Mind's

Ortelius, Typus Orbis Terrarum, 1587

My mind’s a map. A mad sea-captain drew it   

Under a flowing moon until he knew it;

Winds with brass trumpets, puffy-cheeked as jugs,   

And states bright-patterned like Arabian rugs.   

“Here there be tygers.” 

“Here we buried Jim.”   

Here is the strait where eyeless fishes swim   

About their buried idol, drowned so cold   

He weeps away his eyes in salt and gold.   

A country like the dark side of the moon,   

A cider-apple country, harsh and boon,   

A country savage as a chestnut-rind,

A land of hungry sorcerers.

                                              

Stephen Vincent Benet, from "Difference"

Altars.

THE SEA-CATHEDRAL

Vast and immaculate! No pilgrim bands

In ecstasy before the Parian shrines

Knew such a temple built by human hands

With this transcendent rhythm in its lines.

Like an epic on the north Atlantic stream

It moved, and fairer than a Phidian dream.

Rich gifts unknown to kings were duly brought

At dawn and sunset and at cloudless noons,

Gifts from the sea-gods and the sun who wrought

Cascades and rainbows; flung them in festoons

Over the spires, with emerald, amethyst,

Sapphire and pearl out of their fiery mist.

And music followed when a litany,

Begun with the ring of foam bells and the purl

Of linguals as the edges cut the sea,

Crashed upon a rising storm with whirl

Of floes from far-off spaces where Death rides

The darkened belfries of the evening tides.

Within the sunlight, vast, immaculate!

Beyond all reach of earth in majesty,

It passed on Southwards slowly to its fate—

To be drawn down by the inveterate sea,

Without one chastening fire made to start

From altars built around its polar heart.

E.J. Pratt

Important.

05:58: Sunrise. The weather is gray, the swell very important, low clouds let out short rains. Wind force is 3 to 4.

CONNECT

Reduction.

Farnam Street's Mental Model: The Map is Not the Territory ...

The map of reality is not reality. Even the best maps are imperfect. That’s because they are reductions of what they represent. If a map were to represent the territory with perfect fidelity, it would no longer be a reduction and thus would no longer be useful to us. A map can also be a snapshot of a point in time, representing something that no longer exists. This is important to keep in mind as we think through problems and make better decisions.

Grand.

Limitless.

COMPASSING

limitless is a faraway place

way beyond the rock-strewn ridge named possibility

it’s over there

through a tangle-thick forest the old ones call maybe

it is a fortnight’s trudge through what could be

and at least as far as a strong man can chunk a stone

—straight as the crow flies

a hard tough row across the mind’s breadth

a frog’s hair from probably and head high from unreachable

you can’t get there from here

but you can get here from there

unfurl the map

aim the compass well

cause true north does lie

dead reckon instead on reality

find yourself there

J. Drew Lanham

Happy Birthday, Milne

Shepard, The Original Map of the Hundred Acre Wood, 1926

A.A. Milne was born on this date in 1882.

One fine day Pooh had stumped up to the top of the Forest to see if his friend Christopher Robin was interested in Bears at all. At breakfast that morning (a simple meal of marmalade spread lightly over a honeycomb or two) he had suddenly thought of a new song. It began like this: 

    “Sing Ho! For the life of a Bear.” 

    When he had got as far as this, he scratched his head, and thought to himself “That's a very good start for a song, but what about the second line?” He tried singing “Ho,” two or three times, but it didn't seem to help. “Perhaps it would be better,” he thought, “if I sang Hi for the life of a Bear.” So he sang it... but it wasn't. “Very well, then,” he said, “I shall sing that first line twice, and perhaps if I sing it very quickly, I shall find myself singing the third and fourth lines before I have time to think of them, and that will be a Good Song. Now then:

Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear! 

Sing Ho! for the life of a Bear! 

I don't much mind if it rains or snows, 

'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice new nose! 

I don't much care if it snows or thaws, 

'Cos I've got a lot of honey on my nice clean paws! 

Sing Ho! for a Bear! 

Sing Ho! for a Pooh! 

And I'll have a little something in an hour or two! 

    He was so pleased with this song that he sang it all the way to the top of the Forest, “and if I go on singing it much longer,” he thought, “it will be time for the little something, and then the last line won't be true.” So he turned it into a hum instead. 

    Christopher Robin was sitting outside his door, putting on his Big Boots. As soon as he saw the Big Boots, Pooh knew that an Adventure was going to happen, and he brushed the honey off his nose with the back of his paw, and spruced himself up as well as he could, so as to look Ready for Anything.

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Trouble.

Pierce, Stevens' Knoll, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 1 July 1863, 1863

The Battle of Gettysburg began on this date in 1865.

