The Day Begins in Borobudur

The Day Begins in Borobudur, originally uploaded by kristupa.

Sir Thomas Raffles dubbed this enormous temple Borobudur when he "rediscovered" it in 1814. This Buddhist temple is located near the center of the Indonesian island of Java. Archaeologists and historians believe it was built around 800 AD although there is no written record of this. The place, along with any ancient site, is known as candi in the Indonesian language. The original name for this temple was lost centuries ago when it was abandoned.

See Suroboyo Ku, Monas, and Persija fans from Indonesia.

Intimately Bound

3452, originally uploaded by J D J Ford.

Immortalized by Homer's epic poems, the island of Ithaca quietly occupies the Ionian Sea. Many historians have argued whether or not the tiny, mountainous island was actually the home of Homer in spite of the 1800-year-old coins depicting Ulysses. The island has been governed by the Venetians, French, Turkish, and Romans at various times.

After the American War for Independence the state of New York decided to survey its Western frontier. Soldiers who fought in the war were awarded with fresh tracts of land starting at 600 acres. Simeon DeWitt and his clerk Robert Harpur chose the names of the newly created townships from those of classical antiquity. The city of Ithaca, New York was once a part of the larger Town of Ulysses: both names that originate in Homer's Odyssey.

The nearby town of Lansing, New York was settled in 1791 after the Sullivan Expedition cleared out the Iroquois tribes that had inhabited the prime Cayuga Lake territory. It was named after John Lansing, Jr., the military secretary under General Philip Schuyler. John Lansing, Jr. was a New York legislator, mayor of Albany, and state supreme court judge in the newly independent state.

Nearly thirty-five years later, the brothers Jerry and William Ford promoted cheap land in "Biddle City" to the residents of Lansing, NY. According to them the town "had an area of 65 blocks, contained a church and also a public and academic square." Sixteen men purchased tracts from them to settle in this frontier town. What they found was a waterlogged floodplain at the convergence of the Red Cedar and Grand rivers. The disillusioned settlers quickly named the area Lansing in honor of their previous hometown. (The area they built on is currently inside the Old Town neighborhood.)

Another John from New York founded Ithaca, Michigan. The Gratiot county seat was named in honor of the city in New York. It doesn't seem like any real estate scams were involved with that decision. Nebraska, Georgia, Ohio, and Wisconsin also have Ithacas.

A flickr map of the original Ithaca (center, the largest island you can completely see).

manitoulin

manitoulin, originally uploaded by Rich Garella.

The largest freshwater island in the world is in the world's 3rd largest lake. Manitoulin Island is very sparsely populated, only about 3,500 people live in the two municipal divisions. The island connects to the mainland of Northern Ontario by the Little Current Swing Bridge. The Chi-Cheemaun ferry service brings cars and people to the island from the Bruce Peninsula.

Los Angeles. 1871

Los Angeles. 1871, originally uploaded by caen61.

A massacre of Chinese Immigrants took place in Los Angeles in 1871. It was sparked by the accidental killing of a white man during a Tong War. This took place mostly on a street called Calle de los Negros, which was later renamed Los Angeles Street. Currently this is a main passage on Skid Row.

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial, originally uploaded by eileenbortey.

This monument is in Accra, Ghana. It honors the nation's first president, Kwame Nkrumah. He led the African nation through the initial struggles of independence from the British (they called the colony The Gold Coast). He was educated in the US and a strong voice for Pan-Africanism.

The Art of Displacement

One of the first YouTube videos that caught my attention was this guy acting like spider-man. Sure, that looked like it would be fun, a little dangerous maybe, but still fun. What I didn't know then was that this had a name: Free Running.

Free Running is the successor to Le Parkour, a style of movement based on efficiency, reach, and escape. It's originated from French solidiers in Vietnam who found applications on the battlefield. Free Running developed under more banal conditions, "in this otherwise wholly unremarkable suburb of Lisses." The Guardian describes it succinctly,

A new urban sport which emerged from the southern suburbs of Paris, free-running uses gymnastic skills to find alarming new ways of navigating the urban landscape. It is the free-runners' fondness for catapulting themselves at dangerous heights over anxiety-inducing distances that has brought them notoriety - initially within the confines of their mayor's office, but more recently on an international level.

Free Running has evolved into a philosophy of sorts. According to Sebastien Foucan (a character in the latest James Bond film), "I see it as a way of freeing onself from the constraints of conformist behaviour." The free-form motion of human bodies navigating built landscapes is something to behold. Unlike classical gymnastics, Free Running lends itself to personal expression. The lack of a controlled setting (padding, safety nets, etc.) forces the Runner to confront their fears and build confidence.

What is also fascinating about this phenomenon is how it emerged from an urban environment that children found uninteresting.

Lisses is a quiet town 50 minutes south of Paris, situated beyond the warehouses, car-crushing plants, abandoned building sites and rubbish dumps of the more deprived suburbs. The roads are well swept and the gardens are tidy. It's a safe place to live, and the local school-children find it very dull.

Lisses' mayor invoked The Law of Unintended Consequences when he installed barriers to obstruct Free Runners. What the city forgot is that Free Running is about avoiding obstacles, using the human body to move around barriers. The city faces a perverse incentive, attempts to quell this "problem" with physical implements will invariably lead to increased attempts at Free Running.

For years developers, builders, and building owners have tried to protect their property (and liability insurance) by installing anti-skateboarding obstructions. This concept of built-in control is addressed by the excellent Architectures of Control. Free Running (and it's predecessor, Le Parkour) are human examples of adaptation. I find it inspiring.

Google Video search for Parkour and Free Running.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Good non-fiction answers a question you hadn't thought to ask. I had not realized how difficult it was to measure longitude. This short book details the scientific and political struggle of John Harrison, a British clockmaker. Although a volume of this size or much greater could explain the intricacies of clock mechanisms, this volume doesn't particularily do that. It does show how Harrison had to fight the entrenched scientific idea that longitude could only be found using astronomy.

Indeed, before Harrison, that was the case. On land longitude was measured using telescopic readings of Jupiter's moons. At sea, however, telescopes couldn't hold an image long enough to be accurate. Harrison's clocks attempted to measure the difference between a ship's port time and the local time. This works because one hour of longitude is actually one twenty-fourth of the earth's daily rotation. Before Harrison, nobody had built a clock sturdy or accurate enough to use for navigation.

British Parliment came up with the Longitude Act, a sort of early request for proposals, that would reward the winner with a large cash prize and fame. The prevailing academic notion was that the Moon's cycles could be used to cipher longitude. This was pushed by Isaac Newton, and a host of other astronomers who thought mechanical solutions were too fragile. But the moon is not visible behind clouds, during the day, and when it's obscured by the earth. Furthermore, the moon-method required at least 45 minutes of calculation by a ship's navigator.

Despite the political pressure not to use mechanical clocks for navigation, Harrison's worst enemy was his own perfectionism. His dealings with the Board of Longitude (the people in charge of awarding the prize) were tumultous largely because of how he dispariaged his own craftsmanship. Regardless, the H-4 (also known as The Watch) was a masterpiece of timekeeping that demonstrated extreme precision and ease-of-use.

*Cross Posted from A Single Step*

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