Portrait of a Cartographer
Someone must decide how to color maps. Where to put the pale yellow, coral pink, the olive green, burnt orange, magenta. Where to put the darkest shades of blue. The lightest. There is something of symmetry, of composition. There is topography to consider. Demographics. The vast expanse of open land, open water, the sensuous curves of coastline, of mountain ranges, of rivers with their writhing bodies and forked tongues. The color of the ocean is according to its depth. In terms of Indonesia, of Nova Scotia, of Sudan, colors are arbitrary. They reject symbolism, existing only to say look here, I am this and not the other. Differentiation, identity within borders. To imagine each color as a body, each convex to the concave of another, like spoons stacked, like lovers in bed, like the earthen layers of sedimentary rock. Pages of a history book warped from moisture.
In the skies of the northern hemisphere, I have learned to trust Orion. His delicate belt of three hanging sensuously off-center, suggesting contraposto. I imagine he must look much like stone, marble perhaps. Michelangelo's David. Head of frozen curls, rippled abdomen, arms to the side, large curled hands like leaves. A summer sky in Africa, I could not find him so I trusted the Southern Cross. Four stars are one more than three.
I am the space between stars. In stellar cartography, you will know me as such. Smothered by darkest nebula, clusters of blue-white giants. Orphaned objects in deep sky, brilliant for the taking, I push them apart with my palms. I could swallow them whole but my throat is too small, my belly distended and blue like an infant. And that is the way I cry. There in my narrow boat cutting across a black sea, no moss. Carina the keel, Vela the sail. Flapping of white light across my face. Carry me from this world of names, of butterflies asphyxiated, pinned down across blue velvet. Each wing goes unremembered in this sky, this world of moon stations. The phoenix was remembered too late. She needed room to breath; she has choked on ash. No one heard her cry out, but I felt the earth, the night sky quake.
The Pleiades are seven sisters, a young and hot open cluster of stars. Daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Violet beauties, a core of white heat.
A neutron star, at first glance, may seem like the smallest stellar remnant of them all, but with deeper inspection you will be baffled to know that is it the most massive of all the stellar remnants. This neutron star and it’s many wonders, including contrasts, and levels of understanding is a great image for the cover to represent the paradox and counter intuitive nature of Sharon Olds poems in The Gold Cell; the poem “Summer Solstice” is a great representation of similarity with neutrons stars.
After recognizing that Rick Riordan’s novels from the Percy Jackson series would not suffice as research, I began my development of knowledge on Perseus and Pegasus with research. Beginning with the magazines Sky & Telescope and Astronomy and the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, I viewed countless photographs of the constellations before turning to other websites to learn about the mythology and other basic information.
Christopher Columbus was conceived in 1451 at Genoa. Genoa was a seaport that was on the Ligurian ocean. His name was Cristoforo Colombo and that was converted into English as Christopher Columbus. Christopher Columbus had two siblings, which he was more established than both. Christopher Columbus had small tutoring quite recently like the majority of the general population amid that age. Genoa was a bustling seaport and Christopher Columbus gained much from the mariners. Christopher Columbus' dad was a poor weaver. Christopher Columbus worked with his dad for some time, yet his heart was determined to cruising. ("Christopher Columbus." The book of information, 2000.)
Shapiro hardly displays emotion throughout the speech itself. He also discusses the hierarchy of people that are the most common victims of society. “So, the hierarchy goes something like this: the people whose views are most valuable and been most victimized. At the very top are people who are LGBT, and then you get black people, and then you get women, and then you get Hispanic people, and then you get Native Americans, and then you get Asians, and then you get Jews — Jews may be above Asians, maybe Jews — then Asians, and at the very, very bottom, you get straight white males. Those are the people who have nothing to say about anything because obviously they are the beneficiaries of this “white-privilege” system.” (Shapiro) would be when Shapiro talks about victims. He mentions how people say they’re a victim when they’re not a victim at all and how they should prove how they are a victim. Again: America is the greatest country in human history. “You are not a victim. If you are a victim of something, you need to show me what you are a victim of and I will stand beside you. But do not blame the freest, most civil society in the history of planet Earth for your failures, because that’s on you.”