Longstreet considered Chancellorsville the kind of flashy spectacle the South could ill afford. Facing what Lincoln called 'the arithmetic', he perceived that four more such battles, in which the Confederates were outnumbered two to one and inflicted casualties at a rate of three for four, would reduce Lee's army to a handful, while Hooker would be left with the number Lee had had at the outset. The style he preferred had the Confederates taking up a strong defensive position against which the superior blue forces were shattered, like waves against a rock.  Longstreet listened with disapproval as Lee announced his intention to launch an offensive in the East. He protested but Lee's mind was made up. So Longstreet contented himself with his theory that the proposed invasion be conducted in accordance with his preference for receiving rather than delivering attack when the two armies came to grips, wherever that might be. As he put it later, quite as if he and Lee had been joint commanders of the army, "I then accepted his proposition to make a campaign into Pennsylvania, provided it should be offensive in strategy but defensive in tactics, forcing the Federals to give us battle when we were in strong position and ready to receive them."

Lee heard him out with the courtesy which he was accustomed to extend to all subordinates, but which in this case was mistaken for a commitment. He intended no such thing, of course... trouble was stored up for all involved.

Shelby Foote, from Stars in Their Courses: The Gettysburg Campaign

The American Battlefield Trust's exceptional animated map of Gettysburg ...



Shelby Foote's thoughts on the battle ...

Blank.

To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.

Aldo Leopold, from A Sand County Almanac

Largest.

Archeologist Dr. Brad Lepper gives a tour of the Newark Earthworks, which are the largest set of geometric earthworks found anywhere in the world. His presentation shows how the Hopewell people created and used the pre-historic mound structure and how some of it was preserved.

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Happy Birthday, Le Nôtre

Delagrive, Le Nôtre's Gardens at Versailles, c.1661, 1746

André Le Nôtre was born on this date in 1613.

In "The Long Shadow of Le Nôtre," renowned American landscape architect Laurie Olin discussed the work and influence of one of the greatest in his field: André Le Nôtre, designer of the gardens at Versaille, Vaux-le-Vicomte, and the Tuileries ...

Mapped.

The path through the solar system is a rocky road.

Asteroids, comets, planets and moons and all kinds of small bodies of rock, metals, minerals and ice are continually moving as they orbit the sun. In contrast to the simple diagrams we’re used to seeing, our solar system is a surprisingly crowded place.

In this stunning visualization, biologist Eleanor Lutz painstakingly mapped out every known object in Earth’s solar system (>10km in diameter), hopefully helping you on your next journey through space.

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State.

Schoolcraft, A Map of the Acting Superintendency of Michigan, 1837

Michigan became the 26th state on this date in 1837.

Loss.

Native land loss from 1776 to 1930.

Remote.

Point Nemo is so remote that it is doubtful whether anyone has ever consciously visited it yet. The participants in the 2015 Volvo Ocean Race, on the leg from Auckland, New Zealand to Itajai, Brazil, came closer than most. As they passed by Point Nemo, it was noted that the ships were closer to the occupants of the ISS, circling overhead at an altitude of around 250 miles (app. 400 km) on one of its 15 daily orbits around the globe, than to the rest of humanity.

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Important.

05:58: Sunrise. The weather is gray, the swell very important, low clouds let out short rains. Wind force is 3 to 4.

CONNECT

Happy Birthday, Leonardo

Leonardo, Town Plan of Imola, 1502

Leonardo da Vinci was born on this date in 1452.

Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.

Leonardo da Vinci

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Patterned.

d"Isle, Michigan Territory, 1718

God knitted a mitten of wood, rock and lime,

Made a foundation to last through all time.

He planted his palm with Hemlock and Pine,

Then blessed it with rain and sunshine.

In all the world there’s no other land

That God himself patterned from his own hand!

Michigan.

Millie Miller

Mackinac.

Wovest.

To NIGHT

Swiftly walk o'er the western wave,

Spirit of Night!

Out of the misty eastern cave,

Where, all the long and lone daylight,

Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear,

Which make thee terrible and dear,—

Swift be thy flight!

Wrap thy form in a mantle gray,

Star-inwrought!

Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day;

Kiss her until she be wearied out,

Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land,

Touching all with thine opiate wand—

Come, long-sought!

When I arose and saw the dawn,

I sighed for thee;

When light rode high, and the dew was gone,

And noon lay heavy on flower and tree,

And the weary Day turned to his rest,

Lingering like an unloved guest.

I sighed for thee.

Thy brother Death came, and cried,

Wouldst thou me?

Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed,

Murmured like a noontide bee,

Shall I nestle near thy side?

Wouldst thou me?—And I replied,

No, not thee!

Death will come when thou art dead,

Soon, too soon—

Sleep will come when thou art fled;

Of neither would I ask the boon

I ask of thee, belovèd Night—

Swift be thine approaching flight,
Come soon, soon!

Percy Bysshe Shelley