Okay, I think I’m ready to take this public. I am a map freak. I love maps, historic, hand drawn, topographic, demographic…whatever. As long as it has not been produced by MapQuest, I’m a fan. So I thought I would do something with this passion, and cleave off a little piece of cyberspace for occaisional indulgences in maps. I have therefore created a new blog, and I invite you to visit Maps and Territories. Maps and Territories links maps and stories together. It’s an occaisional curio, so don’t expect it to change every day. Once or twice a week will …
A prehistoric clam garden This weekend’s Vancouver Sun had an article from one of my favourite journalists, Stephen Hume, about a remarkable prehistoric discovery here on the west coast. All up and down the coast of British Columbia where I live are little beaches tucked in small inlets, that feature a line of rocks that define the low water mark. It’s a curious thing, as biologist John Harper discovered. Were these beaches caused by natural forces or did human beings have a hand in them. Surprisingly, it was very hard to tell: They didn’t seem to work as fish traps …
Joseph Allard 1873-1947 From The Virtual Gramophone The National Library of Canada has published hundreds of 78s of early Canadian music in their Virtual gramophone project. Joseph Allard was a superstar in his day, recording dozens of traditional tunes on fiddle with a sparse and tasteful guitar accompaniment. Sample Reel du capitaine (mp3) and then head over to the audio page to hear more. Do what I did: spend the day there.
From Jack Ricchiuto’s Open Wiki comes notes on a talk by Ed Brown: “Curiosity and wonder allow us to meet things as they are — they make us more receptive. The opposite of interest is trying to decide what something is about so we can fix it. “
A beutiful meditation on Noticing Space from Ajahn Samedho: Now the spacious mind has room for everything. It is like the space in this room, which is never harmed by what goes in and out of this room. In fact, we say ‘the space in this room’, but actually the room is in the space; the building is in the space. When the building has gone the space will still be here. So we can have a perspective, we have the actual walls and the shape of the room, and the space. Right now we can see the limit of …