Simon Garfield: "On the Map"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-01-22/simon-garfield-map
From the ancient Greeks, to early seafaring explorers, to engineers in Silicon Valley, map making has been a timeless quest. In fact, some scientists say mapping is as important to human development as language. Maps chart our progress, define our boundaries, and reflect how we see the world. Good ones get us from “Point A” to “Point B” while bad ones lead us astray. Today, with GPS on our phones and in our cars, we rely on them more than ever. Simon Garfield says we have an endless fascination with maps because they offer keys to what we know—and don’t know—about our world. Garfield joins Diane to talk about his new book: “On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks”.
Guests
Simon Garfield
author, "On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks"
Read An Excerpt
Reprinted from "On the Map" by Simon Garfield by arrangement with Gotham, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., Copyright © 2013 by Simon Garfield.
Comments
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Facebook and Google, et al have proven themselves deceitful and misinforming, traitorous and backstabbing to their participants. False claims of utility have been made and exaggerated for commercial purposes and they have squealed on the most creative among us, using government enforcement to maintain Oligopolies. So only a collaborator would trust or publicize their maps. Caution: Not as they appear!
Mapping is an historical indicator primarily because of purposeful and wishful inaccuracies used by powerful institutions and interests over the centuries to misdirect the populace. And we are now at a stage where our own minds and consciousness are being misrepresented to us. If sales is the motivation of such a travesty it seems so trivial and demented. Lemmings are told the cliff is an Interstate ramp these days.
As with a small commentary blog, welcomed ignorance in a large digital forum.can be amplified and cloned while any deviation from the business model or any dissent can be deleted or mocked. The owning speculators design the filters and frames for their advantage.
Could you please have the speaker comment upon - I don't know if this has been covered yet already - the strong theory espoused by Dr. Charles Hapgood - who wrote in Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings -
He proposed that a 15 degree pole shift occurred around 9,600 BCE (approx. 11,600 years ago) and that a part of the Antarctic was ice-free at that time, and that an ice-age civilization could have mapped the coast. He concludes that "Antarctica was mapped when these parts were free of ice", taking that view that an Antarctic warm period coincided with the last ice age in the Northern hemisphere, and that the Piri Reis and other maps were based on "ancient" maps derived from ice-age originals.
Thank You
Carlton Johnson
Winter Park, Florida (also submitted by email)
Just wanted to comment quickly on Columbus. There were Christian maps in the Middle Ages that didn't have anything to do with getting from one place to another, but were spiritual maps that placed the known world in Christian cosmology. Many of these maps showed the Garden of Eden on the farthest eastern edge of the world. In one of Colombus's last letters, in which he refused to admit that he'd found a new world, he declared that he'd found the location of the Garden of Eden in what was actually the northern coast of South America. This shows how much Christian spiritual maps influenced his vision of the physical world. My favorite Christian map is the Epsdorf Map from 1234 which depicts the world as the body of Christ, with his head, feet and hands at North, South, East and West.
Just wanted to comment quickly on Columbus. There were Christian maps in the Middle Ages that didn't have anything to do with getting from one place to another, but were spiritual maps that placed the known world in Christian cosmology. Many of these maps showed the Garden of Eden on the farthest eastern edge of the world. In one of Colombus's last letters, in which he refused to admit that he'd found a new world, he declared that he'd found the location of the Garden of Eden in what was actually the northern coast of South America. This shows how much Christian spiritual maps influenced his vision of the physical world. My favorite Christian map is the Epsdorf Map from 1234 which depicts the world as the body of Christ, with his head, feet and hands at North, South, East and West.
Just wanted to comment quickly on Columbus. There were Christian maps in the Middle Ages that didn't have anything to do with getting from one place to another, but were spiritual maps that placed the known world in Christian cosmology. Many of these maps showed the Garden of Eden on the farthest eastern edge of the world. In one of Colombus's last letters, in which he refused to admit that he'd found a new world, he declared that he'd found the location of the Garden of Eden in what was actually the northern coast of South America. This shows how much Christian spiritual maps influenced his vision of the physical world. My favorite Christian map is the Epsdorf Map from 1234 which depicts the world as the body of Christ, with his head, feet and hands at North, South, East and West.
I've read the book; it's nicely illustrated.