Geography of LOST

Platial's blog and conversations with TDAXP has led me to discover some interesting sites that discuss the geography of LOST via neogeography.

First up is the Platial map of the filming locations of LOST by Tracey the Astonishing. Wanted to know where on the island of Oahu a scene was filmed? Here you go!

Second up is the Platial map of places depicted in LOST. Try to see if there any spatial patterns in this deep show.

Finally a student at Iowa State has a Hatch page which has oodles of maps of the island.

Category: Miscellaneous

Battle for God in China

Inter-religious wars are brutal. Each group thinking their side has divine support while the others merely worship air. Intra-religious battles; however, can be even more brutal. The enemy is not some heathen who does not know better but a heretic apostate who knew and rejected the truth. The bloody Sadr-Zaraqawi tick-for-tat antics demonstrate this well. The battles do not have to be physical. The battles can be like the current conflict between the Catholic Church and the People's Republic of China.

In the last few weeks strange news was coming from China. The Communist (yet capitalistic) government announced it may allow the government-approved Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association to be absorbed into the Catholic Church. In return the Vatican would end recognition of Taiwan and recognize the PRC.

The talks were going well until China announced it would ordain two bishops without Rome’s approval. The Hong Kong Roman Catholic Cardinal responded by calling for talks to end. The Vatican is now debating whether or not to excommunicate the bishops. Currently it is mulling over reports that state the "bishops" were under duress.

American Papist is having an updated rundown of the account at The Chinese Excommunications: Finding Answers.

The Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association was formed because the Communist government thought an independent religion could bring down governments. It has rejected Catholic law changes since the 1950s including Vatican II. For a while they even did Latin Mass until changes were made in the 1990s to bring Mass in line with other Catholic Masses. Estimates state 80% of the Chinese bishops are in secret union with Rome. Most bishops appointed by the government ask for approval from Rome first.

The Catholic Church is not the only religion run by the Communists:

• The Three-Self Patriotic Movement is the official Protestant church in China. It considers itself "post-denominational."
• The Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association is the official Islamic group in China. It teaches loyalty to the state before Allah (it briefly tried to ban the Hajj, which is mandatory according to the Qur'an).

Christians in China not under government control practice in "house churches" and have reasonable fear of government clamp downs. While only a minority of Chinese is Christian; the People's Republic of China is in the top five countries with most Christians according to Philip Jenkins in his book The Next Christendom.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Will the Church and Communists resume dialog, will Benedict XVI fight government-control like John Paul II did and inspire new Lech Walesa's, or will the status quo hold of both sides ignoring each other? Only time will tell.

Category: Religion

Geographically Dumb Americans

A while back I was in the break room of my former job and talking to my manager. He was from Britain and I was telling him what I wanted to do for a career. When I told him that I wanted to be a geographer he was impressed. He stated many Americans do not know geography and talked about his schooling and what he was taught. He told me all about Oxbow Lakes and other physical features.

I realized just how horrible American geography education is. When I was in high school the class was taught North America's countries and maybe something about the country's relations with the US. My British manager was taught not only human geography but physical also. He knew various theories and could talk about the various fields of study.

I knew then Americans were bad at geography but I did not know how bad until recently. My good friends at National Geographic have released yet another study of Americans not knowing regional geography.

The horror highlights include:

• 90% thought knowing the locations of countries in the news was not important
• 75% could not locate Israel on a map of the Middle East
• 60% were not to find Iraq on a map of the Middle East
• 47% could not find India on a map of Asia
• 30% thought the most heavily fortified border was between the US and Mexico

Harm de Blij would be rolling in his grave if he was dead.

Other geographical subjects are important. Knowing urban planning can help one figure where the best housing prices will be. American cultural and social geography can aide those who wish to market products. Knowing soil geography can tell one if there house will fall in a sink hole or erode into the ocean. All geographical fields are important yet schools only teach World Regional and they fail at that. I think teachers should take a page out of the British school system and find out what Americans are doing wrong.

Spanish Tragedy

Underneath the main square in Ecija, Spain archeologists found a historical treasure. They found well-persevered bath houses, statues, mosaics, temples and more. They had located the lost city of Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi. The city had a population of 30,000 and ruled the olive oil trade during the time of the Roman Empire. Products from Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi where found as far away as Britain and Rome.

