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[Hobbess]

EvilGenius - the answer isn't "orthophanic" didn't have another try for "mine"

I am also of the opinion that the background maybe the way to go, we haven't really pinned it down yet. Looks watery on first glance but closer inspection who knows!

On another obvious line here is Von's hint again, there is more to it than just the last word:

[kniteli]

the background looks to me like a mountain or somesuch, snow covered, possibly the himalayas? well, no idea what mountain it could be, but im almost certain its a snowy mountain.

[Rand0m]

I mentioned a while back that the projection was Robinson when I was arguing for the inclusion of Micronesia - I strongly suspect the reason this projection is used is simply that it's the one used by the downloadable political map of the world on the CIA World Factbook.

[unrealt87]

FORGET THE BACKGROUND!!!

[Hobbess]

My first thought was also white water of some kind, sea, waterfall, rapids. But what is the connection?

Looking at the missing countries is a bit of a no go, considering we are struggling to find a link between 29, finding a link between the remaining 163 seems fairly remote

[unrealt87]

Hmm, true

[EvilGenius]

Unrealt87 - I was also wondering about the countries not on them map but hadn't got any farther than that. It bears considering.

The Robinson projection thing may still have some life. This was used by Rand-McNally and National Geographic. I wonder if the countries shown might have been represented in a Rand-McNally atlas painted in the same color. A long shot to be sure . . .

It's been mentioned before but I noticed in my searching the connection to nickel as well. Canada is not what it used to be in the mining of nickel so its exclusion would be fair enough. Have not yet worked through all the countries (the UK isn't really a mining center). Whatever - I don't see how that would help us but something to consider.

I hate this card.

[Lilian]

plus Evil when you get to japan they have nothing to talk about in the way of mining or gas or oil or salt or anything else
*edit* but thats on the card

[kniteli]

that projection in the same color idea has merit i think. i would guess that with the clue being talking about understanding a country, we should look at a national geographic atlas, if anyone has one, to see what that turns up.

edit - on a side note, if you look at the negative of the card, it looks like the countries are suspended above some kind of pit or cave. That, and also the card turns into a silver, very fitting i think lol!

also

[sirichj]

Reading the last few posts I believe I mentioned the nickel thing and the missing countries idea a few pages back.

Going along with the water theme, what about

[chimera245]

Unfortunately for both the Nickel theories, and Coral, the absence of Australia is a killer.

Oz is not only the home of the world's best known coral reef (Great Barrier) - it's also a significant Nickel Producer.

I spent over a year flying in and out of Kambalda Nickel Mines.

[EvilGenius]

[Hunting4Treasure]

I'm currently thinking, the connection all of these countries have, *may* make us question why one is missing. And that one *missing* country *may* be the answer.

For what it may or may not be worth, I can confirm that AUSTRALIA and HAWAII are *not* correct.
(Yeah, I know HAWAII isn't a country, but it still bugs me that it's missing!)

**edit**
Another thought... Could Hawaii's absence have anything to do with the fact that the Hawaiian language only consists of 8 consonants and 5 vowels?

[Lilian]

tried

[manleym]

Found some useful hints on Vowels & consonants

http://pages.slc.edu/~ebj/IM_97/Lecture9/L9.html

Also add