The colours used in the artwork are earthy tones with various browns, greens, yellows, blues and some violet. These colours create a sense of harmony on the...
Every day we look into the night sky, wondering and dreaming what lies beyond our galaxy. Within our galaxy alone, there are millions upon millions of stars. This may be why it interests us to learn about all that we cannot see. Humans have known the existence of stars since they have had eyes, and see them as white glowing specks in the sky. The mystery lies beyond the white glowing specks we see but, in the things we cannot see in the night sky such as black holes.
The starry night sky is a vast and beautiful realm that appears every night. It has fascinated humanity since the dawn of time. Coupled with our wonderful gifts of creativity and imagination, the night sky was our ultimate canvas and perhaps the oldest storybook. The sky has provided a place for us to draw mythical creatures and commemorate epic heroes. Our first record of the constellations date to approximately 6000 years old and were written in cuneiform (Coder, 2012). These texts were found in the valley of the Euphrates River and are simple constellations of animals (Coder, 2012). The question is why? It could be that human brain often seeks patterns in randomness. That humanity will see images in the sky to help our brains deal with the unorganized nature of the universe. However, I feel that this sells humanity short. The constellations are much more than the brain grabbing patterns and creating something it recognizes. These groupings of stars and stellar objects now hold our history. We have been passing along the stories of the constellations for thousands of years. After all, the sky is the perfect medium. It can store pictures and help tell stories and lessons that have lasted throughout time. As a small girl I remember vividly the Legend of the Dipper. How the little girl, in search of water for her ill mother, was compassionate on her journey. For her compassion she was rewarded and a reminder of this compassion is fixed in the night's sky (Bennett & Hague, 1995). I never forgot the story, or its message. How could I? That diamond encrusted dipper appears in the sky each night! It is wonderful how the constellations reach across time, culture, and beliefs. The most recognizable constellations usually originate from...
Scientific charts also show that the moon was also within Ares at this time and caused Jupiter to appear as a morning star. Historical evidence also shows that the Three Wise Men were astronomers and they saw the Star of David, recognizing it as the sign of a great king.
When I look up at the stars at night, I just have to wonder who or what is
Since hundred years ago, when people started to make maps to show distinct regions, such as states or countries, the four color theorem has been well known among many mapmakers. Because a mapmaker who can plan very well, will only need four colors to color the map that he makes. The basic rule of coloring a map is that if two regions are next to each other, the mapmaker has to use two different colors to color the adjacent regions. The reason is because when two regions share one boundary can never be the same color. Another basic rule of coloring a map is that if two regions share only one point, then they do not necessary have to be colored differently. Many evidence showed that coloring a map required at least four colors but no more than five. Then mathematicians started to asked questions, such as “ Is it true that using only four colors are enough? Is there any exception that one has to color a map that requires more than four colors? Or is it has to do with a special sequence of arrangement that involved with different regions in order to make the theorem true?” However, the first mathmatician who asked these questions is a man named Francis Guthrie. He was the first one who posed the four color problem in1852.
They lie above the night sky, darker than even the deepest seas. Sparkle with bright light, just like a pearl, but they seemed no bigger than a grain of sand.
Human fascination with the stars is as ancient as Babylonians and has been suggested to be older than Stonehenge. From “be fruitful and multiply” to “live long and prosper,” the instinct to protect and propagate the species has manifested in religion, art, and the imaginations of countless individuals. As human understanding of space treks out of the fantastical and into the scientific, the realities of traveling through and living in space are becoming clearer. Exploring, investigating, and living in space pose an expansive series of problems. However, the solutions to the problems faced by mankind's desire to reach beyond the horizon, through the night sky, and into the stars are solutions that will help in all areas of life on Earth.
Somerville, Siobhan. "Scientific Racism and the Invention of the Homosexual Body." Gender, Sex, and Sexuality. New York: Oxford University, 2009. 284-99. Print.
symbolized by, Helios god of the sun, driving a flaming chariot across the sky. People,
There is a long history of astronomy in science fiction. Some of the earliest can be seen with the Greeks, with their tales of gods representing the parts of the universe they could see. Other cultures began writings of men going beyond the limits of the atmosphere as early a...