So what did the socialist city council decide to do with this find? They decided to destroy it for an underground car garage. The council’s one concession to scientists was that a small section would be spared to show off to tourists. Shame!

The London Times wrote about this horror which made me sick. Sure they were digging at first for the car garage but keeping the ruins could have been much more advantageous for the city. Archeologists and others would have flooded the area, brining money along with them, to see and study the ruins. Some of the art work could have been donated to museums or sold. There were many historical, economic, and other benefits that have been lost.

Then again this should not be surprising from Spain. The Socialists' motto should be: Monkeys over people, cars over science.

For those wanting to know how exciting archeological discoveries can be I recommend Eyewitness to Discovery. The book has over fifty, first-person accounts by archeologists as they discovery ruins all across the world. It is a great read. I can only picture what Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi's story would be called, probably something like "Lost, Found, Destroyed."

Bias note: I was a tourist participant in an archeological dig of an early-1800s town dump. One of the most interesting things we found was pieces of old dishware. The dishware we found we marked "York." The head scientist told us that dishware from England was popular for those on the outer edges of American civilization. British industries had extremely fast shipping to the hinterlands in order to please their customers. I learned all this from one fragment of a dish and a wise archeologist. Because of this experience I have love of archeology.

Category: Archaeology

NASA World Wind

Mars in NASA World Wind

Google Earth has called down the thunder; NASA will reap the whirlwind. World Wind that is. Without my knowing until very recently I had no idea NASA had an open-source competitor to Google Earth name World Wind.

I have been trying the software and here are my thoughts:

Positive: Not only does this thing have Earth but it also has globes for the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, one of Jupiter’s moons, and a star map. Multiple layers can be used to show different colors and details. The 3D imagery is better than Google's so-so 3D. The transition from far away to close up is done with multiple graphics giving a smooth look rather than Google's jagged look.

Really Positive: One can upload real-time weather effects. One can also adjust the time, day, and year of the globe in order to view eclipse shadows on the surface the Earth. An added layer on the Earth is topographic maps! Do you know how cool that is?

Bad: The menu system can be confusing as heck. Do I want pseudo-color or urban area orthographic? Many people, including me sometimes, just don't know. Zooming in is disorientating at first with load times taking forever. When one looks at other planets in the program confusion reaches fever pitch. Finally, if anyone figures out star map please tell me. I have no idea what is going on (see comments for help on this).

I think I'll stick to Google Earth for the time being as my primary map software but World Wind will have its place for topographic and extra-terra exploration.

Final Review Grade: 3.5 out of 5

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Update: Load times are a pain but they are getting better.

Spanish Socialists’ Mixed Up Priorities

I have some Spanish readers: Tell me what you think of this.
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Some members of Spain's ruling Socialist Party are petitioning the government in general to grant human rights to great apes. The Socialists claim since apes and humans are 99% similar and genetic material and are emotional beings they should be granted human rights.

Now Catholicgauze has no problem with increased protections for animals. I believe that since humans are the owners of the Earth we have been ordained to be the lesser creatures manager. The problem begins with granting animals human rights.

Problem 1) With human rights come human responsibilities. Are they apes now subject to criminal and civil law? Can they be jailed? Since Europe does not have free speech can making fun of a monkey be considered a hate crime?

Problem 2) With human rights come human privileges. Will apes be allowed to vote? Not allowing them would make them second-class citizens.

Problem 3) Not all humans have rights. Racism and other issues are problems in Spain as elsewhere. Most importantly, abortion is legal in Spain. The hypocrisy of claiming close genetic material is shown when human beings are denied the right to live out of convenience! The Catholic Church in Spain has pointed this out.

Spain elected this government out of fear of al Qaeda. It seems this madness is deep rooted.

Virtually Traveling the World

As readers know I am a fan of panoramic photography of places around the world. Places like San Juan Mountains, Pairs, and Mecca have been covered by me and that does not include the photograph project of the United Kingdom blogged by me.

I wanted to find some panoramic images of Eastern Europe but then I found World Wide Panorama. This has place has tons of panoramic images from around the world. One can either view and select pictures via their map or download their Google Earth placemarks file.

There are way too many to even create a sampling for you so just go to the site or click on the random selection. Enjoy, because I sure did!

Category: Virtually Travelling the World