A Public Relations Campaign Would Have You Believe They've Found the Greatest Natural Wonders

You are about to be inundated, in the next several weeks, with the breathless results--disclosed in the media--of a contest to choose the "7 Greatest Natural Wonders of the World." Conceived by a public relations flack who has enticed hundreds of thousands of people around the world to vote for their choices, this is a follow-up to the same gentleman's contest of a couple of years ago to choose the "7 Greatest Sightseeing Attractions of the World."  Various patriotically inclined citizens of small countries are encouraged to vote in the contest which, the last time around, failed to include the Pyramids of Egypt among the chosen sightseeing attractions but did include buildings and monuments of a far lesser significance. What's important about the contest is that the countries in which the winners are located usually enjoy a considerable upward spike in their incoming tourism as a result of their victory.  The initial results, based only on partial vote-counting, have just been announced, and the improbable winners include the Jeju Island of South Korea (covered with black rocks) and the Princesa Underground River of the Philippines (underneath stalactites and stalagmites). Absent from the initial list of tentative winners are the Grand Canyon of the United States, the Dead Sea of Israel, and the Vesuvius Volcano in Italy. What a contest! It's obvious (as if you needed an explanation) that the voting in this competition is not for natural wonders objectively chosen, but for natural wonders attracting hundreds of thousands of votes from local patriots in small nations. I don't plan to follow the eventual final results.