Columbus Day

 

The same people who love obedience masks, enforced vaccines which don't vaccinate you, trans bathrooms, labeling parents who care about their kids' education "domestic terrorists" and on, also hate Christopher Columbus, as they hate all our cultural heroes. This makes me want to love him.

He was, after all, a great explorer and navigator who boldly went where no man, pretty much, had been before. Piri Reis and Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings aside, Columbus was breaking new ground when he set sail. Not unlike, when you think of it, space exploration today. No small thing to sail an uncharted Atlantic. Bold stuff.

So here at the Compound we celebrated with lunch at Montes Mexican diner. The Specialist ordered a hearty plate of Pinta Brisket Gorditas and I stuck with traditional Santa Maria Huevos Rancheros. Tasty as you like and then some, all washed down with strong Nina Covfefe. 

Then it was time to drive to Fort Hood and back again, a bold, courageous exercise in navigating I35 and the personally uncharted territories of Waco. A journey of exploration if you like, and not bad for it.

But seriously, put yourself in the place of Columbus, sailing off into the unknown. Driven by ambition and the hope of gain, yes; after all, who doesn't want to be Governor of, ahem, Cuba. But also by adventure, perhaps the sheer life and death risk of the thing. And for him, at least, faith in the Savior he served, albeit imperfectly. 

That in mind, it's a good day to celebrate and if our trending tofu Maoists don't like it, too bad. They can speak to the monkey.

Cheers,

LSP

Navigation - Civilizations Before Our Own

Perhaps we take the earth's coordinate grid system, if we think about it all, for granted. But not so fast. Calculating latitude, the distance of a position north or south of the equator, involves trigonometry and calculating longitude, distance east or west of the prime meridian, demands an accurate clock.

A clock? Yes, a clock which tells the time at the prime meridian, the sun's set "starting point" as it moves across the sky, and your position on the earth. Long story very short, if it's Noon at the prime meridian and 2.00 pm at your position, you're at longitude 30° east. Why? Because the sun crosses the sky at a rate of 15° per hour, given 24 hours in a day and 360° in a circle (360° ÷ 24 hours = 15° per hour).

Simple enough math but how do you make the calculation without a good clock? Tricky, which is why Parliament offered an immense prize of £20,000 in 1714, over £2 million today, to anyone who could come up with such a device. John Harrison did so and accurate navigation became possible. But here's the thing.

Back in 1966, science prof John Habgood re-examined the Piri Reis map, compiled from ancient maps by the Turkish admiral of the same name in 1513. Hapgood discovered what he believed were accurate measures of longitude and latitude. If true, this is remarkable.

It means that the ancient maps used by Reis were made by people who understood trigonometry and had some kind of reliable clock. The first supposition is understandable, the 2nd century BC Greek mathematician, Hipparchus, is held to have invented trigonometry.

So Greek cartographers were able, at least in theory, to calculate latitude. But longitude? That takes a good clock and we all know these weren't invented until the 18th century. Or were they.

Here's Harrison's prototype clock:

Here's a reconstruction of the Antithykera Mechanism:

A clock? Or something very like it, dating from the first or second century BC. Food for thought. Hapgood's suggestion in Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings is that there must have been a civilization prior to the Greeks who were skilled mathematicians and able to tell time to the degree required to calculate longitude. I find that fascinating.

Speaking of time, the Government's been shut down for a very long time and everyone seems a lot happier. Was there an advanced civilization before our own? I'd have thought that obvious.

Mercator,

LSP