[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam.

I once read a story about a tribe somewhere in the world which based its numbering system on the dogs the people kept. They counted things by the number of legs on the dogs, using a base 4 system. I forget what the individual legs were called. Our number four was "doggy-one", eight was "doggy-two", twelve was "doggy-three", and sixteen was "one houndred".

[as 'Civ waits for the laughter, all he hears from the darkened auditorium are crickets]

Many thanks to Roger Wagner, an old-timer Apple II programmer extraordinaire, whose joke I just mangled. ;'D

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[ApplegateRanch]

That is more than just a story. The neighboting tribe counted the tail as a leg, and used base-5.

They were continually quarelling, over territory, food, and women. This lead to an arms race, with disastrous consequences if it didn't end. Finally, during a truce, they agreed to a Strategic Spear Reduction Treaty.

The problem, was neither understood the other's numerical system, which led, first to acussation of cheating; then, to full scale warfare.

Sadly, both sides were were wiped out by mutually assured destruction.

Where they lived is now just a desert, with wind whistling through caves, playing an aeolian dirge for them.