinguish Canada from the US in terms of language, ditto the UK (I mean in terms of history, origins, etc.)

This is also supposed to be Black card, not a silver, so I can't help but think it shouldn't be this hard. We must me on the wrong track. Another anagram would totally suck. What's the right initial for the United Kingdom, U or UK? Ditto the US (or America).

General musing to follow: New Caledonia has no government of its own since it's a territory of France, there is no commonality regarding type of government, religion, language, race. Some are landlocked, some not. I can't think of anything at all that these countries have in common . . .

CIA World Factbook has lots of info about all of these countries but I haven't found anything to link them. I think there is a meta layer to this.

What's up with the background? Why this projection? What does this projection retain and distort? I don't have the card - can I assume that the obvious nonsense about UV, heat, etc have been exhausted? How does the hint about going native relate?

I know, not especially helpful but maybe this will inspire someone

Here's another word to try: "orthophanic". Returning to minerals, try "mine".

[mandymaria]

Thought I might add my two cents worth. I'm still of the opionion that all of the countries have something in common, so these are some of my trains of thought:
I remember once hearing someone compare English, American and Australian accents, saying the sound comes from different parts of the mouth (ie. the front, middle and back) but I cant remember which goes with which. So I've been looking into phonetics, accents, etc
rhotacism and rhotic don't work, I got bored with this theory and havn't tried: nasal, gutteral, Glottalic theory, Decem, Dacian, Didactica, diphthongs.

Then I thought about Tulip Mania, so I tried bubble, and economic bubble (because that fits nicely with the background) but no luck.

Next was Land Reclamation (once again with the water background) but that didn't work either, obviously.

This card is *EVIL*